Self-study
P1
In a typical Hollywood action movie, the hero skirts death to complete a mission. ███ ████ ██████ ████ ████████ ███████ ████ ████ ███ ████ ███ ███ ████ █████ ██ ███ ███ ██ █████ ██████ ████████ ████ █ ██████ ████████████ ███ ████ █████ ██ █████ ███ ███ ████ █████████
P2
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Analogy ·
Our universe resembles an action movie
In an action movie, one little change in events could kill the hero; in our universe, one little change in laws of physics could make life impossible
Support analogy ·
E.g. of strong nuclear force
Small change in strong nuclear force would have major impacts
Phenomenon ·
Ability of our universe to support life is improbable yet true
We could ask: if such a universe is so unlikely, how did it come to be?
P3
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Cosmologists' Hypothesis ·
Multiverse theory
Many universes, so better chances of at least one (ours) supporting life
P4
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Basis of cosmologists' hypothesis ·
Hard to identify alternative laws of physics that still support life
If it's hard to identify any other laws of physics that would support life, then a universe that does support life seems unlikely
P5
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Criticism ·
Basis of cosmologists' hypothesis is flawed
Conventional approach is to change only one known feature ("constant") of physics at a time, but this approach is flawed
Author's hypothesis ·
Ability of our universe to support life is not actually improbable
Author's methodology suggests many different sets of physical laws could support life, so the ability to support life is not as unlikely as others think
P6
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Limit criticism ·
Multiverse theory not necessarily wrong
Even if a universe that supports life is more probable than cosmologists believed, there are still reasons to accept the multiverse theory
Passage Style
Critique or debate
Phenomenon-hypothesis (RC)
9.
The author would be most ██████ ██ █████ ████ █████ ███ ██ ███ █████████ ██████████ █████ ███ ████████████ ███ ██ █████ ██████████ ███████████ ███ ████████ ████ ██████ ██ ████████ █████
a
It focuses on ███████ ███ ████████ ████ ███ ██████████ ██ ███ █████ ██ █████
The author doesn’t believe the conventional approach looks at irrelevant issues. The chance a set of laws can support life is still relevant.
b
It is too █████████ ██ ███████ ██████ ████████
There’s no indication the author believes the conventional approach is “too unfocused.” The author complains about the methodology, but not the level of focus.
c
It has been █████████ ███████ ███████ ███ ████████████ ██████
There’s no indication the author believes the conventional approach isn’t rigorous enough mathematically. She may disagree with how it approaches the tweaking of constants, but this doesn’t indicate a belief in lack of methodological rigor.
d
Its methodology results ██ ██ ██████ ██████████ ███ ██ █████████
This best captures the author’s belief. The author thinks
e
It will eventually ███████ █ ████████ █████ ██ ██ █████████ ████████ ████ █████
There’s no evidence the author thinks the conventional approach will produce a model of an alternate universe with life. She notes that scientists have had