The Primal Bias

*** NOMINATED FOR THE PULITZER PRIZE! *** ARE CIVILIZATIONS ON DISTANT PLANETS MERE FANTASY?ARE ALL SIGNS OF EXTRATERRESTRIAL VISITORS FALSE? Thanks to advances in technology, we have already found a planet orbiting a star at about the same distance that Earth orbits its own star, the sun. Such a discovery suggests that intelligent life exists out there, perhaps on many worlds. But what sort of arrangement could repeatedly lead to such an awesome outcome? Nature has an orientation toward life, a built-in Primal Bias that acts in a manner both subtle and mighty (somewhat like gravitation, for instance). The effects of this Primal Bias, besides being profound, are highly diverse. Still those effects tend to favor the living state, in one way or another, so that they produce a consistent partiality toward life. As a result, organisms emerge and evolve not just through chance occurrences but with the strong support of a special Bias. As a predisposition, the Primal Bias functions largely through a "Master System," a seeming hodgepodge of powerful expedients and constraints that tend (each in its own mode) to promote whatever may help life. These expedients and constraints act as a system only in the very long term and only because all are consistent with the Primal Bias. They are generally associated with codes, including codes as rudimentary as valence or as advanced as the genetic code. The Primal Bias has a critical impact on both essence and evolution, from the earliest forms of existence to the most advanced forms of life. And that impact is cumulative. Conceivably, the Primal Bias is the key to a grand scheme underlying the constitution of the universe. This is science of the new millennium, a way to figure out some of the mysteries of the cosmos, yet the presentation is informal, non-mathematical and strikingly illustrated. Anyone interested in science or nature, or in life on other worlds, can get carried away. To order The Primal Bias, click on the table above