8/10/2019 Mediocrity Principle
1/2
Mediocrity principleFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
For other uses of "mediocrity", seemediocrity
(disambiguation).
This article relies largely or entirely upon asingle
source.Relevant discussion may be found onthetalk page.Please
helpimprove this articleby introducingcitationsto additional
sources. (December 2012)
The mediocrity principleis thephilosophicalnotion that "if an
item is drawn at random fromone of several sets or categories, it's
likelier to come from the most numerous category thanfrom any one
of the less numerous categories" (Kukla 2009).[1]The principle has
been takento suggest that there is nothing very unusual about
theevolution of the Solar System,theEarth,humans,or any
onenation.It is aheuristicin the vein of theCopernican
principle,and is sometimes used as a philosophical statement about
the place of humanity. The idea isto assume mediocrity, rather than
starting with the assumption that a phenomenon is
special,privileged or exceptional.[2][3]
Consistent with the notion, astronomers reported, on 4 November
2013, that there could beas many as 40
billionEarth-sizedplanetsorbiting in thehabitable
zonesofsun-likestarsandred dwarf starswithin theMilky Way
Galaxy,based onKeplerspacemissiondata.[4][5]11 billion of these
estimated planets may be orbiting sun-like stars .[6]Thenearest
such planet may be 12 light-years away, according to the
scientists.[4][5]
Contents
[hide]
1 Extraterrestrial life
2 Other uses of the heuristic
3 See also
4 Notes 5 References
6 External links
Extraterrestrial life[edit]
Life on Earth is ubiquitous, but does it exist elsewhere?.
The mediocrity principle suggests, given the existence of life
on Earth, that lifetypically existson Earth-like planets throughout
theuniverse.[7]Andr Kukla criticizes the argument frommediocrity on
two counts:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mediocrity_(disambiguation)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mediocrity_(disambiguation)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mediocrity_(disambiguation)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Identifying_reliable_sourceshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Identifying_reliable_sourceshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Identifying_reliable_sourceshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Mediocrity_principle#.23http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Mediocrity_principle#.23http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Mediocrity_principle#.23http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Mediocrity_principle&action=edithttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Mediocrity_principle&action=edithttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Mediocrity_principle&action=edithttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citing_sourceshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citing_sourceshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citing_sourceshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosophicalhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosophicalhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosophicalhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mediocrity_principle#cite_note-Kukla2009-1http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mediocrity_principle#cite_note-Kukla2009-1http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mediocrity_principle#cite_note-Kukla2009-1http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Formation_and_evolution_of_the_Solar_Systemhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Formation_and_evolution_of_the_Solar_Systemhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Formation_and_evolution_of_the_Solar_Systemhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth%27s_historyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth%27s_historyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth%27s_historyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_evolutionhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_evolutionhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_evolutionhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nationhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nationhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nationhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heuristichttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heuristichttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copernican_principlehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copernican_principlehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copernican_principlehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mediocrity_principle#cite_note-2http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mediocrity_principle#cite_note-2http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mediocrity_principle#cite_note-2http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terrestrial_planethttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terrestrial_planethttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extrasolar_planetshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extrasolar_planetshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extrasolar_planetshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Habitable_zonehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Habitable_zonehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Habitable_zonehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun-likehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun-likehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun-likehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun-likehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_dwarf_starshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_dwarf_starshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_dwarf_starshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milky_Way_Galaxyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milky_Way_Galaxyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milky_Way_Galaxyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kepler_(spacecraft)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kepler_(spacecraft)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kepler_(spacecraft)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kepler_(spacecraft)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kepler_(spacecraft)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mediocrity_principle#cite_note-NYT-20131104-4http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mediocrity_principle#cite_note-NYT-20131104-4http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mediocrity_principle#cite_note-NYT-20131104-4http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mediocrity_principle#cite_note-LATimes-20131104-6http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mediocrity_principle#cite_note-LATimes-20131104-6http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mediocrity_principle#cite_note-LATimes-20131104-6http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mediocrity_principle#cite_note-NYT-20131104-4http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mediocrity_principle#cite_note-NYT-20131104-4http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mediocrity_principle#cite_note-NYT-20131104-4http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mediocrity_principlehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mediocrity_principlehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mediocrity_principlehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mediocrity_principle#Extraterrestrial_lifehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mediocrity_principle#Extraterrestrial_lifehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mediocrity_principle#Other_uses_of_the_heuristichttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mediocrity_principle#Other_uses_of_the_heuristichttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mediocrity_principle#See_alsohttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mediocrity_principle#See_alsohttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mediocrity_principle#Noteshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mediocrity_principle#Noteshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mediocrity_principle#Referenceshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mediocrity_principle#Referenceshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mediocrity_principle#External_linkshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mediocrity_principle#External_linkshttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Mediocrity_principle&action=edit§ion=1http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Mediocrity_principle&action=edit§ion=1http