Anthropic Principle

We may occupy a preferred place or preferred time in the Universe (we may also occupy a preferred universe)

There are several vexing facts about the Universe: It appears as though we live in a special universe. Some quantities seem to be highly improbable values, for example, the flatness of the Universe is disturbing. Several questions are: These questions are interesting in the sense that if we can understand the origins of the above problems, this would imply that we understand how the Universe was constructed (in the beginning) which would be intellectually satisfying and would also offer, the admittedly rather far-fetched notion, that we could engineer the space-time structure of the Universe.

Anthropic Principle

Note that if some of the finely-balanced quantities were not finely-tuned then our Universe would have grossly different properties. The properties would in fact be so different that it is highly likely that life (as we know it) would not develop and be around to ask the question of why the Universe is special. That is, selection effects would say that it is only in universes where the conditions are right for life (thus pre-selecting certain universe) is it possible for the questions of specialness to be posed.

This statement and variants of this statement are the gist of the Anthropic Principle. Note that the Anthropic Principle is probably true and says that there is nothing mysterious about why our Universe is special. However, it does not rule out the possibility that there is a deeper level to our understanding of the Universe which makes our Universe the most probable universe from the plethora of all possible universes. This still may be true but is not required philosophically or scientifically.