Reading Comprehension

PT149 · S2 · P2 · Q11 The Multiverse

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In a typical Hollywood action movie, the hero skirts death to complete a mission.

Topic

The "fine-tuning" of the laws of physics in our universe, the idea of the multiverse, and recent challenges to how exceptional our universe may really be.

Framework

Challenge Position

Main Point

Although many scientists argue that our universe appears "finely tuned" to allow life and see this as evidence for the existence of a multiverse, new research (like that done by the author) suggests that alternative sets of physical laws could also allow complex structures and possibly life, so the fine-tuning argument might be overstated. (The Most Valuable Sentence: This is found at the end of the fifth paragraph.)

P1: Action Movie Analogy

The author starts by comparing the survival of a movie hero against all odds to how finely balanced the conditions in our universe seem to be—lots of things could have gone wrong, but they didn't.

P2: Fine-Tuning Problem in Physics

Just like in the movie, our universe seems unlikely; a tiny change in physical laws could have prevented life from existing. This mysterious "fine-tuning" makes the existence of our universe seem improbable.

P3: The Multiverse Hypothesis

Some cosmologists try to solve this improbability by proposing there are lots of universes (a "multiverse"), each with different laws, making it less surprising that at least one (ours) turned out just right.

11.

The author's attitude toward the multiverse hypothesis can best be described as one of

dismissiveness
Opposite
We were looking for "Plausible and potentially very useful". The author definitely didn't dismiss it.
1% picked this
skepticism
Too Negative
We were looking for "Plausible and potentially very useful". The author doesn't say anything skeptical. Being skeptical is different from being agnostic (where you have no opinion whether it's true or false). Skeptical means that you are leaning towards thinking it's false, which we have no support for.
6% picked this
Correct
open-mindedness
Why this is right
We were looking for "Plausible and potentially very useful". This is not quite that, but it's positive. What does it mean to keep an open mind or to have an open mind? It means that you haven't yet made a decision and that you're still receptive to it. If you were touring a college with your parent and your parent was excited about you going to this school whereas you were looking grumpy and dismissive, your parent might say, "Can you keep an open mind?" That would mean, "Can you reserve judgment? Can you not write this off?" When we talk about being an open-minded person, it's a willingness to be exposed to new things / learn new things. i.e. "My grandma had never heard about people naming their pronouns at the bottom of an email, but she's very open-minded so now she's doing it." Our author is definitely open to the possibility that the multiverse theory could be true (certain models would even lead us to expect it!) and she's receptive to the possibility that it could be a helpful theory that would allow us to solve some puzzles.
Skill tested: Author's Attitude · how this choice captures the passage's function is the move to repeat next time.
77% picked this
advocacy
Too Strong: advocacy
To advocate for something is to try to persuade others to believe a certain thought. Is this author trying to get people to believe in the multiverse? No. If we get tunnel vision for the last two sentences, we might think, "She certainly seems to be persuading me to take the multiverse theory seriously." But we have to consider the wider context of this paragraph. She's trying to reassure us that she isn't trashing the multiverse theory. Let's say we need to hire a new developer for LSAT Lab and I say at the meeting that this applicant Lou has no experience designing apps for the iOS or Android. "Does my statement therefore call the hiring of Lou into question? I do not think this is necessarily the case for two reasons. First, certain things we might want to do with the website would lead us to badly want someone with Lou's Python experience. Secondly, Lou may be able to figure out how to solve the problem of slow page loading times." What am I doing there, advocating that we hire Lou? No, but I'm demonstrating that I'm still open to him getting the position.
12% picked this
enthusiasm
Too Strong
The author definitely says some positive things about the multiverse. We predicted "plausible / potentially useful". Much like (D), if we only looked at the two final sentences, we might feel decent saying that the author seems to have some hope / some enthusiasm for the idea that the multiverse may well prove to be the solution to some long-standing puzzles. But again the author is only presenting positivity because she's worried that the reader will think that she just axed the possibility of the multiverse. She's trying to reassure us, "No, no ... the multiverse theory is still alive. It's still viable. It could even be juicy." However, this is a noncommittal "let's wait and see ... depending on the model of the birth of the universe we may expect something like the multiverse. And who knows, it may well solve a riddle or two for us?" She isn't actively trying to position herself as a proponent of the theory.
4% picked this

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