The Anthropic Principle
Combining excerpts from two of your posts...
From your reply to SDAI, above:
So might it be that the universe is finite, but filtered through chaotic minds it becomes infinite? Do we, in a sense, ourselves generate branches and multiple universes continually as we move through life?
The mind is a Heisenbergian probability-wave-collapsing machine, but as a chaotic machine, we shouldn't be surprised if the universe we perceive after its probability functions are collapsed turns out to look chaotic. We stamp chaotic patterns on the unformed clay of reality.
And from the one this replies to:
A thought's tickling at the edge of understanding. I started above with linear concepts such as bandpass filters, and I wonder if there are chaotic (fractal) analogs of things like filters? Which matters, since we observe that much of nature is chaotic and nonlinear. A chaotic filter might be one which biases the system to "prefer" a particular metastable state over other metastable states.
At first glance, that line of thought could be the beginning of the most understandable explanation of The Anthropic Principle I've ever seen, and the one that appeals the least to "special causes". Elaborated and solidified, it might even get me to rethink my general "gut" rejection of such notions.