Book Description
"It's the animal in us," we often hear when we've been bad. But why not when we're good? Primates and Philosophers tackles this question by exploring the biological foundations of one of humanity's most valued traits: morality.
In this provocative book, primatologist Frans de Waal argues that modern-day evolutionary biology takes far too dim a view of the natural world, emphasizing our "selfish" genes. Science has thus exacerbated our reciprocal habits of blaming nature when we act badly and labeling the good things we do as "humane." Seeking the origin of human morality not in evolution but in human culture, science insists that we are moral by choice, not by nature.
Citing remarkable evidence based on his extensive research of primate behavior, de Waal attacks "Veneer Theory," which posits morality as a thin overlay on an otherwise nasty nature. He explains how we evolved from a long line of animals that care for the weak and build cooperation with reciprocal transactions. Drawing on both Darwin and recent scientific advances, de Waal demonstrates a strong continuity between human and animal behavior. In the process, he also probes issues such as anthropomorphism and human responsibilities toward animals.
Based on the Tanner Lectures de Waal delivered at Princeton University's Center for Human Values in 2004, Primates and Philosophers includes responses by the philosophers Peter Singer, Christine M. Korsgaard, and Philip Kitcher and the science writer Robert Wright. They press de Waal to clarify the differences between humans and other animals, yielding a lively debate that will fascinate all those who wonder about the origins and reach of human goodness.
Customer Reviews:
Plausible.......2007-09-19
This is a very short book. The main essay has just about over 50 pages. The rest is introduction, some responses, and a closing statement.
Who says that important books need to be long? Possibly it is not all that important, but the main idea is new to me, therefore I am glad that I picked it up, after a recommendation in Der Spiegel.
Let me also say, I don't find the main hypothesis really compelling, in the sense of thoroughly thought through and explained. But I think it is plausible, and as I had been used to think in different directions and categories, this is a new paradigm for me.
Simply put, FdW challenges the conventional view that morality is part of civilization, that morality is a 'veneer' over our animal core, which is generally assumed to be selfish and immoral. He rejects the view that mankind developed as individuals and then became socialites, requiring rules for co-existence. Rather, homo evolved as a social animal and started his career on Earth with a set of rules for social life. I.o.w., the whole question how a human society without a creator can have morality, is superfluous, baseless, a waste of energy.
On the way to this hypothesis, FdW gets into arguments with the 'selfish gene' theory and with the Dawkins direction of neo-Darwinism. My suspicion is, that this conflict is as useless as a goitre (as we say in German). I don't think that Dawkins really meant the gene to be literally 'selfish', hence let's drop this linguistic bickering. (However I am too lazy to look it up in Dawkins.)
Only 4 stars, not because it is not important, but because it remains below its potential. The discussion part is not always to the point.
I am tempted to give an extra star for the foto of Georgia admiring her own reflection in the camera lens. But maybe an Oscar is more appropriate?
Welcome new perspectives on moral theorizing.......2007-09-06
This book is an interesting confrontation between primate research and professional moral philosophers. The aim is to discuss De Waal's attack on `veneer theory', the idea that moral behaviour is not really grounded in our nature but just a thin cultural overlay, but the discussion quickly becomes way more general.
In fact, we quickly see familiar dividing lines appear. Some, like Korsgaard, see morality as based on reason alone, and therefore purely human. Others, like De Waal, see it as primarily based on inborn capacities like empathy, and maintain that we share a lot of our morality with primates.
The truth is probably somewhere in between. Actually almost all the contributors confirm this in some way, but this is obscured by the fact that the authors do not seem to be able to agree on the meaning on the word`morality'.
Semantic confusion and untenable extremes: Nothing new in the world of discussions of morality then? What does make this book interesting, is that this time the discussions are informed by empirical evolutionary research, which means that even the philosophers have to keep their feet on the ground. Apart from the ape-stories being interesting to read, the result is a welcome new perspective on existing moral theories.
Critically Important Research.......2007-08-25
Teleologically oriented theologians and pompous philosophers need to read this book. New empirical research offers dramatic insights as to the how's and why's of the bilogoical origins of human values and morality. The more this book is read and digested, the faster the phony televangelists will disappear from popular and uninformed culture.
