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Frank J. Tipler

The Anthropic Cosmological Principle (Oxford Paperbacks) Revised ed. Edition

by John D. Barrow (Author), Frank J. Tipler (Author), John A. Wheeler (Foreword)

145

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Ever since Copernicus, scientists have continually adjusted their view of human nature, moving it further and further from its ancient position at the center of Creation. But in recent years, a startling new concept has evolved that places it more firmly than ever in a special position. Known as the Anthropic Cosmological Principle, this collection of ideas holds that the existence of intelligent observers determines the fundamental structure of the Universe. In its most radical version, the Anthropic Principle asserts that "intelligent information-processing must come into existence in the Universe, and once it comes into existence, it will never die out."
This wide-ranging and detailed book explores the many ramifications of the Anthropic Cosmological Principle, covering the whole spectrum of human inquiry from Aristotle to Z bosons. Bringing a unique combination of skills and knowledge to the subject, John D. Barrow and Frank J. Tipler--two of the world's leading cosmologists--cover the definition and nature of life, the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, and the interpretation of the quantum theory in relation to the existence of observers. The book will be of vital interest to philosophers, theologians, mathematicians, scientists, and historians, as well as to anyone concerned with the connection between the vastness of the universe of stars and galaxies and the existence of life within it on a small planet out in the suburbs of the Milky Way.

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ISBN-10

0192821474
ISBN-13

978-0192821478
Edition

Revised ed.
Publisher

Oxford University Press
Publication date

August 25, 1988
Language

English
Dimensions

7.8 x 5.08 x 1.47 inches
Print length

738 pages
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4.4 out of 5

145 global ratings

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Well worth the time.

Reviewed in the United States on September 5, 2018

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Any college graduate should know there would be no life let alone intelligent life on earth if we were not located at a specific distance from a G2 star on a planet well endowed with water and the basic chemicals and timescale required for the evolution of carbon based life forms. The reason I bought this text was from several references with cited it as listing a host of other improbable cofactors related to the formation, physics, chemical properties and time lapse of the universe required for the evolution of mankind to a point that we can even attempt to understand the universe and the world in which we live. Those factors are very well elaborated and described. We are indeed fortunate to be alive.

This was a long difficult read for me requiring a great deal of thought and reference work. Some sections related to physics and math were simply beyond my understanding in spite of a strong postgraduate science base and attempts to keep abreast in advances in science. I could work through much of the math but quantum physics and cosmology have advanced well beyond my education and a fair amount of subsequent readings in these fields. This was the rare book I enjoyed in spite of having to pass over a few chapters and sections. My interest and knowledge in biology and chemistry made these chapters very rewarding and informative pulling together many issues I had never before considered. I was one of those rare college students who was fascinated by biochemistry and those sections alone were well worth the read. Frankly the extensive side work required to understand many of the arguments was also a positive. The knowledge base of the authors not only in the various science disciplines but also in history and philosophy is extraordinary. Recognize a great deal of advancement in science has occurred since the first edition of the book in 1986.

While I hesitated to share this book with my son who majored in the arts, philosophy and theology due to his lack of interest and education in science much beyond Newtonian physics and Mendel's genetics I will do so because an understanding of the limits of our personal knowledge base is critical as has been so throughly demonstrated since the 2016 elections in the USA.

Not sure I share the optimism of the authors with the advancement and potential of the human species, critical factors in accepting the conclusions of the authors. Nevertheless, anyone who fails to read the book based on their preconceived ideas of design, lack of design or purpose of the universe will be missing a major intellectual work of value.

