The Pythagorean Argument of the Intelligent Design of the Universe and Its Critique. Part I: Dual Structure of the Pythagorean Argument
Authors:   Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, Batavia, IL, USA, Burov Alexey , Tsvelik Alexey ,   Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, NY, USA
Published: October 2023

This article is first in a series of publications on the problem of a special character of fundamental physical laws, which combine two opposite qualities: they are complex enough to allow fine-tuning to life, yet simple enough to be discoverable by emerging intelligent life. In other words, the laws permit the emergence of not just living beings, but those capable of discovering these very laws. How could this be possible? Known laws can be looked at from both logical, objective, and historical, subjective, perspectives. On the one hand – the logical – the successes achieved by physics testify to the adequacy of physical theories, to their conformity to the fabric of the Universe itself. This conformity is fundamentally different from fitting complex formulas to facts, like those implemented by the algorithms of Ptolemy, Copernicus or artificial intelligence. Fits describe only what is already embedded in them, whereas physical theories allow to predict phenomena that have never been observed, often unbeknownst even to the authors of those theories. This predictive power stems from the same qualities as the ability to unambiguously falsify physical theories: the simplicity, universality, precision, and completeness of their mathematical principles. In addition to these qualities, and in addition to the fact that the fundamental physical laws possess numerous symmetries, invariants, and equivalences, they also permit that constructive richness of stable material configurations, that is chemistry, which is a necessary condition of life as we know it. Research of recent decades shows how finely tuned the physical constants are to meet this requirement: even small changes in their values would make chemistry impossible. What is the reason for these amazing Pythagorean qualities of the Universe? Purposeful design of this rational elegance of nature, that is, the intelligent design of the Universe, appears to be the only passable answer to this question, as we intend to demonstrate in this series of publications. On the other hand, the history of science testifies that the belief in the mathematical perfection of nature’s arrangement lies at the origin of modern physics, indicating both the possibility and, without exaggeration, the sacredness of cognition of the Universe. This belief is clearly visible in the worldview of the founders of mathematical physics, as a special, emotionally intense Pythagorean credo, a variant of Christian Platonism. The initial presumption of perfect design may not be recognized by the masses of scientists and philosophers who came later, and it may even be rejected by them verbally, but this does not cancel its status as the foundation of physics: there has been and is no other answer to the question of why the understanding of the Universe is possible and important for humanity. The justification of the assumption of intelligent design as the cause of such specific laws of nature, on the one hand, and, on the other hand, discerning and contemplating the meaning of the Pythagorean credo by granting it the status of a metaphysical working hypothesis, together form a dual objective-subjective logical structure, which the authors designate as the Pythagorean argument, as presented in this article.