Why We Might Live in a "Barely Habitable" Universe

Cool Worlds October 31, 2025
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Cool Worlds

@coolworldslab

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Space, astronomy, exoplanets, astroengineering and the search for extraterrestrial life & intelligence. The Cool Worlds Lab (http://coolworldslab.com), based at the Department of Astronomy, Columbia University, is a team of astronomers seeking to discover and understand alien worlds, particularly those where temperatures are cool enough for life, led by Professor David Kipping.

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Use code coolworlds at https://incogni.com/coolworlds to get an exclusive 60% off an annual Incogni plan. Intelligent design purports that the Universe was made by a creator - God. One of the arguments often invoked to make this case is that the physical constants of the Universe are (apparently) finely tuned to permit life. But cosmologist Denis Sciama presented a thought-provoking analysis of this line of thought and suggested it might be possible to even test intelligent design. Join us today as we explore this fascinating concept. Written & presented by David Kipping, edited by Jorge Casas → Support our research: https://www.coolworldslab.com/support → Get merch: https://crowdmade.com/collections/cool-worlds → Check out our podcast: www.youtube.com/@CoolWorldsPodcast THANK-YOU to D. Smith, C. Bottaccini, D. Daughaday, S. Brownlee, E. West, T. Zajonc, A. De Vaal, M. Elliott, B. Daniluk, S. Vystoropskyi, S. Lee, Z. Danielson, C. Fitzgerald, C. Souter, M. Gillette, J. Rockett, M. Sanford, T. Donkin, A. Schoen, K. Dabrowski, J. Armstrong, B. Smith, J. Bergman, C. Macdonald, M. Hedlund, N. Corwin, K. Howard, G. Metts, R. Provost, G. Fullwood, N. De Haan, R. Williams, E. Garland, R. Lovely, D. Compos, F. Demopoulos, T. Edris, M. O'Brien, D. Lee, M. Czirr, I. Williams, B. Reese, A. Nimmerjahn, C. Seay, D. Johnson, L. Cunningham, M. Morrow, M. Campbell, B. Devermont, P. Borisoff, H. Schiff, J. Cos, C. Hansen, R. Chaffee, A. Ortiz, B. McMillan, B. Cartmell, J. Bryant, J. Obioma, M. Zeiler, S. Murray, S. Patterson, C. Kennedy, G. Le Saint, W. Ruf, A. Kochkov, B. Langley, P. Stevenson, T. Ford, A. Laroye, I. Venzor, R. Raszka, B. Gaalen, J. Alley, D. Aron, G. Thomsen, S. Shardool, A. Phan Le, N. Offor, A. Huch, J. Morrison, C. Fitzsimmons, W. Smith, A. Twyman, B. Burgess, B. Bueche, D. Hoffman, J. Murphy, J. Matters, R. Borbidge, A. Singh, S. Larter, M. Adler, B. Ross-Lee & C. Frederick. REFERENCES ► E. Siegel, 2015, "It Takes 26 Fundamental Constants To Give Us Our Universe, But They Still Don't Give Everything", Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/ethansiegel/2015/08/22/it-takes-26-fundamental-constants-to-give-us-our-universe-but-they-still-dont-give-everything/ ► Z.-W. Wang & S. L. Braunstein, 2024, "Life in a random universe: Sciama's argument reconsidered", ApJ, 962, 8: https://arxiv.org/abs/2109.10241 ► Z.-W. Wang & S. L. Braunstein, 2023, "Sciama's argument on life in a random universe: Distinguishing apples from oranges", Nature Astronomy, 7, 755: https://arxiv.org/abs/2306.14934 MUSIC Licensed by SoundStripe.com (SS) [shorturl.at/ptBHI], Artlist.io, via CC Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) or with permission from the artist. You can see all of our past music here: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0Bu2UQlKDb0KaeliLZUOZn 0:00 Hill - A Thin Place [https://open.spotify.com/artist/1hdkvBtRdOW4SPsnxCXOjK] 4:59 Hill - Arctic Warmth [https://open.spotify.com/artist/1hdkvBtRdOW4SPsnxCXOjK] 7:38 Hill - World of Wonder [https://open.spotify.com/artist/1hdkvBtRdOW4SPsnxCXOjK] 9:06 Hill - Conception [https://open.spotify.com/artist/1hdkvBtRdOW4SPsnxCXOjK] 11:05 Hill - Mourning Wakes [https://open.spotify.com/artist/1hdkvBtRdOW4SPsnxCXOjK] CHAPTERS 0:00 Fine-Tuning 3:06 Sciama's Original Argument 7:37 Incogni 9:08 The New Argument 12:08 My Two Cents 15:30 Outro & Credits #IntelligentDesign #FineTuning #CoolWorlds

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