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In another thread (Cosmic Darwinism) I mentioned a scholarly book (600 pages) with a chapter on the cosmological natural selection hypothesis. This idea seems to be getting more notice. I just ran across another book---this time a popular-written one called Before the Big Bang which talks about it.
I don't especially like the way the author handles the topic. He seems interested but unreliable on details. I guess the significance depends on how well the book sells.
At noon today it was selling about on par with Brian Green Elegant Universe. That could be just because it came out this month and the early sales will slack off. Could even just be a temporary random spike. We'll see.
If you go to the amazon page, they let you browse the book several pages at a time by doing keyword searches. Plus they let you look at the ToC and the index at the end.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0312385471/?tag=pfamazon01-20
To me, this particular book is not the subject of interest. What interests me is that in among its 300-odd pages it has some pages discussing the idea that the big bang could have been a bounce resulting from a prior collapse. This is an idea associated with an empirically testable hypothesis. It is bizarre but apparently testable--so that it could conceivably be falsified by certain observations.
If I notice other ways this idea is getting out into public discussion, i'll post links.
So far to my knowledge there is very little in the media about it---print or otherwise.
If you know of links to add, please post them here!
Video lectures (aimed at specialist audience, but hey they're video.)
http://pirsa.org/08070015/
http://pirsa.org/08090050/
http://pirsa.org/08100049/
First book on darwinian cosmology written for general audience
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0195126645/?tag=pfamazon01-20
Middle-level book with a chapter on darwinian cosmology. Table of contents (+ who wrote which chapter) shown here:
http://www.cambridge.org/catalogue/catalogue.asp?isbn=9780521848411
(largely nonmathematical, chapters by Nobel laureates, the UK astronomer royal etc etc, but not written for general readership.)
Anybody know other media that get this idea out to wider audience?
I don't especially like the way the author handles the topic. He seems interested but unreliable on details. I guess the significance depends on how well the book sells.
At noon today it was selling about on par with Brian Green Elegant Universe. That could be just because it came out this month and the early sales will slack off. Could even just be a temporary random spike. We'll see.
If you go to the amazon page, they let you browse the book several pages at a time by doing keyword searches. Plus they let you look at the ToC and the index at the end.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0312385471/?tag=pfamazon01-20
To me, this particular book is not the subject of interest. What interests me is that in among its 300-odd pages it has some pages discussing the idea that the big bang could have been a bounce resulting from a prior collapse. This is an idea associated with an empirically testable hypothesis. It is bizarre but apparently testable--so that it could conceivably be falsified by certain observations.
If I notice other ways this idea is getting out into public discussion, i'll post links.
So far to my knowledge there is very little in the media about it---print or otherwise.
If you know of links to add, please post them here!
Video lectures (aimed at specialist audience, but hey they're video.)
http://pirsa.org/08070015/
http://pirsa.org/08090050/
http://pirsa.org/08100049/
First book on darwinian cosmology written for general audience
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0195126645/?tag=pfamazon01-20
Middle-level book with a chapter on darwinian cosmology. Table of contents (+ who wrote which chapter) shown here:
http://www.cambridge.org/catalogue/catalogue.asp?isbn=9780521848411
(largely nonmathematical, chapters by Nobel laureates, the UK astronomer royal etc etc, but not written for general readership.)
Anybody know other media that get this idea out to wider audience?
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