19 people found this helpful

Arie Pieter Vander Stroom

Getting a bit closer to the truth

Reviewed in the United States on April 24, 2011

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This is an amazing book about an amazing concept but it is also amazingly complicated to read. The authors combine a whole universe of thought into a 700 page long argument on why we exist and what our purpose is in the universe. This book is about the Anthropic Cosmological Principle which is the philosophical argument that observations of the physical universe must be compatible with the conscious life that observes it. Barrow and Tipler outline in this book that the Anthropic Principle explains why the Universe has the age and the fundamental physical constants necessary to accommodate conscious life.
The authors differentiate between the Weak Anthropic Principle (WAP), which states that the observed values of all physical and cosmological quantities are not equally probable but they take on values restricted by the requirement that there exist sites where carbon-based life can evolve and by the requirements that the universe be old enough for it to have already done so, and the Strong Anthropic principle (SAP) which assumes that the Universe must have those properties which allow life to develop within it at some stage in its history and that observers are necessary to bring the Universe into being.
Key "Anthropic drivers" are Gravity, the Electro-Magnetic Field Forces, the Weak and Strong forces, the Ratio between the Masses of Electrons and Protons (1836), the Fine Structure constant (137), the Planck Constant, The Coulomb Constant, The Cosmological Constant, the Total Mass in the Universe, The Hubble Constant, The Flatness of the Universe and of course the speed of light
In their argumentation they use the following very impressive gamut of tools from Physics and Mathematics: Tensor Operators, Non Euclidian Geometry, Mathematical Algebraic Topology, General Relativity, Schrodinger's Equations, Heisenberg's uncertainty Principle, Minkowski's Space-Time Geometry, Gauge Symmetry, Occam's Razor, Friedman's Equations for the Universe, The Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation, von Neumann Probes, Darwin's Origin of Species, Boltzmann's Entropy, Hawkins' Black Hole Thermodynamics, The Heat Death of the Universe, The Higgs Field, Poincare's Recurrence Theorem, Turing Machines, Shannon's Laws on Information and a lot more.
The authors further explore the Physics underpinnings of Chemistry and through Mendeleev's periodic Table, Bohr's Quantized Atomic Model, The Pauli Exclusion Principle, The van der Waals and explain the anthropic significance of the very unique properties of Carbon, Oxygen, Water, Carbon Dioxide and even Iron.
All of this is set in a philosophical framework about Teleology, which holds that final causes exist in nature, meaning that design and purpose analogous to that found in human actions are inherent also in the rest of nature. The authors take us on a wonderful journey through philosophy in which we encounter Aristotle, Plato, Socrates, Aquinas, Bacon, Descartes, Spinoza, Kant, Hegel, Russell, Marx and many more.
This is the best researched book which I have read on this subject and after the long and hard read I agree that we are here for a reason and with purpose.

26 people found this helpful

VERY hard going, but perhaps one of the best books Ive ever read.

Reviewed in the United States on December 31, 2008

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I studied engineering, so I understand a little logic, maths and physics, but this book was WAY over my head. Having said that, it was simply the best book Ive ever read. I don't mean "best" in the sense of the most exciting, or most interesting (and it was, very), or greatest read, as it was a very, very, hard read and took me over a month to plough through. I mean "best" in the sense that the authors deserve some kind of nobel or something for putting all that knowledge in the same space. I was just gobsmacked by the amount of information, backed by science and written in a relatively clear way, the authors managed to cram into this book. I am truly in awe of their knowledge and the massive amount of thought that went into organizing this book. What little I actually managed to grasp profoundly affected the way I think.

This is the kind of book that every human being interested in what the hell hes doing here should (try to) read, scientists and ID/creationists alike. To my laymans eye it seems to be an honest and unbiased book that doesnt push the God/no-God issue one way of the other. It's not a religion bashing book like Dawkins stuff, it just "tells it like it is", using observations made by science (maths, physics, biology) to put together a case in a clear, logical way. Its complete, well thought out, well presented and seems to cover every angle of the "life the universe and everything" debate. Like another post says, this book should be famous but isnt. It really should. It should be mandatory reading for every student of philosophy, theology and science in the world. Like I said, "gobsmacked" is about the only word that I can use to describe this book. It just left me with my mouth (and mind) open.

19 people found this helpful

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Joe

Great book, but a bit musty.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 30, 2020

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Heavy reading. Enjoyable, but it was a struggle to finish. That said, excellently well written. The best books require a ton of thinking and that’s one of them.

One person found this helpful

Jean-paul Lacharme

Une réflexion originale et approfondie

Reviewed in France on October 9, 2020

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Ce gros livre de 706 pages est passionnant mais difficile. Il me semble peu possible de le lire sérieusement en moins de deux mois. Sur les dix chapitres de l’ouvrage les trois premiers portent sur les fondements philosophiques du concept de principe anthropique. C’est la partie la moins originale et la plus facile de l’ouvrage. Les choses se corsent à partir du chapitre 4. Le lecteur n’échappera pas à un texte truffé d’équations de physique théorique (fig.). Une bonne culture scientifique généraliste lui permettra de comprendre de quoi il s’agit, mais il me semble difficile d’en saisir le détail et le cheminement sans être un familier de la spécialité. Ça n’est pas vraiment de la vulgarisation !

Au départ, les auteurs définissent trois types de principes. D’abord le principe anthropique faible (WAP) qui est compatible avec la science contemporaine (la notion d’observateur en mécanique quantique par exemple). Ce principe essaye de préciser le fait que toute observation cosmologique menée par les astronomes est biaisée par l’effet sélectif global de leur propre existence. C’est une application du théorème de Bayles (en statistique). Les notions de principe anthropique fort (SAP) et du principe anthropique final (FAP) sont d’un usage plus restreint et plus spéculatif que le WAP.

