Fine-tuned Universe - in Popular Culture

In Popular Culture

• Robert J. Sawyer discusses the fine-tuned Universe at length in his novel Calculating God (2000).
• Author Neal Stephenson discussed the issue of fine-tuning in the conclusion to his essay In the Beginning... was the Command Line.
• Puddle thinking is a satirical illustration of the "life is fine-tuned to the Universe" argument above coined by Douglas Adams to satirize the Fine-tuned Universe argument for supernatural creationism. As quoted in Richard Dawkins' eulogy for Douglas Adams:

... imagine a puddle waking up one morning and thinking, 'This is an interesting world I find myself in, an interesting hole I find myself in, fits me rather neatly, doesn't it? In fact, it fits me staggeringly well, must have been made to have me in it!' This is such a powerful idea that as the Sun rises in the sky and the air heats up and as, gradually, the puddle gets smaller and smaller, it's still frantically hanging on to the notion that everything's going to be all right, because this World was meant to have him in it, was built to have him in it; so the moment he disappears catches him rather by surprise. I think this may be something we need to be on the watch out for.