The Anthropic Principle is actually quite an interesting theory. The reason the Universe exists the way it does is because if it existed any other way then we couldn't be here to ask why the Universe is the way it is. For example, if the gravitational constant was a bit stronger then stars would collapse into black holes before they could ignite. If the electromagnetic force was a little weaker then electrons would stream off from protons and atoms could never form. If the strong force was a little stronger then nuclear reactions would be impossible and stars would never light up.
There are, in fact, many possibilites associated with the Anthropic Principle. The first is that there are an infinite number of universes and we evolved in this one because this one happened to have the right combination of constants. Another, far more daring theory, is that the Universe needs a quantum observer in order to actually exist.
All this is in way of introduction to my review of the book, The Constants of Nature. This could have been a very good book as it discusses a lot of the ideas around the Anthropic Principle and associates it with the constants of nature, including the fine structure constant. Unfortunately, the author doesn't do a convincing job nor does he go deep enough to make the book a very interesting read.
Some of the errors in the book are comical. For example, he states (although I am sure he doesn't mean to) that solar eclipses are caused by the Earth's shadow falling on the Sun. But others are more subtle. For example, he discards the quantum observer theory by claiming that any observer, even a photographic plate, would serve the role of an observer. However, a quantum physicist might tell you that until someone actually develops and views the plate that what is on the plate is still only a quantum probability.
The book isn't all bad and parts are actually quite fascinating especially if the topic is unfamiliar but overall there must be better books out there that cover similar topics.
You can see the full review here.
For something on the topic of intelligence, there is a quirky book that I really love by Douglas Hofstadter, Le Ton Beau De Marot: In Praise of the Music of Language. The book is difficult to describe. On the surface the book is about the difficulty of translating a particular poem from French into English. But Hofstadter is a computer science professor specializing in artificial intelligence and intelligence and how we think is something that has fascinated him for years. Hofstadter is, of course, the author of Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid. Map once joked that the pupose of all human evolution was to produce Hofstadter so he could write GEB. This may be stretching things a bit but Hofstadter's genius is evident in all his books.