Les trois premiers chapitres examinent les notions de téléologie, de dessein intelligent et de causes finales dans l’histoire des religions et de la philosophie, en occident comme en orient. Quelques noms ressortent de cette fresque : ceux de William Paley, de Charles Darwin et de Teilhard de Chardin. Les idées de ces penseurs vont se retrouver dans les découvertes récentes des scientifiques de façon bien plus précise. Les choses sérieuses commencent au chapitre 4 (p. 219).

... pas vraiment de la vulgarisation

Les valeurs des différentes grandeurs ou propriétés des objets concernées comme l’âge de l’univers, le temps de transit de la lumière au travers d’un atome, le rapport des forces électriques et gravitationnelles entre électron et proton, etc. sont tellement ahurissantes que les coïncidences ne peuvent que susciter des questions. Les auteurs expliquent pourquoi la chimie du carbone, donc la vie ne peut exister que dans un monde de dimension inférieure à 4, et que ce monde est nécessairement d’age avancé, donc de très grande dimension. Plus précisément, on démontre qu’il existe un petit nombre de paramètres physiques fondamentaux dont la valeur doit nécessairement appartenir à un mince intervalle pour que nous puissions exister… donc nous n’existons pas par hasard dans ce monde-ci.

Les hypothèses d’un vivant basé sur le silicium (au lieu de carbone), de l’ammoniac au lieu de l’eau sont soulevées. Celles d’univers fermés, ouverts ou plats, les univers parallèles, cycliques sont étudiées de façon détaillée. Les questions portant sur ce qui se passe au niveau des singularités (Big Bang dans le passé, Big Crunch dans le futur pour un univers fermé) sont réellement difficiles à comprendre puisque c’est à cet instant que les constituants les plus élémentaires de la matière sont créés ou disparaissent. Il est souhaitable de connaître au préalable un certain nombre de concepts de physique théorique même si on n’entre pas dans le détail des équations : par exemple, comprendre comment fonctionne un diagramme de Penrose, la définition d’un baryon ou d’un lepton, le formalisme relativiste, une fonction d’onde et le principe d’incertitude, les propriétés d’une hypersphère, etc.

Les développements sur l’existence de la vie intelligente dans l’univers sont particulièrement passionnants. Les auteurs démontrent que nous ne pouvons être que les seuls êtres intelligents de l’univers et que nous serons amenés à coloniser entièrement ce dernier. Ce programme est conçu dans une optique totalement transhumaniste. ‘Nous’ les humains serons un jour remplacés par des robots immortels héritant de tout notre savoir et aptes à se propulser de monde habitable en mondes habitables (concept de sonde de Von Neuman capable de se reproduire et de se multiplier) jusqu’à tout envahir. Cette conception de l’être humain est bien sûr totalement réductionniste (l’âme n’est pas immatérielle et immortelle mais elle ressemble plutôt à un programme informatique). Cette colonisation prendra des dizaines de milliards d’années, mais les auteurs démontrent que ce processus est concevable et logiquement crédible. Le grand voyage n’a donc pas encore commencé.

Ce travail est propre, cohérent. Seuls les spécialistes peuvent dire si tout tient la route. Chaque chapitre est accompagné de notes étoffées en référence à une bibliographie spécialisée consistante. Ce texte date de 1986, il a donc 34 ans. Il est possible que des avancées scientifiques récentes en contredisent certains points. Il me semble probable (pour ne pas dire évident) que l’état de la science dans 100, 1000 ans ou plus rendra rendra cette vision et ses conclusions totalement caduques mais ça n’enlève aucun intérêt à l’ouvrage. C’est une bonne base de réflexion et de discussion sur une foule de sujets dénués d’évidence a priori. Une critique : je regrette que les auteurs travaillent encore avec le système d'unités CGS et non le système MKSA.

4 people found this helpful

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arvind kumar agarwal

Cosmology

Reviewed in India on January 6, 2019

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Very good and educating theory book.

One person found this helpful

Fabio Ivano Magalini

Perfectly reasonable

Reviewed in Italy on February 22, 2018

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The book, along with exhaustively and painstakingly focusing and detailing all issues regarding mankind, throughout the universe (...no small deal), is also written perfectly well. Enough to satisfy anyones mind about why reality is such. Masterpiece and threshold to the mistery's grand solution. Enjoy the news!

2 people found this helpful

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Lluis Tomas Roig

Anthropic Cosmological Principle

Reviewed in Spain on May 5, 2013

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Es una visiôn de la cosmología moderna, con pinceladas de filosofia avanzada. tenia referencias de los autores y habia leido algo de ellos en Scientific American

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