In Lee Smolin's theory of Cosmological Natural Selection, which I discuss in detail in my article, black holes harbor baby universes with physical constants very similar in value but slightly mutated from those in the parent universe. I tried to capture this idea of embedded parent and child black holes, with a bit of cartoonish personification in this graphic.
As John Baez emphasizes, "Now, given these [Smolin's] hypotheses a marvelous consequence ensues: Darwinian evolution! Those universes whose parameters are such that many black holes are formed will have many progeny, so the constants of physics can be expected to be "tuned" for the formation of many black holes."
Baez, John. This Week's Finds in Mathematical Physics. Wk. 31, 18 Feb 1994. see http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/week31.htmlAs it so happens, the types of constants that lead to the formation of a large number of black holes are the same constants that are also necessary for the evolution of human life, a striking feature of Smolin's theory which makes it's speculative leaps all the more compelling.
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