Reading Comprehension

PT149 · S2 · P2 · Q12 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.

12.

If the multiverse hypothesis as discussed in the third paragraph is correct, then the story of the hero in the first paragraph would be more analogous to the story of our universe if the hero

had a team of supporters
Bad Match: team of supporters
We're looking for something like, "If the hero had 1,000 copies of himself, all of which, other than him, died".
2% picked this
Correct
was actually just one of
Why this is right
Our universe is one of many universes, just as this hero is just one of many people sent on the mission. Almost all other universes in the multiverse would fail to create conditions conductive to life. Almost all other people sent on the mission would fail to succeed / survive.
Skill tested: Analogy · how this choice captures the passage's function is the move to repeat next time.
84% picked this
had developed the survival skills
Bad Match: previous missions
By analogy, this answer is saying that our universe learned how to have the right conditions for life during previous iterations of that same universe. Our universe didn't have "previous lives" in the multiverse. It's just one drop in a sea of universes.
2% picked this
was actually just one of
Bad Match: each succeeded
The other universes in the multiverse aren't compatible with life as we know it, so the other people on this mission shouldn't have the same success that our hero has.
11% picked this
was equipped with a map
Bad Match
This has nothing to do with "one of many universes, that just happens to get lucky". This actually has nothing to do with luck. It's more like our universe had a special designer that knew how to fine tune our universe just right. But the concept of our universe in the broader context of the multiverse is that "given the sheer number of possibilities, one of them will end up being conducive to life just by dumb luck."
1% picked this

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