The Universe Contains Vastly More Order Than

I Suppose My Interest In Looking For Life Elsewhere In The Universe Really Dates Back To My Teens. What Teenager Doesn't Look Up At The Sky At Night And Think Am I Alone In The Universe? Well Most People Get Over It, But I Never Did And Though I Made A Career More In Physics And Cosmology Than Astrobiology I've Always Had A Soft Spot For The Subject Of Life Because It Does Seem So Mysterious.

No Intelligent Supervisor, No Mystic Force, No Conscious Controlling Agency Swings The Molecules Into Place At The Right Time, Chooses The Appropriate Players, Closes The Links, Uncouples The Partners, Moves Them On. The Dance Of Life Is Spontaneous, Self-sustaining, And Self-creating.

Wheeler Hopes That We Can Discover, Within The Context Of Physics, A Principle That Will Enable The Universe To Come Into Existence "of Its Own Accord." In His Search For Such A Theory, He Remarks: "no Guiding Principle Would Seem More Powerful Than The Requirement That It Should Provide The Universe With A Way To Come Into Being." Wheeler Likened This 'self-causing' Universe To A Self-excited Circuit In Electronics.

When I Was A Student, The Laws Of Physics Were Regarded As Completely Off Limits. The Job Of The Scientist, We Were Told, Is To Discover The Laws And Apply Them, Not Inquire Into Their Provenance.

Even If We Don't Have A Precise Idea Of Exactly What Took Place At The Beginning, We Can At Least See That The Origin Of The Universe From Nothing Need Not Be Unlawful Or Unnatural Or Unscientific.