Journal of Cosmology, 2010, Vol 4, pages 775-779.
Cosmology, October 1, 2009
The Origin of Eternal Life in the Multiverse
Pedro F. González-Díaz, Ph.D.
Colina de los Chopos, Centro de Física ``Miguel A. Catalán'', Instituto de Física
Fundamental, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas,
Serrano 121, 28006 Madrid (SPAIN) and Estación Ecológica de Biocosmología,
Pedro de Alvarado, 14, 06411-Medellín (SPAIN);
Abstract
It is argued that the origin of life is best understood in relationship to the participatory anthropic principle
of Wheeler and must be extended into the realm of the multiverse. Also discussed is the hypothesis that
life can only be possible in a given universe during a finite period as the universe expands in an
accelerated fashion. We advance finally the idea that life, cosmic accelerated expansion, and quantum
theory are intrinsically linked and are 3 faces of the same coin which reflect and describe physical reality.
Numerous scientists are of the opinion that the question of the origin of life is a cosmological problem
(Hoyle and Wickramasinghe 2000; Joseph, 2009; Smolin, 1997) which some believe is related to the
basic principles of quantum mechanics (Abbott et al., 2008). For example, if the expansion of the
universe is accelerating, then this could be related to a state where the universe had adopted quantum
mechanical behavior (discussed in a later section) during a period directly related with the emergence of
life in the universe (Abbott et al., 2008).
The aim of this paper is to explore these biological and cosmological possibilities, and to demonstrate
how they relate to anthropic principles and the dark energy and phantom energy concepts. We
hypothesize that for those factors associated with the origin of life and Wheeler's participatory anthropic
principle (Wheeler, 1983) to have become effective, that they should be extended into the realm of the
multiverse. That is, prior to the origin of life, and therefore, in the absence of an observer, the evolving
universe began as and remained a 'multiverse' - a coherant quantum superposition of all possible states,
and one of these possible states gave rise to life. According to Wheeler's participatory anthropic principle
(Wheeler, 1983) the evolving multiverse resolved itself into an ordered state to allow itself to be observed
by a living observer. Life, therefore, is an intrinsic feature of the multiverse.
In order for life to have become an operative concept in this way, two conditions had to be simultaneously
met: 1) the formation of self-replicating long molecules and amino acids and 2) the synthesis of
conveniently folded proteins made from amino acids. However, if we accept that these two conditions
were fulfilled as a consequence of the evolution of the multiverse and biochemistry, then we must address
and solve two major problems.
As stressed by Hoyle (1983), the probability that self replicating molecules able to support life had been
formed at any place of the universe is extremely small. Hoyle (1983) argues that statistically, it was
impossible for life to have arisen on Earth in the time available. He argues further that even when
considering the entire universe, if the physical and chemical constants necessary for the creation of life
were just a fraction out from their observed values, life could never have formed.
On the other hand, as based on the well-known Levinthal paradox (Levinthal, 1961), a supercomputer
which functioned according to plausible physical-chemical and spectroscopic rules (such as internal
hindered rotation, bending or wagging vibrations, etc) would only take 10 127 years before fashioning the
native (active for life) configuration of a protein made of some 100 amino acids, which is properly folded
and exhibits the necessary biological behavior.
It follows that during the entire evolution of the universe until now, there was only an extremely tiny
fraction of time for life to be created anywhere within it. It is within that fraction of time that life was
created; a consequence of the fashioning of the necessary proteins and amino acids. The proof is: Life
exists.
The Quantum Origin of Life
For many years most scientists have believed that only the smallest particles or objects show quantummechanical behavior. However, recent studies, including those demonstrating an accelerating current
cosmology indicate otherwise.
In fact (i) if the present universe is filled with phantom energy (as supported by astronomical data
provided by Tegmark, 2004), then as the universe grows larger in size so too should its energy density.
Therefore a sharper quantum-mechanical behavior should be expected to be manifested for the current
universe as it rapidly expands with time. The result will be a true singularity when the size of the universe
and its energy density are both simultaneously at infinity, resulting in the big rip (Caldwell, 2002), with
phantom energy ripping apart galaxies, stars, planets and the universe.
On the other hand and quite more importantly, (ii) it has been recently demonstrated (González-Díaz and
Robles-Pérez, 2009) that the ultimate cause for the current speeding-up of the universe is a universal
quantum entanglement. Indeed, the very existence of the expanding universe is in violation of Bell's
inequalities which imposes limits, and a collapse would be the result. Therefore, the collapse of the
superimposed cosmic quantum state into the universe we are able to observe, or its associated
complementarity between cosmological and microscopic laws, and any of all other aspects that
characterize a quantum system, is to be expected according to quantum cosmology.
