byrnema comments on The Sin of Underconfidence - Less Wrong
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Exactly. The parameters we have define this universe. Any complex system -- presumably most if not all universes -- would have complex patterns. You would just need patterns to evolve that are self-promoting (i.e., accumulative) and evolving, and eventually a sub-pattern will evolve that significantly meta-references. Given that replicating forms can result from simple automata rules and self-referencing appears randomly (in a formal sense) all over the place in a random string (Godel) it doesn't seem so improbable for such a pattern to emerge. In fact, an interesting question is why is there only one "life" that we know of (i.e., carbon-based)? Once we understand the mechanism of consciousness, we may find that it duplicates elsewhere -- perhaps not in patterns that are accumulative and evolving but briefly, spontaneously. This is totally idle speculation of course.
Another argument: There's nothing in Physics that says there isn't a mechanism for how the parameters are chosen. It's just another mystery that hasn't been solved yet -- so far, to date, God has reliably delegated answers regarding questions about the empirical world to Science.