The Privileged Planet

I also finished Guillermo Gonzalez and Jay Richard’s “The Privileged Planet.” While not as good as Brian Greene’s, it was still an interesting read on many levels. Their basic aim is to challenge the Copernican Principle, which is the claim that there is nothing unusual or special about the planet we live on. Their basic claim is that the earth is a very special planet in two ways. One, in terms of its ability to support intelligent life; and two, in its ability to allow us to learn about the laws of nature. They do this by surveying a lot of recent finding of science that shows the planet earth is a lot more unique and special than was once believed.

There jumping off point is Eclipses and the unique relationship of the Earth, Moon and Sun that make it possible. They discuss the importance to life of having such a large moon, and how unusual such a moon is. The also discuss the importance of Eclipses to the discoveries of Science. From there they proceed, starting with conditions on the planet itself and working out to the solar system and finally the universe itself. At each step the uniqueness, importance for life, and for scientific discovery are discussed.

I found this interesting at two levels. One of course was the argument they were making. However the other was the fact that this was simply a very interesting look at a broad range of scientific investigations which is valuable in and of itself. For example, at one point they were discussing the ability of artic ice to act as data recorders for a wide range of phenomena. Not only was this interesting in and of itself, but then when I started my next book, Rubicon, the author discusses that one of the ways we know about industrial production in the Roman era was through studies of artic ice.

The last third of the book deals with some other issues, such as how the history of Copernican Revolution has been distorted, (e.g. Copernicus was never persecuted by the Church). A more detailed description of the Copernican Principle and it prediction, and how those prediction have held up to recent research (simple answer is not very well). Attempts by scientist to preserve the Copernican Principle in light of the evidence against it. Interestingly the last chapter before the conclusion is “The Skeptical Rejoinder” were they address 14 objections to their theory.

There are also and interesting appendix on the Drake equation. This is the equation that Carl Sagan used to claim there were millions if not billions of planets that could support intelligent human life. Sagan based this on just a few factors. In the appendix they update the equation to include 20 of the factors, (and there are probably more). Based on the probability of just 13 of these the chances of there being at least one advance civilization in our Galaxy (including us) is 0.01. In short, the fact that we are even here is going against the odds.

It would seem that the Earth is a very special and unusual place in the universe. Again I would recommend the book.