stark ranting

This weekend I threw a party that ended with a few of us chilling in the hot tub. Despite our advanced stage of inebriation, the topic of conversation found its way to the age old question of 'why is there something rather than nothing?' The argument I tried to make (rather ungracefully, at the time) was that I tend to view the existence of manifest organization (trees, clouds, computers) as nonrandom occurrences. Not in the sense that a greater intelligence willed them into existence, but in the sense that the physical laws of our universe are uniquely tuned to bring forth such phenomena. All of the physical laws that govern our universe have quite specific measurable characteristics. We know, for example, a rather precise value of the gravitational constant. Is there an underlying reason to explain the specificity of the gravitational constant? Or is it inherent to the system, an ingredient of the universe? And if it is an ingredient, an irreducible physical constant, why does it have its observed value as opposed to some other arbitrary constant? Would the universe exist in much the same way it does now if the gravitational constant were ten times greater? I don't think it would. If you were to wind up the universe at the beginning of space-time with a gravitational constant shifted by one decimal place, I think the universe would unfold in a strikingly different shape from what we know today. In that variation, I see reason, if not intent. The reason why the four fundamental forces have their respective observable characteristics, the reason why the speed of light is 299,792,458 metres per second and nothing travels faster, the reason why the universe itself exists is to create something. Whether that something is galaxies or planets or trees or none of the above, the important thing is that something beautiful is created. And by beautiful I simply mean interesting, because there's no beauty in nothingness. I think of the unfolding universe as a fireworks show. You can create an incredible variation of colors, shapes, and movement by altering the firework starting materials. Once you set it off it will reveal its nature as colorful patterns lighting up a dark sky. I like to think about many universes unfolding outside of our time, each one with a different set of rules defining its nature, each one bringing forth something beautiful in an explosion of color and patterns. That's reason enough for me.