Frank J. Tipler

Last updated
Frank Jennings Tipler
Born (1947-02-01) February 1, 1947 (age 77)
Andalusia, Alabama [1]
NationalityAmerican
Alma mater Massachusetts Institute of Technology (BS)
University of Maryland, College Park (PhD)
Occupation Mathematical physicist
Employer Tulane University
Known for Omega point cosmology
Tipler cylinder
Hart–Tipler conjecture
Website https://sse.tulane.edu/node/3550

Frank Jennings Tipler (born February 1, 1947) is an American mathematical physicist and cosmologist, holding a joint appointment in the Departments of Mathematics and Physics at Tulane University. [2] Tipler has written books and papers on the Omega Point based on Pierre Teilhard de Chardin's religious ideas, which he claims is a mechanism for the resurrection of the dead. He is also known for his theories on the Tipler cylinder time machine. His work has attracted criticism, most notably from Quaker and systems theorist George Ellis who has argued that his theories are largely pseudoscience. [3]

Contents

Biography

Tipler was born in Andalusia, Alabama, to Frank Jennings Tipler Jr., a lawyer, and Anne Tipler, a homemaker. [1] Tipler attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology from 1965 to 1969, where he completed a Bachelor of Science degree in physics. [2] In 1976 he completed his PhD with the University of Maryland. [4] [5] Tipler was hired in a series of postdoctoral research positions at three universities, with the final one being at the University of Texas, working under John Archibald Wheeler, Abraham Taub, Rainer K. Sachs, and Dennis W. Sciama. [2] Tipler became an associate professor in mathematical physics in 1981 and a full professor in 1987 at Tulane University, where he has been a faculty member ever since. [2]

The Omega Point cosmology

The Omega Point is a term Tipler uses to describe a cosmological state in the distant proper-time future of the universe. [6] He claims that this point is required to exist due to the laws of physics. According to him, it is required, for the known laws of physics to be consistent, that intelligent life take over all matter in the universe and eventually force its collapse. During that collapse, the computational capacity of the universe diverges to infinity, and environments emulated with that computational capacity last for an infinite duration as the universe attains a cosmological singularity. This singularity is Tipler's Omega Point. [7] With computational resources diverging to infinity, Tipler states that a society in the far future would be able to resurrect the dead by emulating alternative universes. [8] Tipler identifies the Omega Point with God, since, in his view, the Omega Point has all the properties of God claimed by most traditional religions. [8] [9]

Tipler's argument of the Omega Point being required by the laws of physics is a more recent development that arose after the publication of his 1994 book The Physics of Immortality. In that book (and in papers he had published up to that time), Tipler had offered the Omega Point cosmology as a hypothesis, while still claiming to confine the analysis to the known laws of physics. [10]

Tipler, along with co-author physicist John D. Barrow, defined the "final anthropic principle" (FAP) in their 1986 book The Anthropic Cosmological Principle as a generalization of the anthropic principle:

"Intelligent information-processing must come into existence in the Universe, and, once it comes into existence, will never die out." [11]

One paraphrasing of Tipler's argument for FAP runs as follows: For the universe to physically exist, it must contain living observers. Our universe obviously exists. There must be an "Omega Point" that sustains life forever. [12]

Tipler purportedly used Dyson's eternal intelligence hypothesis to back up his arguments.

Reception

Tipler's Omega Point theory has been highly controversial. In the past (1997), physicist David Deutsch defended the physics of Omega Point cosmology, [13] although he was highly critical of Tipler's theological conclusions and what Deutsch stated were exaggerated claims (that caused other scientists and philosophers to reject his theory). [14] However, Deutsch has since rejected the theory, referring to it as "refuted" and "ruled out by observation". [15] Scholars are also skeptical of Tipler's argument that if an immortal entity with advanced technology exists in the future, such a being would necessarily resemble the Abrahamic God. [16] [17] Researcher Anders Sandberg pointed out that he believes that the Omega Point Theory has many flaws, including missing proofs of its claims. [18]

