Does some Theory of Everything fix all fine-tuning parameters?

“No, after all…

  • The T.O.E. does not account for inital conditions etc.

    A theory of everything would at best unify gravity, the electro-weak, electro-strong, and electro-magnetic forces. It would not explain most of the fine-tuning.1

    1. For example, it would not explain all the fine-tuned initial conditions, like its initial low entropy state.
       • Robin Collins (Physicist-philosopher who specializes in fine-tuning): “such a fundamental law would not explain the fine-tuning of the initial conditions of the universe.” [“The Teleological Argument: An Exploration of the Fine-Tuning of the Universe” in The Blackwell Companion to Natural Theology eds. Craig & Moreland (Blackwell, 2009), 275.]
       • Paul Davies ([Agnostic-turned-deist] Renowned theoretical physicist, professor at Cambridge etc.): “The laws must be augmented by cosmic initial conditions. There is nothing in present ideas about laws of initial conditions remotely to suggest that their consistence with the laws of physics would imply uniqueness. Far from it. It seems, then, that the physical universe does not have to be the way it is: it could have been otherwise” [The Mind of God: The Scientific Basis for a Rational World (Simon & Schuster, 1993), 169.]

  • There is no such theory

    Our best evidence suggest there just is no such grand unified theory.1

    1. See: • Science Daily: “No Theory of Everything,” • NewScientist: “Goodbye Theory of Everything.” For example, regarding the cosmological constant,
       • Leonard Susskind (Father of String theory, professor of theoretical physics at Stanford): “Sure it's possible that some genius will come along and explain the cosmological constant by some mathematical magic but things sure don't seem to be going in that direction.” [_Edge: The Reality Club_, [online at edge.org].
“Yes, after all…

  • M-theory explains fine-tuning

    M-theory fixes the fine-tuning parameters.

    But no, M-theory is especially unhelpful.

    • [No such theory exists](/universe/fine-tuning/by-theory of-everything#none).
    • It is entirely unknown whether it would eliminate even the few instances of fine-tuning it hopes to explain.1
    1. William Lane Craig: “… no one knows whether M will eliminate fine-tuning. As Don Page, a leading quantum cosmologist at the University of Alberta, cautions, 'It is not known whether the coupling constants we observe in our effective low-energy theories, such as quantum electro-dynamics, should be derivable mathematically from string or M theory with no free parameters, or whether these might vary from one component to another of the quantum state of the universe' (e-mail dated 15 August 1998). Moreover, because the theory does not yet exist, it is simply not known whether it will not itself require fine-tuning in other respects (cf. inflationary scenarios, which eliminate some elements of fine-tuning only at the expense of introducing new ones). Christopher Isham, a quantum cosmologist of Imperial College, London, advises: 'The anticipated new theory as yet has not been found. Until that happens it is unlikely that much serious physical prediction can be done' (e-mail dated 4 August 1998).”