Dr Lee Smolin

On the weblog Not Even Wrong there is some controversy concerning Lee Smolin. A while back he listed about eight different approaches to be followed up, and I was very excited that two of these concerned causal possibilities (cause and effect mechanism).

His book Life of the Cosmos annoyed me at first, because it did not say the direction it was going on the first page. You have to wait until you get to the end, where he comes up with a metaphor, the city. In this analysis, the universe is not designed at the beginning for all time, but rather builds itself like a city.

Some cities, like Milton Keynes in England (if it is a city, it might just be a town?), are designed with road layouts and everything rational from the beginning, but Lee Smolin was referring more to traditional cities like London, which are not designed in one go.

They evolve as time goes by, and modifications occur naturally. A very interesting idea ...