The Life of the Cosmos

Amalgamating the ideas of Einstein and Darwin, the author offers a challenging view of the universe based on the idea that the laws of nature may themselves be subject to natural selection, favoring the survival of the fittest universe. UP. "

Lee Smolin is not afraid to think big--really, really big. His theory of cosmic evolution by the natural selection of black-hole universes makes what we can experience into an infinitesimal, yet crucial, part of an ever-larger whole. Smolin says, "the new view of the universe is light, in all its senses, because what Darwin has given us, and what we may aspire to generalize to the cosmos as a whole, is a way of thinking about the world which is scientific and mechanistic, but in which the occurrence of novelty--indeed, the perpetual birth of novelty--can be understood." Other scientists are, to say the least, divided on whether Smolin has much chance of being right, but they agree with Paul Davies that he is "a deep and original thinker."

This book is so understandable, as you follow Lee Smolin's tale of the cosmos, that all sorts of phenomena about atoms and physics and stars and the astonishing presence of life itself, become enchantingly clear. And this clarity is merely a side effect of Smolin's awesome and wonderful hypothesis that, like us, our starry universe is a result of a process of natural selection among universes.

More importantly than any of the "natural selection through the reproduction of black holes", Smolin takes on the topic of why and how the forces of nature (eg. gravity) and the sizes of nature (eg. infinite space compared to the miniscule electron) are the way they we find them. He searches for a 'natural process' that explains these facts, instead of just searching for more facts. For any one who loves to watch the Discovery channel or nature shows or read Scientific American, etc. (and yet isn't involved in hard science) this book is PERFECT. I am a philosophy major that works in management and I loved this book. Dr Smolin's book is challenging, gives a good mental work out, it is intensly interesting and very informative for anyone.