David Toomey

Why have we mammals made it as far as we have in evolutionary terms? One answer to that questions is "play." And it's not just us animals. Think octopuses and corvids for other examples. In Kingdom of Play: What Ball-bouncing Octopuses, Belly-flopping Monkeys, and Mud-slinging Elephants Reveal about Life Itself, David Toomey explores the scientific evidence explaining how and why animals engage in play. As he explains early on, the research in this field is scant. Somehow "play" has been looked at as a borderline field. The attitude seems to be "Yes, yes, we play. But playing is what happens when we're not engaged in the struggle to survive—it's a little something on the side that's just sort of, well, fun."

Play is a key contributor to our development both culturally and in evolutionary terms. And, yes, yes, I know those are two ill-defined terms in a sort of blurry Venn diagram, but I trust you can follow my meaning. If this topic interests you, Toomey's book is a great place to start some exploration—and he can steer you toward the best of the more formal research writing.

I received a free electronic review copy of this title from the publisher via Edelweiss; the opinions are my own.… (more)

This book starts off well with a discussion of life forms that live in superheated or high saline environments. Then the book moves to a discussion of possible life forms that use alternative organic or physical chemistry as building blocks. The discussion then gets even more theoretical regarding possible life forms including life in a multiverse. The discussion touches on the idea of silicon based robotic/artificial intelligence as evolving from humans. The discussions are too theoretical and fanciful for my interest. I was more interested in existing weird life.… (more)

In this intriguing book David Toomey looks at some forms of alien (non-carbon based) life that the reader may have imagined and plenty that go far beyond.

He doesn't spend much time on machine intelligence but does devote a section to Seth Shostak and his assumption that, “ Most technological civilizations created by biological beings will reach a point in their history at which they will cede their power to artificial beings.”and, “We might add that there is every reason to expect that beings with a weird biology – say beings with a biochemistry based on silicon or ammonia (as long as they had an aptitude for technology) – would do the same.”

Also intelligent machines are seen as capable of a highly accelerated Lamarkian self-directed type evolution that takes them far beyond humanity.

Would they care about human beings? We don't know.

The author also refers to the Australian physicist Brandon Carter, who drew attention in the late 1970's to the criticality of the exact laws of physics for complex chemistry and consequent biology (and us). Carter saw our universe with its particular laws as one among many, whereas astrophysicist Fred Hoyle took a different line and suggested that a very advanced intelligence had “set the dials” on our universe to permit the development of life (i.e. we are part of some kind of computer game Matrix).

Altogether an interesting book.… (more)

Astrobiology. Starts relatively tamely with terrestrial extremophiles and possible Earth life with a different genesis or different biochemistry. Moves on to possibilities elsewhere in the solar system, on exoplanets, on stars and stellar remnants, and in space. Considers the question of ET intelligence. Culminates with speculations on life in putative parallel universes with different laws of physics. To the short epilog I would have added the comment that if the hopelessly defective _Homo sapiens_ were somehow determined to be the universe's most advanced lifeform, the conclusion would have to be that life is not a cosmically significant phenomenon after all.… (more)