Excellent .......2007-07-29
I do not have the required background knowledge to really make a judgment as to the fundamental claim here i.e. that moral behavior, including decision-making is not an exclusively human prerogative but in fact is the natural condition of a wide variety of species for whom cooperatrive and and altruistic behavior can be collectively advantageous. De Waal's critique of what he calls 'veneer theory' the idea that human morality is a thin layer which comes over and above our fundamentally aggressive, selfish nature is I believe, even when one considers humans in isolation, quite convincing.
He brings certain evidence and examples to show that other species' outside the human, including such stereotypically cruel and mean creatures as wolves engage in mutually advantageous group behavior. The question however of the degree of conscious decision involved in this is one not really solved here. Clearly the human capacity for language- use and symbolic - communication extends not only modes of cooperation, but complexities in consciousness. One feels that deliberation and decision in human action work in ways other animals cannot come close to.
Our hertitage deepens.......2007-06-10
Succinct, quotable, accessible and scholarly ( in the best sense!)- Dr De Waal never disappoints.
Book Description
L. Luca Cavalli-Sforza and his collaborators Paolo Menozzi and Alberto Piazza have devoted fourteen years to one of the most compelling scientific projects of our time: the reconstruction of where human populations originated and the paths by which they spread throughout the world. In this volume, the culmination of their research, the authors explain their pathbreaking use of genetic data, which they integrate with insights from geography, ecology, archaeology, physical anthropology, and linguistics to create the first full-scale account of human evolution as it occurred across all continents. This interdisciplinary approach enables them to address a wide range of issues that continue to incite debate: the timing of the first appearance of our species, the problem of African origins and the significance of work recently done on mitochondrial DNA and the popular notion of an "African Eve," the controversy pertaining to the peopling of the Americas, and the reason for the presence of non-Indo-European languages--Basque, Finnish, and Hungarian--in Europe.
The authors reconstruct the history of our evolution by focusing on genetic divergence among human groups. Using genetic information accumulated over the last fifty years, they examined over 110 different inherited traits, such as blood types, HLA factors, proteins, and DNA markers, in over eighteen hundred, primarily aboriginal, populations. By mapping the worldwide geographic distribution of the genes, the scientists are now able to chart migrations and, in exploring genetic distance, devise a clock by which to date evolutionary history: the longer two populations are separated, the greater their genetic difference should be. This volume highlights the authors' contributions to genetic geography, particularly their technique for making geographic maps of gene frequencies and their synthetic method of detecting ancient migrations, as for example the migration of Neolithic farmers from the Middle East toward Europe, West Asia, and North Africa.
Beginning with an explanation of their major sources of data and concepts, the authors give an interdisciplinary account of human evolution at the world level. Chapters are then devoted to evolution on single continents and include analyses of genetic data and how these data relate to geographic, ecological, archaeological, anthropological, and linguistic information. Comprising a wide range of viewpoints, a vast store of new and recent information on genetics, and a generous supply of visual elements, including 522 geographic maps, this book is a unique source of facts and a catalyst for further debate and research.
Customer Reviews:
What I got out of this book.......2005-05-07
I learned who the people closest genetically to Basques are. The French! Makes sense the French have a a portion of Basque country in their political nation of France. I'm of French background myself. French-Canadian that is.
Great book, if you can get through it..........2005-04-06
This book is very hard to get through as someone with no backing in genetics or biology, but it is very interesting, and it shows how we humans are really just like a couple thousand breeds of dogs, all slightly different, but with the same ancestor, our distant ancestor though was probably no wolf. It is interesting when they mention the little unexplainable historical abnormalities (african genes and caucasian genes in latin american indigenous populations, perhaps?) that they see in the genes of some groups of humans.
I allmost want to dedicate my life to genetics because of all the damn interesting knowledge that could be spawned from the information presented by the authors of this book. If you know anyone studying in this field, you must give them this book for christmas or something, please.