Likewise, the formation of molecules which are able to self replicate is also the result of a quantum
process. Naturally, the innumerable billions upon billions of smaller molecules in the primordial soup of
the creation, would have collided and quantum-mechanically formed trillions of new molecules
throughout quantum processes. By contrast, the probability that these random collisions would produce a
molecule able to self replicate is so tiny that such a molecule could never have been formed on Earth
(Hoyle, 1983; Joseph, 2009).
Likewise, protein folding is a process which might be governed by quantum rules (González-Díaz and
Sigüenza, 1997). Admittedly, the processes that could link protein folding with the creation of the first
self replicating molecules is unknown. However, once these molecules are synthesized the required
protein folding process would automatically take place. The problem remains that the possibility of these
events taking place on Earth (Joseph, 2009), or even in a single universe is extremely unlikely. The same
cannot be said of the multiverse.
Therefore, in the context of the multiverse, it can be predicted that at least one self-replicating molecule
would have been fashioned. The descendants of this self-replicating molecule could have then been
dispersed throughout the cosmos by the stellar mechanisms proposed by Joseph (2009). However, there
are also other possibilities which we shall explore. That is, life may have originated and may have been
dispersed via the multiverse.
Multiverse and the Origin of Life
According to anthropic principles and Wheeler's notion of the participatory principle (Wheeler, 1983), we
exist in a universe which creates itself along a self-reference process. These principles are also in
accordance with quantum physics and concepts of the multiverse. That is, the nature of the universe
requires the creation of an observer. The evolving universe would have remained a 'multiverse' of all
possible states in the absence of an observer. It is the creation of life which evolves into an observer
whose mind imposes order on this system of all possibilities, such that all the numerous possibilities
collapse into one actuality.
The existence of the universe predicts the existence of observers who are by themselves able to create all
the physical reality that they are able to observe. Even the Big Bang is a creation of the observer
according to quantum mechanics. Therefore, instead of the observer being created by the universe, the
observer creates themselves and they create the universe. Of course, this raises the age old question of
what came first, the hen or the egg?
Another crucial notion is that of Boltzmann brains (Dyson et al., 2002). A Boltzmann brain is a living
entity which has self-awareness. Self-awareness and the life and the universe it inhabits, arise from
random fluctuations out of a state of chaos. There are billions of self-aware entities on this planet, and
therefore it can be predicted there must be billions of self-conscious entities on other worlds; a result of a
random fluctuations out of chaos. Therefore, in the context of the multiverse, every universe should
contain billions of Boltzmann brains.
Perhaps ours might be a typical civilization (Dyson et al., 2002; Vilenkin, 1998) that was created by some
random fluctuation from vacuum and its condition of mediocrity (Vilenkin, 1998). Similar typical
civilizations may also exist and it is this typicalness which created the universe we are able to observe or
imagine.
The concept of the Boltzmann brain, however, does not explain the origin of life. It merely requires it.
The Boltzmann spontaneous fluctuation is a process which is extremely unlikely to have occurred in the
time frame leading from the big bang until now.
"Extremely unlikely" does not mean impossible. The probability, statistically speaking is not zero. The
fact is, life exists. Self-aware entities exist. Further, in the context of a multiverse, the statistical
probability for life to originate increases correspondingly.
Since everything that may happen with whatever small but still nonzero probability actually happens with
real certainty in the realm of the quantum multiverse (Carr, 2007), our main hypothesis is that molecules
able to self replicate and properly fold must have been immediately synthesized after the creation event.
Therefore, life must necessarily have emerged in the context of the quantum multiverse.
The solution of the problem of the origin of life in the context of the quantum multiverse must be based
on an analysis of conditional probability rather than just probability. Therefore, the whole process for
originating life in the quantum multiverse must take place with full certainty. It is the multiverse, and the
quantum connections which link them, which not only necessitate life's origins, but explains the dispersal
of life and its continuity.
The Worm Hole and the Dispersal of Life.
If we extend the notion of typicalness (Dyson et al., 2002), and hence of mediocrity (Vilenkin, 1998), to
the whole multiverse, then a civilization which is typical in a given universe, would be typical in the
whole multiverse. Therefore, either the typical observers can in someway observe the universes they are
not living in, or those outside their universe can observe it, or these universes do not actually physically
exist, at least from a participatory physical standpoint principle.
Physical space-time connections between two universes of the multiverse through which the observers
can retrieve some relevant physical information from these two universes is a realistic possibility.
