Dear all, this current Thursday’s current projects seminar (the Muniment room, 3.00) will be Luke Barnes giving the following paper:
Title: Fine-Tuning and probability Abstract: My work as a cosmologist has touched on an interesting philosophical problem, on that has been discussed in the philosophical literature. Fine-tuning in physics and cosmology is often used as evidence that a theory is incomplete. Of particular interest is the fine-tuning of the universe for life, which suggests that our universe’s ability to create physical life forms is improbable and in need of explanation by, perhaps, a multiverse. This claim has been challenged on the grounds that the relevant probability measure cannot be justified because it cannot be normalized, and so small probabilities cannot be inferred. I will discuss how fine-tuning can be formulated within the context of Bayesian theory testing (or model selection) in the physical sciences, and how normalizability problems might be avoided. All welcome Associate Professor Kristie Miller Senior ARC Research Fellow Joint Director, the Centre for Time School of Philosophical and Historical Inquiry and The Centre for Time The University of Sydney Sydney Australia Room S212, A 14 kmil...@usyd.edu.au kristie_mil...@yahoo.com Ph: +612 9036 9663 http://www.kristiemiller.net/KristieMiller2/Home_Page.html
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