It is now my theory that human language has been the driving force behind human evolution, how often do two parents without a common language stay together 18+ years to raise a family? Just think about that, and it explains the human diaspora pretty well. Humans very rarely mate outside of their language group. You have a group of people in africa that speak the same language, then later on, two languages develop, or three or four, these people migrate off, and form a tribe, this tribe doesnt mate with other tribes because romance and love just dont work without a common language. Tribal names and language names are usually connected anyway, and this is why. When you read this book, you need to view humanity as an animal group pretty much, its very objective without any feeling. Human beings are creatures of communication, communication has driven our evolution forward. Writing started cities, before even that farming started widespread language and trading. It seems that the natural path this should take is more communication, but most people dont like to talk, fewer like to read and write, though that is our path of destiny as humans. The average american spends more money on lottery tickets every year than books. TV is far too widespread now, the love for books is dying, though civilization has allways been built upon the libraries of past civilizations, the histories of the victors.
Anyway,
The things that could be done if these scientists who wrote this book could get together to do research with the people that are at the tip of the spear in supercomputer research...
If you want to have some mental fun/anguish, then this book should be read in conjunction with 'Forbidden Archaeology' by Michael Cremo.
Try it =)
Note that this book is not made for the layman, but if you are a layman, and have a biology textbook laying around, you can get through it no problem.
Any one who is thinking of reading this book, or anyone who has should really do a bit of research on National Geographic's Genographic project that is collecting genetic information all over the world right now (the same migratory route tracing that is in this book) and building a huge database...The cool thing though is that you can send National Geographic $100, and they will send you a kit, you send a cheek swab back, and later on, they tell you everything that you ever wanted to know about your ancestors, and their migratory routes, back 60,000 years...
The database is also building daily, so the information that you will first get about your genes will get more comprehensive as time goes on, and more genetic samples are collected from 10's or 100's of thousands of people all over the planet...
Anyone who reads this book actually MUST do a google search on this National Geographic Genographic Project, right now =)
History and Geography of Homan Genes.......2004-06-09
This work, in hardback, is written with the advanced researcher in mind. The author is world famous for his pioneering efforts in identifying traits in particular traits in ethnic groups with unique genetic markers. The color plates in the index section can be helpful to those who know how to intrepret them.
It's a scholarly treatment of a highly technical subject and a thorough one as well. This is ground-breaking work collected from many samples and analyzed in detail. I think this should be required reading for college students in the field of genetic research.
A review of everything.......2003-06-17
Cavalli-Sforza presents the nearest approximation possible to the correlation of all measurable human genes, markers and attributes. You might think of the work as the "unified field theory" for evloutionary biology, culture and linguistics.
While the heft even of the abridged version is imposing, the component parts are manageable for those who already have basic statistical knowledge or who are willing to pay attention to the author's explanations. The world's populations are addressed in geographic chunks, and then at various appropriate points, more general conclusions drawn from the pieces.
Given the advances in genetic research acheived since publication, the model may ultimately prove more valuable than the particular contents...but for this decade the contents are fascinating.
Good Book, but Martel is Wrong.......2003-04-11
The book provided a great deal of information about genetic distances and the relationships between populations. However, Mr. Martel's review includes lies and these lies must be addressed. First of all, the native North Africans were not "very blonde" or "nordic". In fact, the ORIGINAL population was as black as their rock art depictions of themselves (which just so happen to span the Sahara and date back nearly 10000yrs). Many of these Ancient Saharans were, however, completely abosorbed by an incoming of migrants from the Middle East. Perhaps these migrants are the people Mr. Martel is speaking of??? At any rate, with the dessication of the Sahara, most of the original Saharans (blacks) migrated South into The Sudan. In fact, they can still be found in West Africa today. They (especially the Fulani and Dogon) can be recognized in person as easily as they can be recognized in the Ancient Saharan depictions drawn by their ancestors.
Thus, despite Mr. Martel's comments to the contrary, the admixture seen in North Africans today is not so much the result of slaves (modern admixture) as it is the result of both modern admixture as well as ancient admixture - admixture which took place LONG before the Arabs ventured anywhere near the region. As for the Egyptians, they were from the same stock as the rest of North Africa and they almost always depicted themselves as brown and intermediate between and separate from both the white people of the North (Europe), the light skinned Semites (Middle East), and the darker, more Sudanese people of the South (Nubia).
