Rate this book

The Cosmic Landscape (2005)

by Leonard Susskind(Favorite Author)

4.05 of 5 Votes: 1

ISBN

064185210X (ISBN13: 9780641852107)

languge

English

genre

Nonfiction

publisher

Little, Brown & Company

review 1: This could be a useful book were it not written by a person who thinks so well of himself that he continually intrudes his unpleasant personality over the subject matter. Basically, he is telling us something that Hume told us, what, about 300 years ago, that the universe seems beautifully designed to allow life to exist (which leads some to propose the notion that it must therefore have been specifically and deliberately designed for us to live in) because we do in fact live in it. It's the only one we know about, so we think it was made for us. The reality of course is that we arose in it; it caused us, and we are its effect. Hume lacked the theoretical physics to explain it mathematically, but he was right. He must be right because the great Leonard Susskind says s... moreo.Okay, that is me intruding my own unpleasant personality on the subject matter. The upshot is, screw this, I'm going to read Feynman.
review 2: This book contains interesting theories of origin concerning the universe as a whole, as well as the various quantum particles the universe is understood to be comprised of. This book gives its theories free of the God-of-the-gaps explanation that: "God made it so", which I agree is completely sensible and expected in a real science book, since science deals with matters of the physical world and only its most necessary constituents, not matters of faith or philosophy.The book contains many profound facts on elementary particles and fundamental forces, and it is an interesting read on these points alone, however the "the Illusion of Intelligent Design" part of the title should have never been published as part of the title as there is ZERO argument against intelligence or its uncanny ability TO design, that doesn't surpass the sophistication of: "it appears designed, but it really isn't" unless you believe the mere existence of particles and equations to be sufficient evidence to reject intelligence, in which case, in my humble opinion such a claim backfires because it takes intelligence to even make sense of 'particles and equations' in the first place...I was so waiting for this "illusion" to be revealed, and it never happened. I'm sure having that as part of the title helped sell more copies though...The fact is, there is no force, either guided or unguided that can create the level of sophistication that we see 'intelligence' doing every day in all manner of disciplines and creative ways. Until one comes along, I'll be a major skeptic of those who belittle it's scope and capability. A person can decry the validity of intelligence to CREATE something you'd PREFER to be blindly natural, but that hardly stands as any more compelling proof than accepting the opposite based on inferring from what we know intelligence is already capable of. In my opinion such a rejection of common experience offers far LESS proof. less

Download links for: The Cosmic Landscape

Advertising