Tipler's Omega Point ideas have received vigorous criticism by physicists and skeptics. [16] [19] [20] Some critics say its arguments violate the Copernican principle, that it incorrectly applies the laws of probability, and that it is really a theology or metaphysics principle made to sound plausible to laypeople by using the esoteric language of physics. Martin Gardner dubbed the final anthropic principle the "completely ridiculous anthropic principle" (CRAP). [21] Oxford-based philosopher Nick Bostrom writes that the final anthropic principle is "pure speculation" with no claim on any special methodological status, despite attempts to elevate it by calling it a "principle", but considers the Omega Point hypothesis to be an interesting philosophical hypothesis in its own right. [22] Philosopher Rem B. Edwards called the theory "futuristic, pseudoscientific eschatology" that is "highly conjectural, unverified, and improbable". [23] A review in The New York Times described Tipler's "final anthropic principle" argument as "rather circular". [12]

George Ellis, writing in the journal Nature , described Tipler's book on the Omega Point as "a masterpiece of pseudoscience… the product of a fertile and creative imagination unhampered by the normal constraints of scientific and philosophical discipline" and Tipler himself as 'the ultimate reductionist', citing Tipler's argument that 'religion is now a part of science'. [24] Michael Shermer devoted a chapter of Why People Believe Weird Things to enumerating what he thought to be flaws in Tipler's thesis. [25] Physicist Sean M. Carroll states that Tipler's early work was constructive, but now he has become a "crackpot". [26] In a review of Tipler's The Physics of Christianity, Lawrence Krauss described the book as the most "extreme example of uncritical and unsubstantiated arguments put into print by an intelligent professional scientist". [27]

John Polkinghorne described Tipler as having "extreme reductionism" and building a "cosmic tower of Babel". He also mentioned that Tipler's book "reads like the highest class of science fiction". Polkinghorne himself asserted that the hope of resurrection "lies not in the curiosity or calculation of a cosmic computer, but in the personal God who cares individually for each of His human creatures". [28]

Books

See also

Related Research Articles

The anthropic principle, also known as the observation selection effect, is the hypothesis that the range of possible observations that could be made about the universe is limited by the fact that observations are only possible in the type of universe that is capable of developing intelligent life. Proponents of the anthropic principle argue that it explains why the universe has the age and the fundamental physical constants necessary to accommodate intelligent life. If either had been significantly different, no one would have been around to make observations. Anthropic reasoning has been used to address the question as to why certain measured physical constants take the values that they do, rather than some other arbitrary values, and to explain a perception that the universe appears to be finely tuned for the existence of life.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Many-worlds interpretation</span> Interpretation of quantum mechanics

The many-worlds interpretation (MWI) is an interpretation of quantum mechanics that asserts that the universal wavefunction is objectively real, and that there is no wave function collapse. This implies that all possible outcomes of quantum measurements are physically realized in some "world" or universe. The evolution of reality as a whole in MWI is rigidly deterministic and local. Many-worlds is also called the relative state formulation or the Everett interpretation, after physicist Hugh Everett, who first proposed it in 1957. Bryce DeWitt popularized the formulation and named it many-worlds in the 1970s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Multiverse</span> Hypothetical group of multiple universes

The multiverse is the hypothetical set of all universes. Together, these universes are presumed to comprise everything that exists: the entirety of space, time, matter, energy, information, and the physical laws and constants that describe them. The different universes within the multiverse are called "parallel universes", "flat universes", "other universes", "alternate universes", "multiple universes", "plane universes", "parent and child universes", "many universes", or "many worlds". One common assumption is that the multiverse is a "patchwork quilt of separate universes all bound by the same laws of physics."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cosmological constant</span> Constant representing stress–energy density of the vacuum

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Polkinghorne</span> Physicist and priest (1930–2021)

John Charlton Polkinghorne was an English theoretical physicist, theologian, and Anglican priest. A prominent and leading voice explaining the relationship between science and religion, he was professor of mathematical physics at the University of Cambridge from 1968 to 1979, when he resigned his chair to study for the priesthood, becoming an ordained Anglican priest in 1982. He served as the president of Queens' College, Cambridge, from 1988 until 1996.

The Omega Point is a theorized future event in which the entirety of the universe spirals toward a final point of unification. The term was invented by the French Jesuit Catholic priest Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1881–1955). Teilhard argued that the Omega Point resembles the Christian Logos, namely Christ, who draws all things into himself, who in the words of the Nicene Creed, is "God from God", "Light from Light", "True God from True God", and "through him all things were made". In the Book of Revelation, Christ describes himself three times as "the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end". Several decades after Teilhard's death, the idea of the Omega Point was expanded upon in the writings of John David Garcia (1971), Paolo Soleri (1981), Frank Tipler (1994), and David Deutsch (1997).

