Reading John Gribbin’s History of Western Science (The Folio Society 2006) recently, I was struck by his ringing endorsement of the Copernican principle (CP). This prompted me to ponder CP again, a principle widely held to be true, even essential, in science. However, the fact is we don’t yet know if any life, let alone intelligent life, exists elsewhere in the universe. The number of interconnections in the human brain (1015) is vastly greater than the number of stars in our Milky Way galaxy (1011). This principle is closely akin to CP but more universal and science could scarcely operate without assuming uniformity in nature.

Source: The Irish Times May 20, 2021 00:03 UTC