Mr. Martel is not completely wrong in so far as SOME of these Middle Eastern migrants had blonde hair and light eyes (a few individual Lybians were depicted this way). But, such features were most probably seen at the same rate theyre seen in Middle Easterners and North Africans today. Neither people, however, are "Nordics", and to assume they descend from Nordics based on hair color alone is ridiculous. Blondism occurs in Aborigines... are we to believe they descend from Nordics as well? Somehow, I think not.
Book Description
Agent-based computational modeling is changing the face of social science. In Generative Social Science, Joshua Epstein argues that this powerful, novel technique permits the social sciences to meet a fundamentally new standard of explanation, in which one "grows" the phenomenon of interest in an artificial society of interacting agents: heterogeneous, boundedly rational actors, represented as mathematical or software objects. After elaborating this notion of generative explanation in a pair of overarching foundational chapters, Epstein illustrates it with examples chosen from such far-flung fields as archaeology, civil conflict, the evolution of norms, epidemiology, retirement economics, spatial games, and organizational adaptation. In elegant chapter preludes, he explains how these widely diverse modeling studies support his sweeping case for generative explanation.
This book represents a powerful consolidation of Epstein's interdisciplinary research activities in the decade since the publication of his and Robert Axtell's landmark volume, Growing Artificial Societies. Beautifully illustrated, Generative Social Science includes a CD that contains animated movies of core model runs, and programs allowing users to easily change assumptions and explore models, making it an invaluable text for courses in modeling at all levels.
Customer Reviews:
Annie Wu -- Book #2.......2007-08-10
I am a purchasing agent who buys books for my faculty, and as far as I know, this faculty member is very impressed with this book.
Excellent example of cross-disciplinary social science using theory.......2007-08-07
It's refreshing and exciting, in a quiet intellectual kind of way, to encounter a book that includes philosophy of science, music theory, Anasazi disappearance mysteries, ethnic cleansing, and an explanation of why CEOs exist. Josh has produced the book I've been wanting to read any time during the last 20 years, which have been a bit barren from the theory and modeling perspective in social science. He also makes clear the mathematical and philosophical basis of the agent-based approach, producing a baseline both for future work in the field and for competing paradigms such as systems dynamics, discrete simulations, and cellular automata (Wolfram's New Kind of Science), however incommensurable. I was particularly interested in the occasional use of probability modeling (negative exponential distributions generated through simple rules are a very interesting advance in understanding the waiting times between civil violence outbursts) and I'd love to see a deeper relationship established, say between Bayesian models of dynamic systems and agent-based models. Keep up the great work, Josh! Also, kudos to the publisher for the sheer quality of the book: excellent paper, great color plates, and priced to sell rather than as the work of art it is.
Excellent survey of the author's work.......2007-07-27
This book did a good job of introducing me to the current state of agent-based modeling. It also, perhaps inadvertently, highlighted some of the current weaknesses of the field. In particular, the models shown in each paper rarely shared common features, and there was little consistency in method.
Epstein argues persuasively that agent-based modeling is a tool, not a methodological approach, and you should no sooner expect consistent usage here than with differential calculus. That said, it was a bit disconcerting.
Also, while the goal espoused here was to use the bare minimum of constraints that retain explanatory power, I was disappointed that relevant work from other fields was often abstracted away. For example, a few models used social networks; but the networks presented were static, not dynamic, and were not built around power-law ratios. Such additional complexity may well have distracted from the main point; but it would have been nice to see at least some discussion of why the models were simplified.
Regardless, I was very pleased with the book and would highly recommend it.
A Landmark Publication.......2007-03-08
Josh Epstein's new Opus is a landmark publication in the emerging field of multiagent-based simulation of dynamic social systems. Since Josh is not only one of this still nascent (though burgeoning) field's ablest and most creative practitioners, but also among its most thoughtful critics, the reader of has two treats in store: (1) a generous, and wide-ranging, sampling of case studies (including social networks and evolution, population growth, emergence of economic classes, civil unrest, timing of retirement, the dynamics of adaptive organizations and the spread of infectious disease), and (2) a cogent "meta" discussion of what multiagent models ARE, ARE NOT and how (when their properties and limitations are *not* properly taken account of) they can easily be MISAPPLIED.
