The Bones of Copernicus Dennis Danielson Quantum Phenomena Lecture Series, St. John’s College,...
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Transcript of The Bones of Copernicus Dennis Danielson Quantum Phenomena Lecture Series, St. John’s College,...
The Bones of Copernicus
Dennis Danielson
Quantum Phenomena Lecture Series,
St. John’s College, UBC, Jan. 9, 2008
The Bones of Copernicus
Dennis Danielson
Quantum Phenomena Lecture Series,
St. John’s College, UBC, Jan. 9, 2008
Matejko’s “Conversation with God” (1872)
from Peter Apian’s Geographia (1533) “God’s geometry in heaven and on earth” (Rheticus)
“More than one centre”
Matejko’s “Conversation with God” (1872)
Some implications of Copernicanism
• Mathematics can spearhead cosmological discovery
• Science must go beyond appearance and common sense
• The assumption that physical reality may exhibit divine orderliness, “artistry,” or “poetry” is scientifically fruitful
• The observer is part of the equation
The Copernican Principle (“CP”)
Hermann Bondi(supporter of Steady State Cosmology,
1952):
The Copernican Principleis the idea that earth “is not in a
central, specially favoured position” in the universe.
Hawking and Ellis (1973)
Stephen Hawking &George Ellis
(supporters of Big Bang Cosmology, 1973):
“Since the time of Copernicus we have been steadily demoted to a medium sized planet going round a medium sized star on the outer edge of a
fairly average galaxy, which is itself simply one of a local group of galaxies. Indeed we are now so
democratic that we would not claim that our position
in space is specially distinguished in any way.”
“The colossal privilege ofbeing the centre”?
Galileo(Sidereus nuncius, 1610):
With the advent of Copernicanism, earth is no longer “excluded from the dance of the stars. For … the earth does have motion, … it surpasses the moon
in brightness, and … it is not the sump where the
universe’s filth and ephemera collect.”
Johann Wolfgang Goethe (1810):
“No discovery or opinion ever created a greater effect on the human spirit than did the teaching
of Copernicus,” for it obliged earth “to relinquish the colossal privilege of being
the center of the universe.”
The demise of the “perfect” CP
Hermann Bondi again:
“the universe presents the same aspect from
any place at any time.”
Virginia Trimble:
“There used to be a sort of ‘that’s not Copernican’ tendency to say that infalling primordial gas would keep up the supply for another ten or fifteen billion
years at least, so that ‘now’ is average. [But because] the star formation rate really has been dropping
monotonically for the last half or so of the age of the universe, we do live in a somewhat special time.”
Lawrence Krauss and Robert Scherrer:
“We live in a very special time inthe evolution of the universe:
the time at which we can observationallyverify that we live in a very
special time in the
evolution of the universe!”
Muddles about “mediocrity”
Jim Peebles:
(about the ‘other’ CP--the Cosmological Principle: the claim that our universe is isotropic and
homogeneous)
It “was introduced as a philosophical/ad hoc/working assumption. But now the observations have spoken.
The Cosmological Principle is a done deal.”
Does size matter?
Jaymie Matthews:
“Only three decades ago we believed we were composed of the basic primordial ingredients of the universe—the flour of the Cosmic Recipe. Now we are considered the condiments, or possibly (I would
like to think) the spices. … Does that make us insignificant? Only if you would prefer to dine in a
world where spices don’t exist.”
Don Page:
“It is still quite possible that life itself is cosmologically special, since it might occur only in a tiny fraction of the universe or multiverse. …
Surely, most people would recognize that sizealone, or fraction of the universe occupied by life,
is not that important.”
So maybe size isn’t such a big thing!
One resurrection and a funeral?
Max Tegmark:
CP R.I.P.
With thanks to:
Nicolaus Copernicus
Paul Davies
George Ellis
Wendy Freedman
Owen Gingerich
Lawrence Krauss
Jaymie Matthews
Don Page
Jay Pasachoff
Jim Peebles
Martin Rees
Georg Joachim Rheticus
Harvey Richer
Leonard Susskind
Max Tegmark
Virginia Trimble
Steven Weinberg