Pushing the boundaries of explanation has led him to put forward some extraordinary theories, including the idea that the laws of the universe are not invariable across space and time, but are evolving. The only way to find out is to try to see how far we can go.”Īnd Smolin is prepared to go a lot further in his questioning than most. “Of course this might be the case, and it might not be. Smolin admits that it might be the case that at some point our explanations simply run out and there are no further “why” questions we can ask. For many scientists the question doesn’t even make sense. Instead, contingency rules: the way things are is the way things are, we can’t really know why. Modern science on the other hand for the most part has given up on this idea that the world is governed by rational necessity.
Leibniz was a key figure of early modern rationalist philosophy that held necessity to be the key concept that would unlock the mysteries of the universe – things are the way they are because they had to be this way, and reason could explain why that was. It’s perhaps hard to appreciate how unconventional this way of thinking about physics is. Lee Smolin is not like other physicists in another way: he draws inspiration from many different fields, including philosophy. The Principle of Sufficient Reason being the idea that there is a reason for why things are the way they are and Leibniz being a 17 th century rationalist philosopher.
When seeking knowledge, we should act on the assumption that the principle of sufficient reason is true, otherwise we are likely to give up too soon.” “I believe in an aspirational form of Leibniz’s Principle of Sufficient Reason. Whereas most physicists see themselves in the business of discovering what the laws of the universe are, Lee Smolin goes a step further: he wants to know why the laws of the universe are what they are. Lee Smolin is a rare breed of theoretical physicist. In this in depth interview he offers an account of how he came to this view of the evolving universe and explains why physics needs to change its view of time. His inquiries have led him to believe that the laws of the universe have evolved from earlier forms, along the lines of natural selection. Lee Smolin is the type of theoretical physicist who likes asking such “why” questions. But once you start asking why the laws of the universe are what they are, their invariance also comes into question. They came into existence along with the universe, and have been the same ever since. We tend to think of the laws of nature as fixed.
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