An anthropic problem is one where the very fact of your existence tells you something. “I woke up this morning, therefore the earth did not get eaten by Galactus while I slumbered.”
It also gives you “I woke up this morning, therefore it is more likely that the earth was eaten by something a few orders of magnitude larger than Galactus*”. This kind of consideration is frivolous until you manage to find a way to use anthropics to solve np-complete problems (or otherwise encounter extreme anthropic circumstances).
Aside:
It also gives you “I woke up this morning, therefore it is more likely that the earth was eaten by something a few orders of magnitude larger than Galactus*”. This kind of consideration is frivolous until you manage to find a way to use anthropics to solve np-complete problems (or otherwise encounter extreme anthropic circumstances).
* cf. Jonah.