The Quest for a Universal Theory of Life PDF Download

Author: Carol E. Cleland
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 052187324X
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 261

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Book Description
Explores fundamental philosophical and scientific questions about the nature of life, particularly in relation to the search for extraterrestrial life.

Author: Dan Falk
Publisher: Skyhorse
ISBN: 1611454603
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 256

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Book Description
No scientific quest is as compelling as the search for the key to understand the universe—the elusive unified “Theory of Everything”—a theory so concise it could fit on a T-shirt. Lively and thought-provoking, Universe on a T-Shirt tells the fascinating story of the search for the Holy Grail of physics. Dan Falk places this intriguing story in its historical context, tracing the quest from ancient Greece to the breakthroughs of Newton, Maxwell, and Einstein, to the excitement over string theory and today’s efforts to merge quantum theory with general relativity. With as much emphasis on history as on science, Falk’s accessible approach is ideal for anyone intrigued by the advances in modern physics but still wondering what theoretical physicists are searching for, and why. Today’s physicists use sophisticated methods, but their goal—the search for simplicity—has not changed since the time of the ancient Greeks. Universe on a T-Shirt is filled with quirky personalities, brilliant minds, and bold ideas—high science and high drama. "An admirably concise and comprehensive overview of cosmology . . . [that] offers intriguing insights into the philosophic and personal outlooks motivating the scientists involved, from the ancient Greeks through Newton and Einstein . . . [and] Stephen Hawking and Ed Witten.”—Booklist

Author: Christian Hugo Hoffmann
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 3110756196
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 300

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Book Description
Recent findings about the capabilities of smart animals such as corvids or octopi and novel types of artificial intelligence (AI), from social robots to cognitive assistants, are provoking the demand for new answers for meaningful comparison with other kinds of intelligence. This book fills this need by proposing a universal theory of intelligence which is based on causal learning as the central theme of intelligence. The goal is not just to describe, but mainly to explain queries like why one kind of intelligence is more intelligent than another, whatsoever the intelligence. Shiny terms like "strong AI," "superintelligence," "singularity" or "artificial general intelligence" that have been coined by a Babylonian confusion of tongues are clarified on the way.

Author: Chris Impey
Publisher: University of Arizona Press
ISBN: 081659922X
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 284

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Book Description
Are we alone in the universe? Are the planets our playground to treat as we will, or do we have a responsibility to other creatures who may inhabit or use them? Do we have a right to dump trash in space or leave vehicles on Mars or the moon? How should we interact with other life forms? Encountering Life in the Universe examines the intersection of scientific research and society to further explore the ethics of how to behave in a universe where much is unknown. Taking contributions from notable experts in several fields, the editors skillfully introduce and develop a broad look at the moral questions facing humans on Earth and beyond. Major advances in biology, biotechnology, and medicine create an urgency to ethical considerations in those fields. Astrobiology goes on to debate how we might behave as we explore new worlds, or create new life in the laboratory, or interact with extraterrestrial life forms. Stimulated by new technologies for scientific exploration on and off the Earth, astrobiology is establishing itself as a distinct scientific endeavor. In what way can established philosophies provide guidance for the new frontiers opened by astrobiology research? Can the foundations of ethics and moral philosophy help answer questions about modifying other planets? Or about how to conduct experiments to create life in the lab or about? How to interact with organisms we might discover on another world? While we wait for the first echo that might indicate life beyond Earth, astobiologists, along with philosophers, theologians, artists, and the general public, are exploring how we might behave—even before we know for sure they are there. Encountering Life in the Universe is a remarkable resource for such philosophical challenges.

Author: Michio Kaku
Publisher: Anchor
ISBN: 0385542755
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 159

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Book Description
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The epic story of the greatest quest in all of science—the holy grail of physics that would explain the creation of the universe—from renowned theoretical physicist and author of The Future of the Mind and The Future of Humanity. When Newton discovered the law of gravity, he unified the rules governing the heavens and the Earth. Since then, physicists have been placing new forces into ever-grander theories. But perhaps the ultimate challenge is achieving a monumental synthesis of the two remaining theories—relativity and the quantum theory. This would be the crowning achievement of science, a profound merging of all the forces of nature into one beautiful, magnificent equation to unlock the deepest mysteries in science: What happened before the Big Bang? What lies on the other side of a black hole? Are there other universes and dimensions? Is time travel possible? Why are we here? Kaku also explains the intense controversy swirling around this theory, with Nobel laureates taking opposite sides on this vital question. It is a captivating, gripping story; what’s at stake is nothing less than our conception of the universe. Written with Kaku’s trademark enthusiasm and clarity, this epic and engaging journey is the story of The God Equation.

