The Anthropic Cosmological Principle (Oxford Paperbacks)

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Summary: A physics of observers
Review: This is _the_ classic on the Anthropic Principle, and is a massive elucidation on the diverse aspects of the subject plus a compendium of additional info of encyclopedic proportions. The Anthropic Principle is and remains controversial with a complex literature subsequent to this book, but whatever the current status of the issues this book remains solidly relevant. The footnotes alone are worth the price of the book, and are a useful source of study leads and information on everything from information theory to the teleomechanists of the nineteenth century. One of the side issues explored, for example, is the place of teleological principles in the history of science, and their careful consideration by many in the great generation of physicists in the wake of Newton. The ending of the book deals with the spectacular vistas of theories of the future of the universe and contains a nice treatment of Penrose's space-time diagram with its 'achieved infinity' of the Omega Point.