The Intelligent Universe: AI, ET, and the Emerging Mind of the Cosmos

James Gardner has a new book coming out, and I can't wait to read it. As I discussed in my podcast "The Bio-Friendly Universe", Mr. Gardner believes life itself propagates new universes which are friendly to life. The answer to Life, the Universe and Everything is not 42, but to create new universes and new life. As I understand it, the new book is a projection of how this may come to be.

"'My first book, Biocosm, was one long argument that the cosmos possesses a utility function (i.e., some value or outcome that is being maximized) and that the specific utility function of our cosmos is propagation of baby universes exhibiting the same life-friendly physical qualities as their parent-universe, a sort of cosmic reproductive organ,' Gardner told KurzweilAI.net.

'The purpose of this book is to tell an extraordinary story. You will meet a senior NASA official whose passion is investigating the probable impact on religion of the discovery of extraterrestrial intelligence; a computer scientist who is coaxing software to undergo a special kind of Darwinian evolution, thus becoming ever more adept and financially valuable over time; and a technology prophet who, in my view, is the true contemporary heir to Darwin's intellectual legacy. "