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References

  1. 1 2 Rooney, Terrie M., ed. (1997). Contemporary Authors. Vol. 157. Farmington Hills, MI: Thomson Gale. p.  407. ISBN   978-0-7876-1183-5.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Tipler, Frank J (2007). "Biography". Tulane University.
  3. ↑ Ellis, George Francis Rayner (1994). "Piety in the Sky". Nature . 371 (6493): 115. Bibcode:1994Natur.371..115E. doi: 10.1038/371115a0 . S2CID   36282720.
  4. ↑ Tipler 1976.
  5. ↑ "Dissertation Abstracts International". 37 (6): B2923.{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  6. ↑ Through the Wormhole — Morgan Freeman with Frank Tipler, 12 January 2019, retrieved 2023-01-06
  7. ↑ Tipler et al. 2007.
  8. 1 2 Tipler 1989.
  9. ↑ Tipler 1997 , p. 560
  10. ↑ Tipler, Frank J (June 1986), "Cosmological Limits on Computation", International Journal of Theoretical Physics , 25 (6): 617–61, Bibcode:1986IJTP...25..617T, doi:10.1007/BF00670475, S2CID   59578961 (first paper on the Omega Point Theory).
  11. ↑ Barrow, John D.; Tipler, Frank J. (1986). The Anthropic Cosmological Principle (1st ed.). Oxford University Press. ISBN   978-0-19-282147-8. LCCN   87028148.
  12. 1 2 Johnson, George (1994). "The Odds on God". The New York Times. Retrieved 9 April 2018.
  13. ↑ Deutsch, David (1997). "The Ends of the Universe". The Fabric of Reality: The Science of Parallel Universes—and Its Implications. London: Penguin Press. ISBN   978-0-7139-9061-4.
  14. ↑ Mackey, James Patrick (2000). The critique of theological reason. Cambridge University Press. ISBN   978-0-521-77293-8.
  15. ↑ Deutsch, David (2011). The Beginning of Infinity. Penguin Books. pp. 450–451.
  16. 1 2 Gardner, Martin (March–April 2008). "The Strange Case of Frank Jennings Tipler". Book Review, "The Physics of Christianity". The Committee for Skeptical Inquiry. Retrieved 29 June 2010.
  17. ↑ Shermer, Michael (2003). How we believe: science, skepticism, and the search for God. Macmillan. ISBN   978-0-8050-7479-6.
  18. ↑ Sandberg, Anders, My Thoughts and Comments on the Omega Point Theory of Frank J. Tipler, SE: Aleph.
  19. ↑ Polkinghorne, John (1995). "I am the Alpha and the Omega Point". New Scientist (1963): 41.
  20. ↑ Baker, Richard G (1995). "Fossils Worth Studying". Science . 267 (5200): 1043–1044. Bibcode:1995Sci...267.1043E. doi:10.1126/science.267.5200.1043. PMID   17811443. S2CID   6227574.
  21. ↑ Gardner, M., "WAP, SAP, PAP, and FAP", The New York Review of Books 23, No. 8 (May 8, 1986): 22–25.
  22. ↑ Bostrom, Nick (2002). Anthropic bias: observation selection effects in science and philosophy. Psychology Press. p. 50. ISBN   978-0-415-93858-7 . Retrieved March 16, 2011.
  23. ↑ Edwards, Rem Blanchard (2001). What caused the big bang?. Rodopi. ISBN   978-90-420-1407-7 . Retrieved March 17, 2011.
  24. ↑ Ellis, George (1994). "Piety in the sky" (PDF). Nature . 371 (6493): 115. Bibcode:1994Natur.371..115E. doi:10.1038/371115a0. S2CID   36282720.
  25. ↑ Shermer, Michael (1997). Why People Believe Weird Things . W. H. Freeman. ISBN   978-0-7167-3090-3.
  26. ↑ Carroll, Sean (Jan 5, 2009), "The Varieties of Crackpot Experience", Cosmic Variance (blog), Discover Magazine, archived from the original on September 9, 2016, retrieved March 16, 2011.
  27. ↑ Krauss, Lawrence (May 12, 2007), "More Dangerous Than Nonsense" (PDF), New Scientist, 194 (2603): 53, doi:10.1016/S0262-4079(07)61199-3, archived from the original (PDF) on November 1, 2011.
  28. ↑ Polkinghorne, John. "I am the Alpha and the Omega Point". New Scientist. Retrieved 2020-08-14.

Bibliography

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