Why do we like the things around us in the world. What do beautiful things and memorable stories and myths have in common. This book approaches questions like these through the lens of evolutionary history and the way that we and our planet exist in the universe help to explain why we think and believe the way that we do. The beauty of a scientific approach to our place in the universe is presented in an artful way. ( )

Extremely erudite consideration of relations, ancient and current, between humans in the universe and the arts. It would have been welcome to have an advanced degree in mathematics to completely comprehend and appreciate all the distinctions.

Science uncovers an objective quest to uncover the laws of nature.
John Barrow attempts to visualize the arts - music, painting, literature, and more - with a creative scientist's perspective, given that art and science "...spring from a shared source -
the careful observation of things...."

The book curiously jumps around, from Kant to computers, often with humor, as in the chapter headings.

Though he does not agree, he allows that:

"Carl Sagan foresees the attractive possibility of receiving a message that 'may be detailed prescriptions for the avoidance of technological disaster.'
Since we are most likely to hear from the longest-lived societies,
these are the ones that are most likely to have passed through crises like
the proliferation of weapons of destruction,
to have avoided lethal environmental pollution from technological expansion,
withstood astronomical catastrophes, and overcome debilitating genetic maladies or social malaise."

Wishes: that Mr. Barrow had also used a Plate to represent Oriental painting,
recognized that Bonzai is cruel and painful to plants, and
added examples of "...statements that are true in one logical system, but false in another."

Barrow does not consider that, though maybe science is, that art is not the exclusive domain of human animals, that our closest cousins, chimpanzees and gorillas, can both paint and communicate in sign language. Also, it may well be that the easiest cave art did try to match reality with the image. ( )