The Goldilocks Enigma: Why is the Universe Just Right for Life? | 
| Author: Paul Davies
Publisher: Penguin
Category: Book
List Price: £9.99
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Avg. Customer Rating:  21 reviews
Sales Rank: 7016
Media: Paperback
Pages: 368
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 7.7 x 5 x 0.9
ISBN: 0141023260
EAN: 9780141023267
ASIN: 0141023260
Publication Date: July 5, 2007
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| Customer Reviews: Read 16 more reviews...
Fasinating, absorbing July 31, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
This is a super book. Paul Davies explains a lot of complex physics as well as anyone could. He then goes on to explain what the physics may or may not mean. The fact I didn't understand the physics fully is probably my own lack of attention and knowledge.
His depth of understanding, and his ability to appreciate many different possible interpretations of certain facts makes for enjoyable reading.I had the feeling he had a Feynmann spirit about right and wrong- "It's not whether I'm right or wrong...but whether I'm right or wrong for an interesting reason." Davies is on the search for reasons, and from this book it's clear the search is worthwhile, and not absurd.
This is a well written book about a fascinating topic. Recommended
 Not 'Just right' February 3, 2008
7 out of 8 found this review helpful
This book left me with mixed feelings. Maybe I can start with what I found positive about it? The early sections of the book were quite exhilarating. Paul Davies skilfully communicates some complex ideas about the origin of the universe. However by the middle of the book, he (or I?) was losing touch with the material and it seemed to become an exploration of various, highly speculative positions.
As he says at the end of the book, many scientists are going to view his stance as crypto-religious. There is probably some truth in this but, in his defence, it is worth pointing out that the early part of chapter 9 contains an excellent critique of Intelligent Design.
My concerns about the book also started at an early stage. It seemed very strange to encounter, on the third page of the preface, a reference to 'atheists' and their interest in the idea of a multiverse. Having picked up this book expecting a consideration of the science involved, I didn't really anticipate that atheism or theism would enter the picture at all. However, it does make it much easier for me to recommend that anyone interested in the fine-tuning arguments should read something by the physicist Victor Stenger who, very elegantly, disposes with the fine-tuning arguments - and without the need to posit multiverses.
Towards the end of the book Paul Davies says, 'At the end of the day, all the approaches I have discussed are likely to prove unsatisfactory. In fact, in reviewing them they all seem to me to be either ridiculous or hopelessly inadequate...' Having waded through the tour of 'fake' universes etc., I agree. Ultimately the book seemed unsatisfying and I would recommend trying 'The Fabric of the Cosmos' by Brian Greene in preference to this book.
Popular science books can open up very esoteric areas to the layperson. Paul Davies does this well. Popular science books can also be quite inspiring and leave one with a feeling for the tremendous progress which has been made in our understanding. This book did not fall into this category for me.
THE GOD HYPOTHESIS explained the "Goldilocks Effect" First! December 30, 2007
13 out of 32 found this review helpful
My name is Dr. Michael A Corey, and I have been a huge fan of Paul Davies' work for many years. He has influenced my various books more than any other single individual, so I find it very interesting that he has adopted the "Goldilocks Principle" that I first used in my earlier book THE GOD HYPOTHESIS: DISCOVERING DESIGN IN OUR "JUST RIGHT" GOLDILOCKS UNIVERSE. I actually saw him briefly at a conference at Harvard back in 2001 and I gave him a copy of THE GOD HYPOTHESIS, which has Goldilocks on the cover eating her porridge. So in one sense I am quite flattered that he liked my analogy enough to use it in his own book. I also find it remarkable that Amazon is bundling my book with his, because they both use the Goldilocks Principle to make their respective cases. However, Davies comes to a decidedly different conclusion that I do. He prefers to explain why the many foundational parameters of our universe are "just right" by resorting to a large (or perhaps infinite) number of other alternative universes that we cannot see or otherwise scientifically detect with our best cosmological instruments. This isn't science at all, unfortunately, because these other universes cannot ever be seen or measured in any way. They are just the only way that a non-theistic explanation can be devised for our "just right" universe, because if there are a huge number of other universes, then it might be possible that we just happened to evolve in the one universe that just accidentally happened to be supportive of carbon based life. But this just seems a little too "ad hoc" for me, because massive physical coincidences like this, where tens of thousands of blind physical forces nevertheless all work together cooperatively like an orchestra to make life possible on this planet. The odds of this happening by chance have been calculated by Roger Penrose to be astronomically remote, which in fact makes it statistically impossible. THE GOD HYPOTHESIS is inherently far superior to the many universes approach, not just because it is far simpler overall, but also because it makes the most sense from an abductive point of view, since it truly seems to be the best and most appropriate explanation for the known facts. What's more, ALL of history's greatest thinkers on this topic, from Aristotle to Plato to ALL of the founding fathers of modern science, ALL believed that God created the universe deliberately so that intelligent life could arise here. Who in the world wants to go against Plato, Aristotle, Newton, Boyle, the Providential Evolutionists of the 18th century, and even Charles Darwin, who based his entire theory of evolution on the prior existence of God? Indeed, the Templeton Prize-winning astronomer John Barrow has repeatedly pointed out that science was only able to flourish in those societies that believed in a single divine Law-Giver, because this belief gave them the necessary reason to believe in the independent existence of natural laws that could be discovered and understood by human beings. In conclusion, then, while I love all of Paul Davies' works on the topic of cosmology, I think that "The Goldilocks Enigma" comes to the wrong conclusion, and a simple reading of THE GOD HYPOTHESIS will explain how and why the most rational and logical explanation for our "just right" universe is theistic in nature.
Dr. Michael A. Corey
 Less accessible than it looks October 17, 2007
11 out of 24 found this review helpful
Few people outside the scientific discipline will "get" this book. This has nothing to do with the writing style, which is easy on the brain, and more to do with the sheer complexity of the philosophy of science.
My review is a bit ranty, but here goes. Lesser mortals (anyone not doing post-Doctoral research in Physics, including me) are not allowed to do what cosmologists and particle physicists do with gay abandon. When we get our sums wrong, we are told "it's wrong"
However, for those that can:
Universe not flying apart as fast as our calculations predict? Must be something wrong with the universe, hmm, "dark matter" will fit the bill. Can't find it but our calculations suggest 90% of universe made up of it. Darn, sums still not right. Got it! "Dark energy" will make up the balance.
Physical Laws are "universal", except where they aren't.
(The importance of the assumption of universality of Physical Laws was well made by Feynmann, a now dead genius, whom I beleive, would have been able to ask questions of cosmologists and have a right to expect an answer).
I could go on, however, from over here in the slow class, could cosmologists solve for me one issue: we use universality of physical law to "look" into the past and to make assumptions about "over there" in the universe and then based on the system created from those assumptions we decide to abandon those assumptions and postulate that perhaps physical laws might be local and they differ elsewhere. Hmm.... I smell a tautology.
Mind bending October 16, 2007
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
An excellent introduction to cosmology and fundamental physics, but for my taste the 'dumbing' switch could have been turned a bit lower - some of the material is quite tough. Also, towards the end you got the feeling that all sorts of stuff was being thrown in just to cover all the bases. I enjoyed it though, and will probably read it again in another six months or so.
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