The Cosmic Landscape

I'm just finishing reading "The Cosmic Landscape: String Theory and the Illusion of Intelligent Design" by Leonard Susskind. Susskind was one of the pioneers of String Theory and has a unique perspective of the current state of the movement. The book's major premise is that the universe is actually a large megaverse, a universe populated with numerouse "pocket universes" with its own physical laws, constants of nature, and cosmological behavior; we exist in one of these pocket universes.

He also examines the claims of the anthropic principle, namely that the universe is suited for the existence of intelligent life. While not arguing for its adoption, he claims that the universe is fine-tuned for such existence, and that the anthropic principle has some merit in explaining the creation of the universe.

This is a fascinating book by a great mind. The Cosmic Landscape he proposes has many different peaks and valleys, explaning such notions as matter, energy, space, and universes in transition and their ground states. Vacuum states and "bubbling" principles explain the creation of new space, "space breeders" as I would call them. He also discusses the notion of a "populated landscape" and how it fits in with the cosmic landscape. Of course M-Theory (the current incarnation of superstring theory which unifies the 5 basic superstring theories, and is actually a "brane" universe existing in 11 dimensions) and it's relationship to the Landscape is discussed.

When I have time, I'd like to discuss this book further. These are the impressions I have for now.