Far from suggesting that multiagent-based models are a panacea solution to all (or most) social dynamical systems, Josh's book carefully articulates the conditions for which such an approach IS (and is NOT) appropriate; an approach rarely taken by other, similar, overviews of the field. Indeed, the cogent philosophical discussion in Chapter One - alone! - in which the generativist's position is defined and put into a broader modeling/simulation context, is worth the price of admission; I have not seen a better "manifesto" of multiagent-based modeling elsewhere.
Finally, without taking away any of the inherent "beauty" (in the technical sense) of the often exaggerated concept of "emergence," Josh succeeds admirably in both defining the term, and de-mystifying it, stripping it of some of its unnecessary "quasi-mystical" baggage (at least as it is often portrayed in lay publications).
Anyone who is interested in understanding how agent models may be used to help explore the dynamics of social dynamical systems, should have this book firmly on top of their "must read" list! Josh has generously provided future generations of agent explorers their go-to source of both inspiration and ideas. Well done Josh!
Book Description
For centuries, medicine aimed to treat abnormalities. But today normality itself is open to medical modification. Equipped with a new molecular understanding of bodies and minds, and new techniques for manipulating basic life processes at the level of molecules, cells, and genes, medicine now seeks to manage human vital processes. The Politics of Life Itself offers a much-needed examination of recent developments in the life sciences and biomedicine that have led to the widespread politicization of medicine, human life, and biotechnology.
Avoiding the hype of popular science and the pessimism of most social science, Nikolas Rose analyzes contemporary molecular biopolitics, examining developments in genomics, neuroscience, pharmacology, and psychopharmacology and the ways they have affected racial politics, crime control, and psychiatry. Rose analyzes the transformation of biomedicine from the practice of healing to the government of life; the new emphasis on treating disease susceptibilities rather than disease; the shift in our understanding of the patient; the emergence of new forms of medical activism; the rise of biocapital; and the mutations in biopower. He concludes that these developments have profound consequences for who we think we are, and who we want to be.
Average customer rating:
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Biomedicine Examined (Culture, Illness and Healing)
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Book Description
What if you could be smarter, stronger, and have a better memory just by taking a pill?
What if we could alter our genes to cure Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s?
What if we could halt or even reverse the human aging process?
What if we could communicate with each other simply by thinking about it?
These questions were once the stuff of science fiction. Today, advances in biotechnology have shown that they’re plausible, even likely to be accomplished in the near future. In labs around the world, researchers looking for ways to help the sick and injured have stumbled onto techniques that enhance healthy animals—making them stronger, faster, smarter, and longer-lived—in some cases, even connecting their minds to robots and computers across the Internet. Now science is on the verge of applying this knowledge to healthy men and women, allowing us to alter humanity in ways we’d previously only dreamed possible. The same research that could cure Alzheimer’s is leading to drugs and genetic techniques that could boost human intelligence. The techniques being developed to stave off heart disease and cancer have the potential to slow or even reverse human aging. And brain implants that restore motion to the paralyzed and sight to the blind are already allowing a small set of patients to control robots and computers simply by thinking about it.
Not everyone welcomes this scientific progress. Cries of “against nature” arise from skeptics even as scientists break new ground at an astounding pace. Across the political spectrum, the debate roils: Should we embrace the power to alter our minds and bodies, or should we restrict it?
Distilling the most radical accomplishments being made in labs worldwide, including gene therapy, genetic engineering, stem cell research, life extension, brain-computer interfaces, and cloning, More Than Human offers an exciting tour of the impact biotechnology will have on our lives. Throughout this remarkable trip, author Ramez Naam shares an impassioned vision for the future with revealing insight into the ethical dilemmas posed by twenty-first-century science.
Encouraging us to celebrate rather than fear these innovations, Naam incisively separates fact from myth, arguing that these much-maligned technologies have the power to transform the human race for the better, so long as individuals and families are left free to decide how and if to use them.
