Cosmic Jackpot

by Davies, Paul

• ISBN13: 9780618592265
• ISBN10: 0618592261
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2007-04-11
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Summary

People have long gazed in wonder at the universe and asked, Why are we here? Until recently, the answer has been the province of priests and philosophers, but now scientists are starting to weigh in with ideas that are both surprising and deeply controversial. In his new book, physicist Paul Davies shows how recent scientific discoveries point to a perplexing fact: many basic features of the physical universe- from the speed of light to the most humble carbon atom-seem tailor-made to produce life. A radical new theory says it's because our universe is just one of an infinite number of universes, each one slightly different. Our universe is bio-friendly by accident; we just happened to win the cosmic jackpot. While this multiverse theory is compelling, it has bizarre implications, from infinite copies of each of us to Matrix-like simulated universes. Davies believes there's a more satisfying solution to the question of existence: the observations we make today could help shape the nature of reality in the remotepast. If this is true, then life and, ultimately, consciousness aren't just incidental byproducts of nature, but central players in the formation of the universe.

Author Biography

PAUL DAVIES is an internationally acclaimed physicist and cosmologist now at Arizona State University, where he is setting up a pioneering center for the “study of life, the universe, and everything.” In addition to his many scientific awards, he is the recipient of the 1995 Templeton Prize—the world’s largest annual prize—for his work on science and religion. He is the author of more than twenty books, including The Mind of God, About Time, The Origin of Life, and How to Build a Time Machine. He also chairs the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence postdetection committee, so that if SETI succeeds in finding intelligent life, he will be among the first to know.
The asteroid 1992OG was officially renamed Pauldavies in his honor. He lives in Phoenix, Arizona.

Table of Contents

Preface
Acknowledgments	p. ix
A Note on Numbers	p. xv
The Big Questions	p. 1
The Universe Explained	p. 18
How the Universe Began	p. 49
What the Universe Is Made of and How It All Holds Together	p. 85
The Lure of Complete Unification	p. 103
Dark Forces of the Cosmos	p. 116
A Universe Fit for Life	p. 129
Does a Multiverse Solve the Goldilocks Enigma?	p. 151
Intelligent and Not-So-Intelligent Design	p. 191
How Come Existence?	p. 222
Afterword: Ultimate Explanations	p. 261
Notes	p. 273
Bibliography	p. 293
Index	p. 297
Table of Contents provided by Publisher. All Rights Reserved.

Excerpts

1 The Big Questions Confronting the Mystery of Existence For thousands of years, human beings have contemplated the world about them and asked the great questions of existence: Why are we here? How did the universe begin? How will it end? How is the world put together? Why is it the way it is? For all of recorded human history, people have sought answers to such "ultimate" questions in religion and philosophy or declared them to be completely beyond human comprehension. Today, however, many of these big questions are part of science, and some scientists claim that they may be on the verge of providing answers. Two major developments have bolstered scientists'confidence that the answers lie within their grasp. The first is the enormous progress made in cosmology - the study of the large-scale structure and evolution of the universe. Observations made using satellites, the Hubble Space Telescope, and sophisticated ground-based instruments have combined to transform our view of the universe and the place of human beings within it. The second development is the growing understanding of the microscopic world within the atom - the subject known as high-energy particle physics. It is mostly carried out with giant particle accelerator machines (what were once called "atom smashers") of the sort found at Fermilab near Chicago and the CERN Laboratory just outside Geneva. Combining these two subjects - the science of the very large and the science of the very small - provides tantalizing clues that deep and previously unsuspected linkages bind the micro-world to the macro-world. Cosmologists are fond of saying that the big bang, which gave birth to the universe billions of years ago, was the greatest ever particle physics experiment. These spectacular advances hint at a much grander synthesis: nothing less than a complete and unified description of nature, a final "theory of everything" in which a flawless account of the entire physical world is encompassed within a single explanatory scheme. The Universe Is Bio-Friendly One of the most significant facts - arguably the most significant fact - about the universe is that we are part of it. I should say right at the outset that a great many scientists and philosophers fervently disagree with this statement: that is, they do not think that either life or consciousness is even remotely significant in the great cosmic scheme of things. My position, however, is that I take life and mind (that is, consciousness) seriously, for reasons I shall explain in due course. At first sight life seems to be irrelevant to the subject of cosmology. To be sure, the surface of the Earth has been modified by life, but in the grand sweep of the cosmos our planet is but an infinitesimal dot. There is an indirect sense, however, in which the existence of life in the universe is an important cosmological fact. For life to emerge, and then to evolve into conscious beings like ourselves, certain conditions have to be satisfied. Among the many prerequisites for life - at least, for life as we know it - is a good supply of the various chemical elements needed to make biomass. Carbon is the key life-giving element, but oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, sulfur, and phosphorus are crucial too. Liquid water is another essential ingredient. Life also requires an energy source and a stable environment, which in our case are provided by the sun. For life to evolve past the level of simple microbes, this life-encouraging setting has to remain benign for a very long time; it took billions of years for life on Earth to reach the point of intelligence. On a larger scale, the universe must be sufficiently old and cool to permit com