The life of the cosmos
The Life of the Cosmos offers a theory of the universe that is radically different from anything proposed before. It departs from contemporary physicists to explore the idea that the laws of nature may be the partial result of a process of natural selection that occurred before the Big Bang
1 online resource (viii, 358 pages)
9780195126648, 9781280831027, 9780199839360, 0195126645, 1280831022, 0199839360
994596837
Cover Page
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Contents
Prologue/Revolutions
Introduction
Part 1 The Crisis in Fundamental Physics
1. Light and Life
2. The Logic of Atomism
3. The Miracle of the Stars
4. The Dream of Unification
5. The Lessons of String Theory
Part 2 An Ecology of Space and Time
6. Are the Laws of Physics Universal?
7. Did the Universe Evolve?
8. Detective Work
9. The Ecology of the Galaxy
10. Games and Galaxies
Part 3 The Organization of the Cosmos
11. What is Life?
12. The Cosmology of an Interesting Universe
13. The Flower and the Dodecahedron
14. Philosophy, Religion, and Cosmology
15. Beyond the Anthropic Principle
Part 4 Einstein's Legacy
16. Space and Time in the New Cosmology
17. The Road from Newton to Einstein
18. The Meaning of Einstein's Theory of Relativity
19. The Meaning of the Quantum
Part 5 Einstein's Revenge
20. Cosmology and the Quantum
21. A Pluralistic Universe
22. The World as a Network of Relations
23. The Evolution of Time
Epilogue/Evolutions
Appendix: Testing Cosmological Natural Selection
Notes and Acknowledgments
Selected Bibliography
Glossary
Index
Footnote
Originally published: 1997
English