I watched an amusing scientific documentary produced by Channel 4 in England titled
What We Still Don't Know that explores one of the deepest mysteries of cosmology and our very existence. The documentary begins by exploring the fact that the known constants of the universe, for instance the gravitational force between objects, are so finely tuned that any slight deviation would make our universe "sterile" according to Martin Rees, current president of the Royal Society. If the gravitational force were too large, then objects would collapse upon themselves whereas if it was too weak no stars would form and large matter would not agglomerate. The recent calculation of the
cosmological constant, a quantity that describes the energy density of vacuum and is central to the formation of our universe, is accurate to one part in 10^120. Such a bewildering degree of accuracy, argues theoretical physicist Leonard Susskind, cannot be sheer luck and in order to explain this without having to resort to a supernatural deity we are forced to the conclusion that our universe is but one of many. In this multiverse each universe has its own set of constants; some give rise to life while the vast majority do not. Humanities only recourse to understand this may not be for a long time, Susskind draws an interesting analogy: the notion of indivisible atoms constituting all matter was first put forth by Greeks two centuries ago while its confirmation has only been quite recent. A related question that we must address is as follows: is our intellect even capable of discerning the answer? The documentary proposes biological evidence that the size of our brain is optimal for computation and studies have shown that larger brains would be less optimal given constraints on transporting information over larger distances. Having reached the limits of our own mental advancement, we must turn to artificial intelligence to help us probe these complex issues. And herein lies the ultimate postulate: what if we are living in a simulation created by another far more advanced being(s) in another multiverse? In other words, what if the whole history of our 14 billion year old universe and the evolution of intelligent life forms is simply an experiment by someone else with a grand design? We already know that simple rules give rise to immense complexity, take for instance the
game of life. "Are we real at all" asks the narrator? What a profound idea, and if you have the time, do check out the above documentary.
A couple of weeks ago, it was announced in the front page of the Tech, MIT's student newspaper that a post doc in the physics department, Ronald H. Stowell, had been found dead in his Somerville apartment.
Today, it was revealed that he had committed suicide by hanging himself. Incidents of suicide are tragically common at MIT, and during the 2.5 years that I have been here, there has been on average 1-2 suicides per semester. Ronald's death had a particular sobering impact on my colleagues in the Condensed Matter Theory division where I work as almost everyone either knew who he was through Quantum Field Theory or had spent countless hours working with him on grueling problem sets for the course. When news first broke out of his death, many of my friends were in utter disbelief for they remembered him as an extremely keen student and though a post doc in his 30s, was still eager to
retake classes and perfect his knowledge of difficult material. His incessant questioning during lectures annoyed many of his classmates who tended to view him as somewhat overbearing and difficult to interact with which ultimately led to their estrangement from him. Yet for some reason I, who had never met Ronald, felt grief stricken today, puzzled why no one had reached out to Ronald when it seemed to me he was in desperate need of support and fellowship at this tipping point in his life. Perhaps I have the benefit of hindsight where my colleagues did not, but the signs could not have been more obvious in my opinion. The Tech story revealed that on Feb 12 he had been arrested for sexually assaulting his wife who forgot to say "thank you" after dinner, such was the degree of his psychological depravity. I strongly feel that those who knew him were morally obligated to help him and especially in the intense academic culture of MIT there is a general reluctance on the part of members of the community to engage each other at a personal level. I never met Ronald, but it seems he was the quintessential outsider but who appeared to have actually tried to develop some relationships beyond the professional with his peers but was continually rebuffed. I don't think we realize just how damaging our behavior can be towards people we find to be "uncool" until it manifests itself in tragedies like this. It is incumbent upon us, as compassionate human beings, to support one another and to look out for one another's well being, this is merely another manifestation of the golden rule. We must never forget our humanity no matter where life takes us.