This book is divided into two parts. The first part deals with the current understanding of evolution. The second part brings together the scientific picture with various responses to the 'God question'. Science is a powerful discourse; it has unravelled for us the workings of nature, and technology has enabled us to apply the findings in many ways to further knowledge, to perform complex tasks, to further communication, and to make life easier and more exciting. But there are boundaries and limits to science. First, the final models of how nature is working are never the final word: they are always awaiting 'falsification', never blessed with certain 'verification'. Second, the deeper one goes towards hoped-for truth, the more one is confronted with counter-intuitive models such as quantum theory, 'spooky-action' at a distance, the dark energy of the vacuum, the Big Bang etc. Third, science cannot advance beyond the questions accessible by scientific experiment: questions about purpose and God, right and wrong, good and evil, are not accessible to science. Scientific conclusions, however, can then be subjected to reasonable analysis, philosophical reflection, aided perhaps by religious beliefs. Today a dilemma is often offered for consideration: 'either evolution by natural selection, or God and purpose.' Is this delemma a false one? Can purposeful creation and natural selection both be true? Such are the features of evolution, one can argue strongly the case for a purpose. One can at least say belief in God sits well with evolutionary theory. To come to this conclusion we need to extend and improve our image of the God of Abraham, Moses and Jesus. God is intelligent, subtle, powerful- respectful of the freedom with which the divine will has endowed creation itself and homosapiens.

New York Times Best Seller How will Artificial Intelligence affect crime, war, justice, jobs, society and our very sense of being human? The rise of AI has the potential to transform our future more than any other technology—and there’s nobody better qualified or situated to explore that future than Max Tegmark, an MIT professor who’s helped mainstream research on how to keep AI beneficial. How can we grow our prosperity through automation without leaving people lacking income or purpose? What career advice should we give today’s kids? How can we make future AI systems more robust, so that they do what we want without crashing, malfunctioning or getting hacked? Should we fear an arms race in lethal autonomous weapons? Will machines eventually outsmart us at all tasks, replacing humans on the job market and perhaps altogether? Will AI help life flourish like never before or give us more power than we can handle? What sort of future do you want? This book empowers you to join what may be the most important conversation of our time. It doesn’t shy away from the full range of viewpoints or from the most controversial issues—from superintelligence to meaning, consciousness and the ultimate physical limits on life in the cosmos.

The acclaimed author of Einstein’s Dreams tackles "big questions like the origin of the universe and the nature of consciousness ... in an entertaining and easily digestible way” (Wall Street Journal) with a collection of meditative essays on the possibilities—and impossibilities—of nothingness and infinity, and how our place in the cosmos falls somewhere in between. Can space be divided into smaller and smaller units, ad infinitum? Does space extend to larger and larger regions, on and on to infinity? Is consciousness reducible to the material brain and its neurons? What was the origin of life, and can biologists create life from scratch in the lab? Physicist and novelist Alan Lightman, whom The Washington Post has called “the poet laureate of science writers,” explores these questions and more—from the anatomy of a smile to the capriciousness of memory to the specialness of life in the universe to what came before the Big Bang. Probable Impossibilities is a deeply engaged consideration of what we know of the universe, of life and the mind, and of things vastly larger and smaller than ourselves.

Argues people need 3 kinds of intelligence to be successful in life: analytical, creative and practical.

New York Times Bestseller | Wall Street Journal Bestseller | Publishers Weekly Bestseller | Publishers Marketplace 2020 Buzz Book | Amazon Best Book of the Year | Longlisted for the 2022 PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award “Provocative and thrilling ... Loeb asks us to think big and to expect the unexpected.” —Alan Lightman, New York Times bestselling author of Einstein’s Dreams and Searching for Stars on an Island in Maine Harvard’s top astronomer lays out his controversial theory that our solar system was recently visited by advanced alien technology from a distant star. In late 2017, scientists at a Hawaiian observatory glimpsed an object soaring through our inner solar system, moving so quickly that it could only have come from another star. Avi Loeb, Harvard’s top astronomer, showed it was not an asteroid; it was moving too fast along a strange orbit, and left no trail of gas or debris in its wake. There was only one conceivable explanation: the object was a piece of advanced technology created by a distant alien civilization. In Extraterrestrial, Loeb takes readers inside the thrilling story of the first interstellar visitor to be spotted in our solar system. He outlines his controversial theory and its profound implications: for science, for religion, and for the future of our species and our planet. A mind-bending journey through the furthest reaches of science, space-time, and the human imagination, Extraterrestrial challenges readers to aim for the stars—and to think critically about what’s out there, no matter how strange it seems.

Explores universal questions about humanity's capacity for living and thriving in the coming age of sentient machines and AI, examining debates from opposing perspectives while discussing emerging intellectual diversity and its potential role in enabling a positive life.

In this “engaging” book, a noted neurosurgeon explores the possibility of intelligence in bacteria and other microorganisms (Library Journal). It has a goal and a strategy to achieve it. It disguises itself as it stealthily surveys its enemy’s vulnerabilities. It mobilizes its resources to conquer. It bides its time until it is certain it can overwhelm its victim. Then it attacks. If it detects resistance it changes tactics–retreats, sends for reinforcements, captures its enemy’s intelligence and incorporates it. It regroups and, transformed, goes forth again to triumph. This could be a description of a human army. It happens, however, to be a description of an army of cancer cells. Most of us shrink from describing bacteria and other microorganisms as intelligent. Neurosurgeon Frank Vertosick does not. And perhaps, when you finish reading MIND: A UNIFIED THEORY OF LIFE AND INTELLIGENCE, you will not either. What is intelligence? We define it in human terms, but are humans the only measure? We ascribe it to higher mammals and to social insects like bees and ants, but when we cross the threshold into cellular life, definitions blur. This revolutionary–but accessible and highly entertaining–exploration of intelligence is guaranteed to alter your appreciation of life on its most fundamental level. Frank T. Vertosick, J.R., M.D. is the author of WHEN AIR HITS YOUR BRAIN and WHY WE HURT: THE NATURAL HISTORY OF PAIN (Originally published as THE GENIUS WITHIN)

The LSAT guide created by top students at Harvard Law School to help you achieve your dream score! Members of Curvebreakers have been where you are--preparing for the LSAT, hoping to get a score that leads to admission to one's first choice of law school--so they know what it takes for success. McGraw-Hill's LSAT, revised and improved for 2012, is a complete coaching program to help you reach your desired score, with step-by-step instructions, logic tools and diagramming techniques to help you master the most challenging LSAT problems. Inside you'll find: Four complete practice LSATs with detailed answer explanations, as well as two more practice LSATs online with automatic scoring and timing Student-tested strategies for achieving the highest possible scores New to this edition are "Most Likely to Be on the Test" lists and "Have You Learned Everything You Need to Know" quizzes Advice on how to survive your first year in law school by recent and current Harvard Law School students

The Hubble Deep Field (HDF) is the deepest optical image of the Universe ever obtained. It is the result of a 150-orbit observing programme with the Hubble Space Telescope. It provides a unique resource for researchers studying the formation and evolution of stars and galaxies. This timely volume provides the first comprehensive overview of the HDF and its scientific impact on our understanding in cosmology. It presents articles by a host of world experts who gathered together at an international conference at the Space Telescope Science Institute. The contributions combine observations of the HDF at a variety of wavelengths with the latest theoretical progress in our understanding of the cosmic history of star and galaxy formation. The HDF is set to revolutionize our understanding in cosmology. This book therefore provides an indispensable reference for all graduate students and researchers in observational or theoretical cosmology.