A form of the anthropic principle is as follows: "We can observe the universe only because we can exist within it in some way such that we can observe it, and it exists such that we can observe it."

What mathematical consequence does this have? I know it's broadly a problem of Bayesian probability, and we must consider all that we see from the perspective P(A|B), A = some aspect of observed reality, B = we think, therefore we are. 

Can this be formulated in some useful and general way to answer questions about the universe, existential, cosmological or otherwise, or do the mathematics here give us little information?

NOTE: I know that the anthropic principle is often stated in a much more specific way and looked at from the perspective of cosmology, but that's not what I'm looking for here.