Everything We Do Wrong

The anthropic tautology,
In which we profess amazement
That we could only exist if
The world were the way that it is,

Has a more interesting side,
Which is that we can imagine
Myriad ways we could vanish
If physics were tweaked just a bit.

Those acts of imagination
Are what make the tautology
Possible. The impossible
Versions create the anthropic

Gimmick. Call it the creative
Principle. I still say it's weak.
I prefer the strong creative
Principle: imagine the world

Didn't have to have rules at all,
That instead of infinity
Of finities, divisible
By infinitely fine constraints,

Everything falling every way
Through thermodynamic cascades,
Infinity was infinite,
Allowing diverse forevers,

Escapes from probabilities,
Expansions without collapses,
Growth without consumption, and birth
Without death. You know we do this,

Although we do everything wrong,
Although we fail at the details,
Fail to create vivid heaven,
Fail to make it feel really real.

This implies imagination,
Merely by emerging from us,
Belongs to the possible world,
Which thus can be nothing but false.