Three Scientist & Gods

What is the meaning of life? Award-winning essayist Wright addresses this daring question in an engaging look at the work and beliefs of three leading American scientists. He begins with Ed Fredkin, a self-made millionaire and former MIT professor whose intriguing synthesis of information theory and physics leads him to conclude that the universe is a giant cellular automaton. Why does it exist? Because, according to Fredkin: ``There is no way to know the answer to some question any faster than what's going on.'' Next Wright explores the relation between genetic evolution and the evolution of behavior by analyzing the work of Harvard entomologist and founder of sociobiology, Edward O. Wilson. He focuses particularly on Wilson's controversial views on the nexus between genetics and human cultural development. Wright ends with the eccentric economist Kenneth Boulding whose general systems theory attempts to account for the increased intricacy in a universe governed by entropy and who thinks of evolution as ``a rise in complexity, control and consciousness.'' This is a wonderful, thought-provoking book. First serial to the Atlantic. (June)