The Hidden Reality: Parallel Universes and the Deep Laws of the Cosmos

by Brian Greene

So there is no fundamental reason why the earth is 93 million miles from the sun. A planet’s orbital distance from its host star is due to the vagaries of historical happenstance, the innumerable detailed features of the swirling gas cloud from which a particular solar system coalesced; it’s a contingent fact that’s unavailable for fundamental explanation. Indeed, these astrophysical processes have produced planets throughout the cosmos, orbiting their respective suns at a vast assortment of distances. We find ourselves on one such planet situated 93 million miles from our sun because that’s a planet on which our form of life could evolve. Failure to take account of this selection bias would lead one to search for a deeper answer. But that’s a fool’s errand.