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Mediocrity_principle&action=edit§ion=1http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lifehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lifehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lifehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mediocrity_principle#cite_note-7http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mediocrity_principle#cite_note-7http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mediocrity_principle#cite_note-7http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Grand_prismatic_spring.jpghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Question_book-new.svghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Grand_prismatic_spring.jpghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Question_book-new.svghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mediocrity_principle#cite_note-7http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lifehttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Mediocrity_principle&action=edit§ion=1http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mediocrity_principle#External_linkshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mediocrity_principle#Referenceshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mediocrity_principle#Noteshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mediocrity_principle#See_alsohttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mediocrity_principle#Other_uses_of_the_heuristichttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mediocrity_principle#Extraterrestrial_lifehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mediocrity_principlehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mediocrity_principle#cite_note-NYT-20131104-4http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mediocrity_principle#cite_note-NYT-20131104-4http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mediocrity_principle#cite_note-LATimes-20131104-6http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mediocrity_principle#cite_note-NYT-20131104-4http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mediocrity_principle#cite_note-NYT-20131104-4http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kepler_(spacecraft)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kepler_(spacecraft)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milky_Way_Galaxyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_dwarf_starshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun-likehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun-likehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Habitable_zonehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extrasolar_planetshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terrestrial_planethttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mediocrity_principle#cite_note-2http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mediocrity_principle#cite_note-2http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copernican_principlehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heuristichttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nationhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_evolutionhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth%27s_historyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Formation_and_evolution_of_the_Solar_Systemhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mediocrity_principle#cite_note-Kukla2009-1http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosophicalhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citing_sourceshttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Mediocrity_principle&action=edithttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Mediocrity_principle#.23http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Identifying_reliable_sourceshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mediocrity_(disambiguation)
8/10/2019 Mediocrity Principle
2/2
The first is that whateverprima facieplausibility the principle
of mediocrity may have isentirely dependent on the single case
having been drawn at random. But the earth is not arandomly
selected planet... The problem of randomness aside, the principle
of mediocrity... isamenable to two drastically different readings,
one of which is a probabilistic truism, the othera fallacy. The
principle that's needed to underwrite [extraterrestrial
intelligence] is thefallacious version. But the fallacy is obscured
by virtue of its being confused with the truism.
On one reading, the principle states that the single randomly
drawn object is more likely tohave come from the category that we
know to be more numerous. This is the truism. Ifcategory A contains
3 elements and category B contains 1 element, then a random
drawfrom the total population of 4 elements has a 3/4 probability
of having come from A, and onlya 1/4 probability of having come
from B. This inference presupposes that we haveantecedent knowledge
of the relative numerosities of the classes A and B. In
its[extraterrestrial intelligence] application, however, our
antecedent knowledge and theinference we draw from it are reversed.
We know that the random choice has come from A,and we infer from
this that A is probably more numerous than B. For example, the
classes Aand B are "inhabitable planets that contain life" and
"inhabitable planets that do not containlife," respectively, and
the fact that our single examined case belongs to A is alleged
tolicense the inference that A is probably more numerous than B
(more vaguely, that theproportion of A's is not inconsiderable).
This is an altogether more speculative inference than
the first.[1]
Andr Kukla, Extraterrestrials: A Philosophical Perspective
Other uses of the heuristic[edit]
David Deutschargues that the mediocrity principle is not
actually correct from a physicalpoint of view, either in reference
to our part of the universe or to our species. Deutsch
referstoStephen Hawking's quote that "The human race is just a
chemical scum on a moderate-sized planet, orbiting around a very
average star in the outer suburb of one among ahundred billion
galaxies", noting that our neighborhood in the universe is not
typical (80% ofthe universe's mass isdark matter)and that a
concentration of mass such as our solar
system is an "isolated, uncommon phenomenon". He also argues
withRichard Dawkins'sopinion that humans, as result of natural
evolution, are limited to the capabilities of ourspeciesDeutsch
responds that even though evolution did not give humans the ability
todetectneutrinos,scientists can currently detect them,
significantly expanding theircapabilities beyond what is available
as a result of evolution.[8]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mediocrity_principle#cite_note-Kukla2009-1http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mediocrity_principle#cite_note-Kukla2009-1http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mediocrity_principle#cite_note-Kukla2009-1http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Mediocrity_principle&action=edit§ion=2http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Mediocrity_principle&action=edit§ion=2http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Mediocrity_principle&action=edit§ion=2http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Deutschhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Deutschhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Hawkinghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Hawkinghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Hawkinghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_matterhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_matterhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_matterhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Dawkinshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Dawkinshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Dawkinshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neutrinohttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neutrinohttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neutrinohttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mediocrity_principle#cite_note-8http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mediocrity_principle#cite_note-8http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mediocrity_principle#cite_note-8http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mediocrity_principle#cite_note-8http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neutrinohttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Dawkinshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_matterhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Hawkinghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Deutschhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Mediocrity_principle&action=edit§ion=2http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mediocrity_principle#cite_note-Kukla2009-1
