The Life Era: Cosmic Selection and Conscious Evolution

by Eric Chaisson

Book Overview

"An exceptionally clear exposition of the subtle interplay between entropy and information and the ways in which structure arises from chaos." New York Times Book Review

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0871130629
• ISBN13: 9780871130624
• Release Date: January 1987
• Publisher: Atlantic Monthly Press
• Length: 259 Pages
• Weight: 0.10 lbs.

Customer Reviews

as interesting for its philosophy as for its science.

Like Carl Sagan, Eric Chaisson has dedicated his professional life as an astrophysicist to educating the interested lay-public in the arcaneries of his field. Beyond Sagan, he has also attempted to formulate a philosophy of cosmic evolution based on the natural evolutionary processes of nature itself. The author starts with the basic theories of thermodynamics, chaos, and self-organizing criticality. With these basic tenets he follows the process from the origin of the universe to the evolution of intelligent life. As he writes, "In the words of biology's Nobel laureate George Wald, 'Matter has reached the point of beginning to know itself.' We are, he continues, 'a star's way of knowing about stars.' This, for me, is life's purpose and meaning, its raison d'etre--to act as an animated conduit for the Universe's self-reflection. In short, we sentient humans are now among the purveyors of cosmic consciousness. Above all else, this is what grants us, not individually but as a species, a magnanimous worth and dignity among all creatures on planet Earth, indeed, among all known structures in the Universe (p. 229)."The book has a final chapter on the ethics of world and universal order, taking the issue of evolution of intelligent life from simply technologically competent life to ethically competent life. While he sees the former as capable of global dominance, he only sees the latter as capable of surviving its own self-destructive tendencies. In general I felt that the author's narrative style was very approachable and informative. He discusses everything from the early Greek philosopher's cogitations on the nature of things to the scientific advances of the '60s, giving a very good appraisal of each. Among the great minds discussed are Anaximander, Plato, Aristotle, Heraclitus,Empedocles, Francis Bacon, Decartes, Darwin, and Shapley. I found Chaisson's ability to put scientific concepts into word pictures very impressive. One of my favorites was the concept of the universe as a giant chandelier with the individual lights being instances of planetary life that rose to a level of use of radioastronomy. His description of the various patterns of light that might arise were helpful. It clarified the oft stated criticism of the search for extra terestrial life, "where are they?" He showed that the chandelier might be full of life/light, empty of life/light, or turning on one bulb at a time so that while life was common overall, no two instances existed at the same time. I would say that any one from junior high up would be fully able to understand the content.I'm not certain I agree with the author's optimistic observations on the future of life in the universe. His vision of an interconnected cosmos wide civilization seems a little far fetched. So much has happened socially and politically in recent years, that one finds it difficult to believe that intelligent life can manage to outlive its tendency toward individual struggle at the