The Goldilocks Enigma

by Paul C.W. Davies

Book Overview

The Goldilocks Enigma is Paul Davies's eagerly awaited return to cosmology, the successor to his critically acclaimed bestseller The Mind of God. Here he tackles all the big questions, including the biggest of them all: Why does the universe seem so well adapted for life?

In his characteristically clear and elegant style, Davies shows how recent scientific discoveries point to a perplexing fact: many different aspects of the cosmos, from the...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0547053584
• ISBN13: 9780547053585
• Release Date: April 2008
• Publisher: Mariner Books
• Length: 336 Pages
• Weight: 0.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.0" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

Pondering the question of the existence of life from a cosmic perspective

Author Paul Davies is well known for explaining the abstruse theories of modern physics so lucidly that just about anyone can understand what those theories intend to describe. And in «The Goldilocks Enigma» Davies succeeds in doing just that in relation to one of the fundamental questions raised by contemporary science: Why is the universe so ideally suited for engendering and harboring life? Of course, there is only one place (as of this writing) in the entire universe where we know for certain that life arose: our home planet Earth. The rest of creation appears to be pretty much a lifeless desert. So the claim that the universe is "just right" for life may not, at first glance, seem all that fitting. In «Goldilocks» Davies spells out why indeed it is a most apposite characterization, desertic appearances notwithstanding. Along the way, the reader is treated to a grand overview of the main themes of modern physics as well as those of cosmology. The book's usually well-rounded explanations become somewhat strained when examining the figure of God in the discussion about intelligent design. Contemporary theology and philosophy of religion have developed thorough arguments concerning the role of Providence in the natural world, arguments which are absent in this text. Still, the author himself provides the best remedy: "You can't use science to disprove the existence of a super-natural God." When cognitively bounded beings discuss science, many observers would say, God is best left outside the sphere of inquiry.

Extremely fascinating read

Dr. Davies makes the various scientific fields such as particle physics and biology combined with philosophy very fun to read. Great book!

same book as cosmic jackpot

I bought this book because I'm a big fan of Paul Davies, but I was disappointed to find out the paperback edition of 'the cosmic jackpot' (which I had read when it came out) was simply given a new title. I would read the reviews for the earlier book instead of this one, since the two are identical. All in all it's a fantastic book that discusses why life needs to be properly explained in a properly complete 'theory of everything'. At the moment of course there is not the beginning of an explanation, unless one is willing to entertain the idea of a multiverse plus anthropic selection. In summary, see reviews of cosmic jackpot.

Excellent read - regardless of your beliefs

Scientists are becoming aware that our universe is remarkably friendly to the development of life. It is as if it was designed for life. How can this be explained? Theists will claim that it was designed for life by God. Atheists will claim otherwise. But the question is how to explain this? Davies does a great job laying out the issues that make our universe so biofriendly. He then examines eight theories that have been invoked to explain this. Many scientists are atheists and have worked hard to develop theories that could explain our fortunate circumstances. A prevailing theory is that there are an infinite number of universes, or multiverses. The conditions of most of them are hostile to life formation. Davies does a fair and even-handed examination of each of the 8 theories, from intelligent design to the multiverse theory. He presents the scientific information in a way that a layman can understand. He points out the strengths and especially the weaknesses of each theory, even his own. I believe in God, and Davies is an atheist. But his writing is very fair and very thought provoking. This is a very interesting book, regardless of the reader's beliefs.

Very important

This is a very important book because it is about a cosmological principle that links humans to the forces and structure of the universe by way of many coincidentally balanced features, (The Goldilocks Enigma), that are necessary to our existence, and at the same time are relevant to the structure of the universe. These coincidences range from the near-perfectly "flat" balanced structure of the universe, itself, all the way down to our local ecosystem, and any sustained deviation from this anthropically fixed balance sends conditions racing drastically far away from anything conducive to life. A cosmological principle is a specific theory or model of structure and dynamics, so I only gave Paul's book four stars because backwards causation won't be accepted in any form, and a true anthropic constraint on the forces will necessarily include a reciprocal connection to the human evolutionary process, which indicates that Professor Davies should be looking for an inherent mechanism that enables the universe to "leap" to higher orders of the same basic structure. This would be the result if Davies and Dawkins actually got on the same page for a change, and I believe that this fine physicist was also very much on the trail of this thermodynamic feature in his studies of quantum field theory in curved spacetime, because matter generation from the energy of Einstein's finite vacuum necessarily increases negative pressure via "rarefaction". This naturally causes expansion, rather than the other way round, but the universe does not suffer from runaway expansion because the effect is offset by the increase in ordinary matter density, so tension between the vacuum and ordinary matter increases instead. Eventually, the integrity of the forces that bind the universe will be compromised and the system will "evolve", so the next universe will be a little bit more symmetrical than the last, and that defines the purpose of evolution, as well as causality, as this is evidenced by the extremely near-missed "goal" of the last big bang. It's "The Physics of Time Asymmetry", which is another fine book by Paul Davies, a man who is definitely on the right track. I would highly recommend anything written by him. Davies also gives one of the best laymans terms representations of current cosmology that I have seen anywhere. He does a very good job explaining the different cosmological models and the evidence that exists for and against each of them.