Author: Mark A. Bedau
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108722067
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 443

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Book Description
Introduces a broad range of scientific and philosophical issues about life through the original historical and contemporary sources.

Author: Bohang Chen
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3031706900
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 308

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Book Description

Author: Mark Lupisella
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3030253392
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 237

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Book Description
Building from foundations of modern science and cosmic evolution, as well as psychological and philosophical perspectives of value and meaning, this book explores some of humanity’s biggest questions: · Is the Universe “about something”? · What might be roles for life and intelligence in cosmic evolution? · How might we think about value, meaning, purpose, and ethics in a cosmic evolutionary context? The author explores how the sciences of relativity and quantum theory, combined with cosmic evolution and philosophical traditions such as process philosophy, contribute to the development of a broad “relationalist framework”. That framework helps inform perspectives such as “scientific minimalism” and “cosmological theories of value”. Cosmological Reverence, Cosmocultural Evolution, and the Connection-Action Principle are explored as examples of cosmological theories of value, all of which help inform how we might think about ethics, value, and meaning in a cosmic context – including application to the search for extraterrestrial life and the future of intelligence in the universe. This book will benefit a diverse range of practitioners in philosophy, science, and policy, including interdisciplinary fields such as Science and Society and cultural evolution studies. From the Foreword: “This volume ranges from the sciences of cosmic evolution, relativity, and quantum mechanics, to value theory and process philosophy, all with the goal of exploring how they relate to humanity in the sense of worldviews and meaning. With his three cosmological theories of value, Lupisella goes beyond the bounds of most books on naturalism, and into fundamental questions about the nature of the universe and our relation to it. To read Lupisella is to have a mind-boggling experience, to want to race to references, to want to know more.” Steven J. Dick Former Baruch S. Blumberg NASA/ Library of Congress Chair in Astrobiology Former NASA Chief Historian

Author: Michael Bohlander
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004677704
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 267

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Book Description
It is statistically unlikely that humans are the only intelligent species in the universe. Nothing about the others will be known until contact is made beyond a radio signal from space that merely tells us they existed when it was sent. That contact may occur tomorrow, in a hundred years, or never. If it does it will be a high-risk scenario for humanity. It may be peaceful or hostile. Relying on alien altruism and benign intentions is wishful thinking. We need to begin identifying as a planetary species, and develop a global consensus on how to respond in either scenario.

Author: Davide Tarizzo
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262549034
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 285

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Book Description
A theory of biopolitical power that updates Foucault, illustrating the moral implications of modern evolutionary theory. In our day, the individual has become “a life,” the singular of the plural noun “population.” From this new understanding of what it means to be human comes a new form of biopolitical power with a new set of moral rules. In The Morals of Life, moral philosopher Davide Tarizzo presents a theoretical framework for understanding this transformation of the old-fashioned “government of living beings,” as Michel Foucault characterized biopolitics, into a new government of modular living beings, as well as a template for making sense of biopolitical power that operates on the scale of populations rather than individuals. Tarizzo traces population thinking, the notion of modular optimization, and other conceptual keystones of the current biopolitical regime (an “ethopolitical regime,” in the author’s terms) to their origins in twentieth-century biological thought—more precisely, and critically, evolutionary theory. Neo-Darwinism, Tarizzo argues, should be seen not only as a scientific paradigm but also as a philosophy per se, because it is evolutionary theory that today provides an answer to the old philosophical question: What is man? This new kind of philosophy, his book suggests, largely determines the way in which people look at themselves and society. Not only does it contribute to designing new technologies of power, but it also fosters subjection to the new ethopolitical regime.