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Table of Contents

PDF of TOC/Excerpts /95k

Sidebars    
Acknowledgments    
Foreword by Dr. Seth Shostak    
Introduction    
     
Part One The Profound Mystery of an Anthropic Universe 1
Chapter One Searching for ET in All the Wrong Places 3
Chapter Two A Life-Friendly Cosmos 13
Chapter Three Hints of a Fourth Law 49
     
Part Two The Coming Fusion of Biology and Cosmology 61
Chapter Four The Dreams of Christian de Duve 63
Chapter Five Biology and Teleology: Deciphering the Utility Function of the Cosmos 75
Chapter Six Professor Smolin’s Incredible Reproducing Universe 81
     
Part Three Design, Complexity, and Evolution: An Eternal Cosmic Waltz 87
Chapter Seven Creationists vs. Evolutionists: Dispatches from a Hot Cultural War 89
Chapter Eight Cosmic Ontogeny and Earthly Phylogeny 97
Chapter Nine To the Ends of the Universe 103
     
Part Four Point Omega: Dreams of a Transhuman Rapture 119
Chapter Ten The Selfish Biocosm: An Emergent Replicator Class 121
Chapter Eleven Testing the Selfish Biocosm Hypothesis: Rendezvous
in Rio 		133
Chapter Twelve A Second Test: Probing the Eschaton at the End of Time 139
     
Part Five Intimations of Cosmic Grandeur 153
Chapter Thirteen A Cosmological Origin of Biological Information 155
Chapter Fourteen The Tool Kit of Cosmic Ontogeny and Reproduction 167
Chapter Fifteen A Scientifically Credible Strong Anthropic Principle 175
     
Part Six The Biocosm and Humanity 181
Chapter Sixteen Climbing Darwin’s Ladder 183
Chapter Seventeen Mind and Supermind 207
Chapter Eighteen A New Measure of Humankind 215
     
Afterword The Biocosm Beckons 231
Appendix One   235
Appendix Two   251
Notes   259
Glossary   277
Bibliography   289
Photo Credits   295
Index   297
     

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