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book2005

The Cosmic Landscape

Disciplines:
cosmology
physics

Summary

Leonard Susskind's popular exposition of the string theory landscape — arguing that the apparent fine-tuning of physical constants is explained by a multiverse of 10^500 universes.

Core Contribution

The landscape as solution to fine-tuning: the constants of physics (cosmological constant, electron mass, etc.) appear extraordinarily precisely tuned for life. Susskind argues string theory predicts an enormous landscape of possible universes with different constants; eternal inflation populates all of them; we observe the constants we do because we need them for our existence (anthropic selection). Susskind's critique of intelligent design: the landscape makes anthropic explanation scientific, not mystical. Controversial within physics.

Historical Influences

Steven Weinberg Andrei Linde

Intellectual Lineage

String Theory Cosmology

Allied Works

The Black Hole War Our Mathematical Universe

Contemporaries & Peers

The Elegant Universe Fabric of Reality

Minds Influenced

Cosmological Multiverse Discourse

Intellectual Posterity

Multiverse CosmologyAnthropic Reasoning

Discussing

The Cosmic Landscape

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