65 of 73 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent-A profound look past the dogmas of modern physics., September 30, 1998
This review is from: The Anthropic Cosmological Principle (Oxford Paperbacks) (Paperback)
Two respected physicists take a chance with their professional reputations by presenting a text that is simultaneously lucid, brilliant, mathematically sound, and honest (gasp!). This is a work in both physics and biology. It centers around the "Anthropic Principle"-roughly, that our existence necessarily puts some constraints on the evolution of the universe. Indeed, as Barrow and Tipler elucidate, these restrictions can be signifigant. As someone privileged to study under the latter physicist, I can personally attest to the convinction with which Tipler adheres to his beliefs, in the face of contemporary animadversion. Most importantly though, underlying this whole work are some very important concerns about philosophy of science (although maybe the authors might reel back at the notion of any sort of "philosophy" in their work). Perhaps this is for you, the future reader, to determine. My highest recommendation.
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37 of 41 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
This Book Should be Famous but Isn't., May 17, 2001
This review is from: The Anthropic Cosmological Principle (Oxford Paperbacks) (Paperback)
This book is a revolutionary treatise on cosmology and the fate of the human species. It is frankly the most breathtaking book I have ever read, more exhilarating than Penrose's "Road to Reality" or than related efforts by Victor Stengers, John Barrow writing alone, Lee Smolin, or Eric Chaisson. I agree with the reviewer who asserts that this book's breadth of erudition is astounding. While quite technical in parts, other parts are definitely within the grasp of anyone who learned high school science well and is comfortable with algebra. There is much here beyond physics: chemistry, earth science, and biology. The book also contains a superb and lengthy discussion of many fascinating topics in the history and philosophy of science. This discussion remains valuable regardless of the future evolution of our understanding of cosmology. This is the book John Wheeler would have liked to have written but did not.
Among the suprising topics included in this book are:
*A detailed discussion of the large number coincidences of Eddington and Dirac;
*An extensive discussion of the handful of dimensionless constants that ground modern physics: fine structure (137), ratio of the rest masses of the proton to that of the electron (1836), the coupling constant for gravitation (at most 10^-39), etc;
*An anthropic defense of the Many Worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics against the Copenhagen interpretation;
*The most extensive discussion I know of why why our universe has 4 dimensions, 3 of space and 1 of time;
*A chapter on biochemistry and the biosphere. In it, Barrow and Tipler agree that because photosynthesis has very gradually increased the fraction of the atmosphere made of oxygen, that fraction will, within a few hundred million years, reach a level such that vegetation will ignite spontaneously, making continued life on earth impossible;
*A chapter on why we are probably the only intelligent species in the Milky Way (Simon Conway Morris's "Life's Solution" concurs), and why it is our fate to colonise our home galaxy.
The above and more should have led to a cover story in Time or Newsweek. It did not, even though at the time of first publication, Tipler was nowhere near as controversial as he since became.
Barrow and Tipler incline to the Big Crunch. If Perlmutter et al are correct, so that it is the case that the expansion of the universe is accelerating and that there is not enough mass in the universe to reverse the process, then the Big Crunch is in trouble. Also, the other great visionary among modern physicists, Freeman Dyson, has been known to disagree with Tipler.
This book was written 20 years ago and has its share of typos. Would the authors please give us a thoroughly revised second edition?
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21 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
very good addition to the big piles of space books, September 22, 2001
This review is from: The Anthropic Cosmological Principle (Oxford Paperbacks) (Paperback)
There is a lot to say about this one: I first thought it was a sort of New Age hippie book, but it is not. This book, written by 2 scientist, mainly deals about the question whether the universe is as it is, exactly because we are here to observe it.
This book should be famous but it isnt, wrote one reviewer. I totally agree.
Every chapter you can read separately, therefore you dont have to be an Einstein to catch the full graps of all formula's presented, but each chapter adds more and more you could say evidence that maybe the theory that we are unique really is all too much of a coincidence NOT to be true: I started really sceptical, but in the end I almost had to agree that maybe the universe and us are really connected much more than we think. After all, science is so separated in disciplines now, e.g. we cannot explain biology with physical laws, so we are not really ready yet to fully understand whats going on in the universe, if we ever will. This book gives a nice objective! opinion, with load of interesting facts in all kinds of disciplines that allow you to make up your mind yourself about it. And a a reviewer also said, along the way you get a nice education about science, astronomy, chemistry and biology!
A very good book.
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