People don’t understand the difference between extreme improbability and actual impossibility. “I observe that I exist, therefore some mysterious ‘great filter’ will soon wipe out all humanity” is as innumerate a mistake as winning $10^6 with your first-ever lottery ticket and then immediately spending the entire sum on more tickets, because (based on that initial evidence) it’s got the biggest, fastest ROI.
We have only what we observe, and what we observe is a green world in a mostly empty universe. Perhaps, in gaining that much, we were very, very lucky; perhaps not. Either way, does it change anything? We have only what we observe. Make the most of it.
I think that anthropics is a useless distraction, but until I’ve worked out why it’s a useless distraction it still gets in the way of everything.
People don’t understand the difference between extreme improbability and actual impossibility. “I observe that I exist, therefore some mysterious ‘great filter’ will soon wipe out all humanity” is as innumerate a mistake as winning $10^6 with your first-ever lottery ticket and then immediately spending the entire sum on more tickets, because (based on that initial evidence) it’s got the biggest, fastest ROI.
We have only what we observe, and what we observe is a green world in a mostly empty universe. Perhaps, in gaining that much, we were very, very lucky; perhaps not. Either way, does it change anything? We have only what we observe. Make the most of it.