Can You Observe a Typical Universe?
November 18, 2019
768,108
16,959
2,240
2.50%
Search the Record
IndexedEvery word spoken in this episode is indexed. Type any phrase to jump straight to the moment it was said.
Type any word or phrase that may have been spoken. Click a result to seek the player to that exact moment.
Try a name, a topic, or a quoted line
Pbs Space Time Episodes Around November 18, 2019
See what was published immediately before and after this episode.
18:29Now PlayingCan You Observe a Typical Universe?
YouTube Description
as posted by the channelPBS Member Stations rely on viewers like you. To support your local station, go to
↓ More info below ↓
Sign Up on Patreon to get access to the Space Time Discord!
Check out the Space Time Merch Store
The moment you started observing reality, you hopelessly polluted any conclusions you might make about it. The anthropic principle guarantees that you are NOT seeing the universe in most typical state. But used correctly, this highly controversial idea can be extremely powerful. So, how do you correctly use the anthropic principle?
Hosted by Matt O'Dowd
Written by Matt O'Dowd
Graphics by Leonardo Scholzer & Adriano Leal
Directed by: Andrew Kornhaber
Executive Producers: Eric Brown & Andrew Kornhaber
End Credits Music by J.R.S. Schattenberg
Special Thanks to Dr. Flournoy!!! Check out his lectures Below:
Particle Physics
General Relativity
According to the original definitions by Brandon Carter, the weak anthropic principle states that we must live in a place and time in the universe capable of supporting observers - in our case, a habitable biosphere, and the strong anthropic principle, which states that the universe itself must have the conditions necessary for producing environments that, in turn, produce observers. That means the fundamental constants and initial conditions of the universe must be just right to allow nice habitable planets to one day form. Let’s just call it the anthropic principle: we necessarily observe from an environment capable of producing observers; be that environment a planet within a universe or a universe within a multiverse.
Thanks to Our Patreon Supporters
Big Bang Supporters:
Alex Flournoy
Alexander Tamas
Craig Stonaha
David Barnholdt
David Nicklas
Fabrice Eap
John S
Juan Benet
matt miller
Morgan Hough
Quasar Supporters
Mark Heising
Mark Rosenthal
Vinnie Falco
Hypernova Supporters
chuck zegar
Danton Spivey
Donal Botkin
Edmund Fokschaner
Hank S
John Hofmann
John R. Slavik
Jordan Young
Joseph Salomone
Mathew
Matthew O'Connor
Syed Ansar
Timothy McCulloch
Guests & Subjects Covered
Sentinel Indexing in Progress
Metadata and chapters are available. Claim extraction for this episode is pending.
All video content is delivered via YouTube embedded players in accordance with the YouTube Terms of Service. Sentinel provides research tools that promote discovery and accountability across political media.