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Science fans, hold on to your hats! Lee Smolin, a professor at the Center for Gravitational Physics and Geometry at Pennsylvania State University, is about to take you on the ride of your life. Imagine, if you will, the theory of evolution applied to physics. What if our universe is so ideally adapted to life because it developed that way? What if ours is just one among many thousands of universes, all engaged in a cosmic survival-of-the-fittest struggle? These are just two of the wildly original theories Smolin posits in The Life of the Cosmos, in which Alice in Wonderland meets quantum physics. According to Smolin, the majority of today's physicists still regard physical laws as immutable, mathematical and eternally true--to them, the universe is an intricate mechanism, a cosmic clock. But what if the laws of physics aren't really "laws" at all, but rather an evolving, developing process of natural selection that began even before the Big Bang?
From Smolin's initial theory, it's a short step to black holes, alternate universes, string theory, gauge symmetry and knots--all complicated abstractions that Smolin describes and explains in a remarkably comprehensible way. Even if you don't agree with Smolin's science, his book makes for great mind-bending reading and more than a little food for thought. If nothing else, The Life of the Cosmos proves once and for all that there really is intelligent life on this planet. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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This radical, exciting book draws as much on Darwinian ideas as on Einstein's to propose a way forward beyond theories that can only explain aspects of our universe, towards one that can explain it as a whole. Smolin suggests that the laws of nature are not fixed, but that they evolve in the same way that living things themselves evolve. Effectively, Smolin puts forward the possible unifica-tion of biology and physics, a view of the cosmos which moves beyond both the notion of God and the pessimism of Nietzsche and the existentialists.
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As the story is told, Nicolaus Copernicus received the first copy of his first and only book as he lay dying in the tower of the castle in northeastern Germany where he had lived and served as Deacon for the last half of his life. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
As the story is told, Nicolaus Copernicus received the first copy of his first and only book as he lay dying in the tower of the castle in northeastern Germany where he had lived and served as Deacon for the last half of his life. Read the first page
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
9 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Although both physicists and philosophers may find it hard to agree with Lee Smolin's ideas, neither group could deny that his views are thought provoking. The book provides a refreshing insight into ideas about the structure of space-time and a possible explanation of why the physical constants have the values they have. If you have a taste for cosmological speculation but find daffy science popularisations with "god" in the title more irritating than illuminating, then this book is for you. Smolin writes with clarity and manages to engage the reader with the wonder at the heart of physics without the use of laboured attempts at poetry. A "real" physicist who can write is a rare treat. If you have enjoyed the work of David Deutsch or Julian Barbour, try this. If you haven't, try them next.
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
A well written book for anyone who is interested in the Physics of the universe, but doesn't nessesserily have an acute knowledge of Mathematics. Smolin ventures into dimentions and elementary particles with a highly detailed analysis of the smallest things in the universe but sometimes lacks a wide overview. A great book even for beginners. All you need to be interested in this book is some knowledge of Physics and an active imagination.
Format:Paperback
'The Life of the Cosmos' is an argument for a new way of looking at fundamental physics and cosmology. Its highlight is cosmological natural selection (CNS) but the underlying principle is 'relationalism', an idea derived from Leibniz (and basic to relativity theory), in which physical properties are relational rather than intrinsic. Space and time are principles relating physical things to each other, not absolute backgrounds within which physical things interact but do not themselves take part in interactions.
Lee Smolin argues that the universe is self-organised, a bit like an organism or an ecosystem (though nothing is gained by saying that the universe is actually 'alive'). The universe has evolved and possesses homoeostatic properties that keep many of its components in states far from thermal equilibrium. Another relational principle learnt from Leibniz is that a view of the whole universe as a far-from-equilibrium system does not imply a view-point from outside the universe.
CNS is a Darwinian solution to the 'special-tuning problem', which is the vast improbability that the universe should be set up precisely to suit life (as it seems to be). The answer is that a mechanism of natural selection can produce design without a designer or blueprint. In the case of cosmology, the key is the production of black holes. Assuming each universe is born as a black hole within another universe, then universes take part in a copying competition and the most typical universe (which we may assume ours to be) ought to belong to the lineage with the most fecund universes.
This prediction is testable: by changing any of the parameters of physics in our universe, one will produce a different universe with fewer black holes. It so happens that carbon chemistry (and, hence, carbon-based life-forms) is a natural by-product of maximising the number of black holes in a universe. Thus CNS is a rational alternative to the anthropic cosmological principle.
This is altogether a sensible and well-made argument and brilliantly original. Highly recommended.
Lee Smolin argues that the universe is self-organised, a bit like an organism or an ecosystem (though nothing is gained by saying that the universe is actually 'alive'). The universe has evolved and possesses homoeostatic properties that keep many of its components in states far from thermal equilibrium. Another relational principle learnt from Leibniz is that a view of the whole universe as a far-from-equilibrium system does not imply a view-point from outside the universe.
CNS is a Darwinian solution to the 'special-tuning problem', which is the vast improbability that the universe should be set up precisely to suit life (as it seems to be). The answer is that a mechanism of natural selection can produce design without a designer or blueprint. In the case of cosmology, the key is the production of black holes. Assuming each universe is born as a black hole within another universe, then universes take part in a copying competition and the most typical universe (which we may assume ours to be) ought to belong to the lineage with the most fecund universes.
This prediction is testable: by changing any of the parameters of physics in our universe, one will produce a different universe with fewer black holes. It so happens that carbon chemistry (and, hence, carbon-based life-forms) is a natural by-product of maximising the number of black holes in a universe. Thus CNS is a rational alternative to the anthropic cosmological principle.
This is altogether a sensible and well-made argument and brilliantly original. Highly recommended.
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