However, this could be achieved only by means of Lorentzian wormholes, with relative speeds between
their mouths at all unspecified.
In physics, a wormhole is a hypothetical topological feature of space and time. Lorentzian wormholes are
also known as Schwarzschild wormholes or Einstein-Rosen bridges. The wormhole is a passage way, or
bridge, through spacetime which is folded over. The mouth of one worm hole leads to a tunnel, or tube, or
throat, that connects to at least one other mouth hole on the other side of space time. Hypothetically, there
may be multiple mouths leading to the same throat.
Lorentzian wormholes exemplify the mutual independence between the space-times of the universes that
form up the multiverse. Although, theoretically, Lorentzian wormholes may be traversable, their
existence nullifies any possibility of simultaneity among distinct civilizations potentially living in
different universes.
Therefore, even though life may have originated almost immediately in the whole context of the
multiverse, it can only be realized in just one universe if we want observers to be typical. No matter
whether observers are able to perceive just one universe or many through connections by means of
wormholes, life can only be realized in one universe. That is, life originates within a particular universe
and this is how this universe becomes a universe; and the same can be said of other universes.
Sagan (1988) proposed that all of life was present in the primeval Big Bang and the stuff of life is but the
dust of stars. If life were an endeavor of the whole multiverse rather than a matter that concerns particular
universes, then Sagan's idea (Sagan, 1988) has to be extended to the context of the multiverse. This would
mean that we all were somehow present at the "moment" in which the whole multiverse was created.
Panspermia and Wormholes
Panspermia is an increasingly credible theory which shifts the origin of life from Earth to other stars,
planets, moons, comets, and meteors (Hoyle and Wickramasinghl, 2000; Joseph, 2009). Life, therefore,
becomes an intrinsic feature of the cosmos.
Considered in the context of a single universe, panspermia offers a logical explanation for how life could
have arisen once, and then became dispersed throughout the cosmos via mechanisms of star death and
new star and new planet formation (Joseph, 2009).
However, if life is a matter concerning the whole extent of the multiverse, then panspermia has to be
redefined as "holospermia." Etymologically, holospermia means "seeds in the wholeness" and expresses
the idea that the seeds of life were spread throughout the whole multiverse in our remote past. The
dispersal of life throughout the multiverse could occur through wormholes.
The notion of holospermia posits that rather than life being present at the Big Bang, we instead originated
in the set of all universes making up the multiverse. Therefore, although panspermia may explain how life
could travel from star to star and from planet to planet (Joseph, 2009), holospermia would explain how
life originated in our universe.
Life, therefore, is an intrinsic feature of the multiverse, and it is through life, and the observer that the
universe is created. Therefore, both life and the universe arise from the multiverse.
Eternal Life and the Multiverse
If life is a feature of the multiverse, then the multiverse insures that life becomes eternal.
It has been shown (Dyson, 1979) that whereas life cannot be maintained in the future of a de Sitter or
decelerating universe, as it would be destroyed in the big crunch, life can exist indefinitely in universe
filled with dark energy or phantom energy. In fact, for a constant equation of state with w= Const. < -1,
the condition
which, in the Dyson's notation implies q = 1 so preserving the Dyson requirement (Dyson, 1979) and
hence eternal endurance of life in the future of a phantom universe. The emergence of a big rip singularity
in a finite time of the future would at first sight seem to indicate that there will be a doomsday at that
singularity where life, together with all other physical objects and the laws of science themselves, will
inexorably perish.
Intervening wormholes connecting both sides of the singularity might slightly -in cosmic terms- delay the
final and total destruction of life. Certainly some living patches would bridge the singularity abyss, either
by already living on or escaping to the other side. However, the universe on the other side of the worm
hole would also be contracting rather than expanding and hence life would again have its hours counted
by application of the Dyson argument.
However, there is a way for life to achieve eternity and this would be by gaining access to and utilizing
the connections linking an infinite number of universes (González-Díaz, 2004). Thus, even if all universes
are filled with phantom energy, life could endure eternally in the realm of an infinite number of universes
connected by worm holes.
In this way life can persist eternally into the future of an ever accelerating universe. Does this imply that
life is eternal? That life has always existed?
Life may be an intrinsic feature of an accelerating but not a decelerating universe.
Any decelerating equation of state does not allow life to persist long enough in the future of any evolutive
hypersurface when we trace evolution back to a sufficiently early time. That is, one would always have a
situation which is lifeless before the coincidence time.
