Rating: 
Summary: A Monumental Achievement
Review: A Classic. Much has been written on this subject and the idea, as well as its criticisms, has undergone a fast evolution. However, this book still holds its own.
Rating: 
Summary: The book is a sad excuse for a popular science book
Review: A long time ago, I received this book as a gift. I started reading it but quit towards the beginning. It's so rediculously inaccurate. It's quite obvious that the writers know nothing about physics. Apparently most of the readers, including the others who posted reviews right here, are so woefully ignorant of science themselves that they could sail through the book without noticing this.Besides the the whole idea of "The Anthropic Principle" has a flawed premise. Read my article on it for Suite 101.
Rating:
Summary: One of the most important books of the last 20 years.
Review: I have been working my way through this for years. It's one of those books where I have to sit back and think after every half page. I'm in the last chapters and this is one of a few books which have caused me to deeply re-evaluate my philosophy. The first chapters on the history of philosophy and cosmology alone should be required reading for any one serious about philosophy and science. Talk about out-of-the-box, yet rigorous, thinking!! How is it that something so unbelievably improbable as us exists? What are the scientific and cosmological implications of the fact that we actually do exist? Why are most scientists uncomfortable with this book? It challenges their narrow world-view. Why are most engineers I've raised these issues with more open to them than the scientists? Because they, having built real systems, know how astonishing it is that this world exists and they aren't comfortable with the glib answers given by conventional scientific ideology.
Rating:
Summary: Fabulous read
Review: I have read a lot of science books dealing with cosmology, consciousness, experimental physics, and philosophy. To explore the possibilities of Anthropic Principle with these authors has been really fantastic. Great historical perspective gained with so many 'new' ideas. It's hard to believe it is some 14 years since written as there seems to be so many places to go with this nugget of balast - it all seems fresh and interesting. I want to buy 2 more copies - but all outlets say 'out of stock'-
Hope it's available again soon!!
Rating:
Summary: Fabulous read
Review: I have read a lot of science books dealing with cosmology, consciousness, experimental physics, and philosophy. To explore the possibilities of Anthropic Principle with these authors has been really fantastic. Great historical perspective gained with so many 'new' ideas. It's hard to believe it is some 14 years since written as there seems to be so many places to go with this nugget of balast - it all seems fresh and interesting. I want to buy 2 more copies - but all outlets say 'out of stock'-
Hope it's available again soon!!
Rating:
Summary: Great.
Review: I thought this book was one of the best, I have ever read. The first part is pretty slow but later as you keep going you realise how the argument is progressing. I went over his calculations and I could not fault the writers conclusions. If you think how much effect mankind has just been civilised on the world in just 6000 years and then that in a relative short period in cosmological terms, measured in millions of years, he will colonise the whole galaxy. This brings up two questions. The first is why has no other SETI race done it and two what effects will mankind have in the future development of the cosmos. Its definately a book to make you think.
Rating: 
Summary: An Encyclopaedia of the human philosophical knowledge
Review: I would easily give five stars to this book, wouldn't it be a bit too dense to read.
The book is a mountain of erudition, and the knowledge it contains is impressive. In a certain way it can be regarded as an historical summum of all the human philosophical knowledge from the times of Socrates in Greece till today. For me, it was a difficult book to read, without stopping, from the first page till the last, but I found it better and easier to read as a consulting reference book, digesting slowly the different chapters. The work and research involved are immense, and you can see the size of it by the size of the references at the end of each chapter. A book to keep, and consult, when in need.
Rating:
Summary: An Encyclopaedia of the human philosophical knowledge
Review: I would easily give five stars to this book, wouldn't it be a bit too dense to read.
The book is a mountain of erudition, and the knowledge it contains is impressive. In a certain way it can be regarded as an historical summum of all the human philosophical knowledge from the times of Socrates in Greece till today. For me, it was a difficult book to read, without stopping, from the first page till the last, but I found it better and easier to read as a consulting reference book, digesting slowly the different chapters. The work and research involved are immense, and you can see the size of it by the size of the references at the end of each chapter. A book to keep, and consult, when in need.
Rating:
Summary: very good addition to the big piles of space books
Review: There is a lot to say about this one: I first thought it was a sort of New Age hippie book, but it is not. This book, written by 2 scientist, mainly deals about the question whether the universe is as it is, exactly because we are here to observe it.
This book should be famous but it isnt, wrote one reviewer. I totally agree. Every chapter you can read separately, therefore you dont have to be an Einstein to catch the full graps of all formula's presented, but each chapter adds more and more you could say evidence that maybe the theory that we are unique really is all too much of a coincidence NOT to be true: I started really sceptical, but in the end I almost had to agree that maybe the universe and us are really connected much more than we think. After all, science is so separated in disciplines now, e.g. we cannot explain biology with physical laws, so we are not really ready yet to fully understand whats going on in the universe, if we ever will. This book gives a nice objective! opinion, with load of interesting facts in all kinds of disciplines that allow you to make up your mind yourself about it. And a a reviewer also said, along the way you get a nice education about science, astronomy, chemistry and biology!
A very good book.
Rating:
Summary: This Book Should be Famous but Isn't.
Review: This book is a revolutionary treatise on cosmology and the fate of the human species. It is frankly the most breathtaking book I have ever read. While quite technical in parts, other parts are definitely within the grasp of anyone who learned high school science well and is comfortable with algebra. For instance, it argues that we are probably the only intelligent species in the Milky Way, and that it is our fate to colonise our home galaxy. That, and other arguments in this book should have led to a cover story in Time and Newsweek. It did not, presumably because the astrophysics community views Tipler as being beyond the pale. This book also contains a superb and lengthy discussion of many fascinating topics in the history and philosophy of science. This discussion remains valuable regardless of the future evolution of our understanding of the universe. I should grant that if it is the case that the expansion of the universe is accelerating and that there is not enough mass in the universe to reverse the process, as astrophysics now suspects, then parts of Barrow and Tipler's argument are in trouble. Also, the other great visionary among modern physicists, Freeman Dyson, has been known to disagrees with Tipler. But I still agree with the authors that the stars are our destiny.
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