The Cosmic Landscape: String Theory and the Illusion of Intelligent Design

Leonard Susskind

Why does the universe seem fine tuned for life, and can string theory's huge landscape explain it without a designer?

At a glance

You will understand the Anthropic Principle, the idea that physical laws are shaped by the requirement that intelligent life exist
You will judge when anthropic reasoning is fair, using the rule that life must be impossible unless the fact were true
You will weigh whether the gaps in the Standard Model, above all gravity, justify the search for string theory