This result would confirm the intuition that ultimately life is a property of the accelerated period of the
universe. Life is a property of a period closely related to the deep quantum-mechanical character of the
universe. That is, life is connected with sharp quantum properties such as entanglement, wave packet
reduction and non-locality (González-Díaz and Robles-Pérez, 2009). Thus we see how life, cosmic
accelerated expansion and quantum theory are directly linked and are three faces of the same coin.
Let us finally briefly consider the issue of life survival in relation with the second law of thermodynamics
in the contexts of our single universe and the multiverse. We notice that such an issue can be dealt with
by using the following two analogies. On the one hand, consider the well known Schrödinger idea, which
was advanced in his famous book "What is life?" Life is nothing but information (in the Shannon sense)
or, in Schrödinger terminology, negative entropy or negentropy.
On the other hand, it is commonly thought that the biological process of self-replication is equivalent to
computation, that is to say, life is just like a computer.
By adopting these standpoints, one can deduce that in an accelerating universe, one can see less infinite
space rather than more of it. The bounds of the observable universe shrink as the space between objects
accelerate and expand as the spaces close because no light from objects outside a range of 13.7 billion
light years – the time of the birth of the universe - has enough time to reach the Earth. As the universe
expands, the more distant stars become too far away to be observed and therefore the observable universe
shrinks in size to those stars closer to the Earth.
It follows that entropy in our universe should increase very quickly in the presence of dark or phantom
energy. Moreover, since entropy increases rapidly in an ever accelerating universe, a computer could not
run forever in an ever accelerating universe like ours. Therefore, life cannot last forever in the presence of
dark and phantom energy in a single universe. Clearly, it can only be in the context of the multiverse that
this entropic effect can be compensated by the opening of an infinite number of classical (and possibly
quantum) information channels which can ultimately render life itself to last forever. Such classical
information channels would be made of the above alluded inter-universal wormhole connections.
Moreover, a computer (self-replicating biological system) which can run forever this way has a
potentially infinite amount of memory available. It then follows that, in the context of the multiverse,
every thought will be destined not to be forgotten and then re-discovered, but rather to be preserved
forever.
Acknowledgements: The author thanks Carmen L. Sigüenza for useful discussions. This work was
supported by MEC under Research Project No. FIS2008-06332.
References
Abbott, D., Davies P.C.W.and Pati, A.K. (2008) Quantum aspects of life, (World Scientific Publishing,
UK).
Caldwell, R.R. (2002). A phantom menace? Phys. Lett. B545, 23;
Caldwell, R.R., Kamionkowski, M and Weinberg, N.N. (2003). Phantom energy and cosmic doomsday.
Phys. Rev. Lett. 91, 071301;
González-Díaz, P.F. (2004). K-essential phantom energy: doomsday around the corner. Phys. Lett. B586,
1.
Carr, B (2007) Universe or Multiverse (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK).
Dyson, F.J. (1979). Time without end: physics and biology in an open universe. Rev. Mod. Phys. 51, 447.
Dyson, L, Kleban, M. and Susskind, L (2002). Disturbing implications of a cosmological constant.
JHEP210, 011 .
González-Díaz, P.F. (2004). Achronal cosmic future. Phys. Rev. Lett. 93, 071301 .
González-Díaz, P.F. and Robles-Pérez, S. (2009). Entangled accelerating universe. Phys. Lett. B679 298.
González-Díaz, P.F. and Sigüenza, C.L. (1997). Protein folding and cosmology. astro-ph/9706040 .
Hoyle, F. (1983) The Intelligent Universe (Michael Joseph Limited, London, UK), pp. 18-19.
Hoyle, F. and Wickramasinghe, N.C. (2000) Astronomical Origins of Life: Steps towards Panspermia
(Kluwer Academic Press, USA).
Joseph, R. (2009). Life on Earth came from other planets. Journal of Cosmology, 1, 1-56.
Levinthal, C (1961). Are there pathways for protein folding? J. Chim. Phys. et de Physico-Chemie
Biologique 65, 44 .
Sagan, C (1988) TV series programme "Cosmos", Episode 1
Smolin, L. (1997) The Life of the Cosmos (Phoenix, London, UK).
Tegmark, M. et al. (2004). Cosmological parameters from SDSS and WMAP. Phys. Rev. D 69, 103501.
Vilenkin, A. (1998). Unambiguous probabilities in an eternally inflating universe. Phys. Rev. Lett. 81,
5501.
Wheeler, J.A. (1983) Law without law. In: Quantum Theory and Measurement edited by Wheeler, J.A.
and Zurek, W.H. (Princeton University Press, USA) pp. 182 -213 .