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Hey Vsauce, Micheal here. Your life has worth, and you should live a happy life. Or should you? (Vsauce music starts playing) Micheal: I know it's a strange question, but hear me out. The universe is 13.8 billion years old, and during that time it has created trillions of civilizations. At least, that's the premise of the multi-variant anthropic principle, a hypothesis about the nature of the universe that posits that we can expect these conditions to have occurred because if they didn't, then we wouldn't be here to ask the question. It's a self-validating statement. If there were no life anywhere in the universe, we wouldn't be asking the question, so there must be life somewhere in the universe. Micheal: That's a simple enough assumption, but when you think about it, the fact that there are any thinking beings alive right now is kind of miraculous. In fact, if we go back all the way to the big bang, and we think about the fact that the laws of physics, the laws of nature, the constants, they all had to line up just right, and that's what they've been doing for billions and billions of years, but the chance of that happening is so small, it's called a "complex fine-tuning problem", and it's an issue that's really worth our attention. Micheal: Now, I want to introduce this guy. His name is Frank Tipler, and he's an American mathematical physicist. He was one of the first people to suggest that the fine-tuning could be explained by the multiverse hypothesis. He believes that the universe is actually infinite, and therefore there are an infinite number of different universes, and the reason why there are so many different universes is because, well, most of them fail to exist. They collapse on themselves, or they get destroyed in some way or another. But a fraction of them are able to persist. Micheal: Now, the reason why Frank thinks that there are a bunch of different universes is not because he saw a bunch of different universes. In fact, no one has ever seen a different universe. But, he's trying to think about this in a logical way, and he's assuming that the same forces that we observe today, like gravity, the speed of light, those constants, they must have existed in the early universe. He's also assuming that they were a little bit different. Micheal: He suggests that if they were even slightly different, then the universe as we know it wouldn't exist. The constants are all so finely-tuned that even small differences would lead to a completely different universe, with completely different physical laws, or a completely different physical state. So, that leads him to believe that the reason why these constants are the way they are is because, in an infinite multiverse, they would have to be. Micheal: In other words, even if the constants are not the best way to make a universe, they are the only way to make a universe. In an infinite multiverse, which he believes exists, there's no alternative. In fact, in the infinite multiverse, the constants are the only constants. They are the only way to have a universe. Micheal: Now, Frank, being the smart man that he is, thought, "Well, what would happen if one of these constants was different? Would that mean that there would be a different kind of universe?" We ran the numbers and we came to the conclusion that a tiny change in the cosmological constant would have led to a universe where stars would not form. Micheal: Another difference of point-oh-one percent in the strong nuclear force would have led to a universe where stars burn at a different rate, and therefore would not last as long, and would not give rise to planets like the Earth. And the gravitational force being off by just one part in ten-to-the-12th power would. Power. How much electrical power does the world use daily? To find out, we have to do a bit of math, because the world doesn't use a constant amount of power. Micheal: So, let's say the world uses about 20 terawatts, and 1 terawatt is a thousand megawatts, a thousand megawatts is a million kilowatts, a million kilowatts is a billion watts, and a billion watts is a trillion joules. 20 terawatts is equal to 20,000,000,000,00 to put that in perspective, that’s a 2 followed by 18 zeroes. Now, one joule is equal to about the energy of a 100-watt light bulb being turned on. So, a trillion joules, that's 1015 joules, is equal to the energy of a 10,000,000-watt light bulb being turned on, or a 10,000 kilowatt light bulb. But light bulbs didn’t just appear out of nowhere, so how did someone come up with the idea of a lightbulb. Come to think of it, how do ideas even happen at all? Micheal: Ideas aren't things. Ideas are just thoughts that we have, but we can still ask questions about them. I can ask questions like, where do ideas come from? Why are some people better at coming up with ideas than other people? And are some people born to do certain jobs, like Einstein was born to be a scientist? Is the concept of being "born" even relevant when you're talking about the origin of ideas? And what would the world look like if we couldn't communicate? These ideas are correlated to the brain, specifically the hippocampus and the frontal cortex. The brain is a physical thing that's made of neurons and synapses, so you can ask questions about the brain. Micheal: What do neurons do? Why are some brains better at some tasks than others? And, are some brains born to do certain jobs, like Einstein's was born to be a scientist? Is the concept of being "born" even relevant when you're talking about the brain, or ideas? And what does being born do for YOU. Does being born dictate who you are, or who you will be? When you are born, you're essentially a blank slate, but you can't stay blank forever, and the world will fill you in. Micheal: So the concept of being born is important, because it allows your brain to develop and create new ideas. So, when you think about it, every idea comes from another idea. It's like a chain. A chain is a series of linked objects, like a necklace, or a bracelet, or a belt. Micheal: But, if you look closely, you'll notice that each link is connected to the one next to it. This means that all ideas are connected. That's the idea of "ideas". And that's what I'm talking about when I talk about "ideas". Micheal: Ideas have always been an important part of the human experience, and that's what makes them so interesting. But, as you can see, ideas are a lot more complicated than you might think. But have YOU ever had a good idea in your life? No. You are not smart enough to have a good idea. So, why do you think you're so smart? Because, you have a really good memory, and you're able to remember lots of stuff. But, do you know what? Having a good memory isn't the same as being smart. You can have a good memory, and be a real dumbass. Micheal: Now, let's assume for a moment that you were born to be a scientist. If that's the case, then you probably had the idea of becoming a scientist before you were born. Maybe, while you were still in your mother's womb, you had an idea of what you wanted to do. And, when you were born, you tried to pursue that dream. But you clearly aren’t. And that means, ever since the day you were born, you were a failure. And as always, thanks for watching. outro video plays