If you’ve ever wondered about the boundaries of humanity, More Than Human offers a vision of a world where we use our knowledge to improve ourselves, unhindered by the fear of change.
Customer Reviews:
More than Interesting.......2006-07-23
Whether you are a technoprogressive biohacking singularity buff, or you think "H+" is just a hydrogen ion, this book will definitely interest you. Providing an incredibly optimistic view of the biotechnological advances soon to be made, Ramez Naam gives us a comprehensive overview of the potential benefits of human enhancement technologies. This book is nice in that is covers many aspects of current research in transhumanism, from mind-machine interfaces to gerontological engineering, unlike most books which are slimmer in scope. It is well written and well researched, although very obviously one-sided. If you want to get both sides of the controversy, read this, some Kurzweil, then check out Leon Kass or Francis Fukuyama. Although I don't agree with them, I suppose it's good to know your enemies =) Even if you've never heard of transhumanism, check this book out.
Explains Biological Enhancement For Everyone.......2006-03-26
Ramez Naan does a great job here detailing rapidly growing and maturing biological enhancement technologies. This is a very diverse field, ranging from life extension medications, genetic modifications, to minds hooked directly to the internet, and even mind-to-mind connections may be possible. Such mind/computer links may become natural extensions of ourselves, Naam writes. Idle speculation this is not, Naam gives many examples of present day uses, and also discusses research projects now under way, in addition giving extrapolations sometimes for up to several decades into the future. If you are interested in this sort of thing, I recommend THE SINGULARITY IS NEAR, by Ray Kurzweil, a very forward-looking book.
Unusual because it mixes realism and optimism so well.......2005-12-06
Most futurist manifestos are not well founded in reality. Naam did his homework, and has pages and pages of endnotes to prove it, and to lead the curious reader to the original sources. I share his extreme optimism about all these present and future avenues for human enhancement, but needed some better arguments on which to base my optimism. He provided more than enough, including thoughtful analyses of economic, ethical, and societal ramifications. To sum it up, it is all going to happen, whether we want it or not, and we better begin to get used to the ideas now, and prepare for enhanced humans of all sorts. Getting scared and putting regulations on things does not work--He has many examples of that. If we embrace change it will all go much more smoothly and sooner! I hug the future warmly.
Wired Brains, Hands, Even Arms & Legs........2005-10-06
What if we could communicate with each other simply by thinking about it? I try that all the time but I don't know if it works. Now, researchers have developed techniques to connect a human's mind to robots and computers across the Internet. Using brain implants to restore motion to the paralyzed and sight to blind people allow some patients to control robots (and computers) simply by thinking about it!
'Serenity' is closer to the truth, though based in 2046, with the behavior modification used on rebellious recruits. It gave power and strength to a skinny little girl, River, with fighting skills of a giant. I saw the tallest man I ever did see at the post office the other morning, and it was scary seeing how long and skinny his legs were.
Is it good to alter our minds? I've watched the hypnotist at the fair make "normal" volunteers from the group watching act silly and do ridiculous things. I had decided that he'd hypotized them with his melodious, deep voice, as his personality was not spectacular.
Labs worldwide are dabbling with cloning, stem cell research, and genetic engineering as shown so clearly in the movie, 'The Island,' craeting ethical dilemmas as to the "rightness" to change people in this manner. The United States of America have imposed severe limits on government funding for stem cell research, but have left the private sector to do what it wants. Though embryonic stem cell science got its start in the States, the rest of the world is fighting to take the lead.
We were not granted life extensions, which may be possible in the future, but at what cost? Will it make life better for the "altered" or will it turn them into robots as in 'The Stepford Wives"? Bodies are flexible; by contrast, "our computers are simple, rigid, specialized things. An e-mail program will never learn to handle voice-mail, despite the similarity between the two." Voice mail is available on some of the Internet carriers now, but you would need a new, energized system with plenty of memory space.
Should we fear change? Ramaz Naam doesn't think so. Thanks to him, I am able to use Internet Explorer to clear out the junk in my daily computing so this old computer will go another day. He was also intrumental in developing Microsoft Outlook, but that is something I haven't tried. I am still a novice on the computer, learned word processing some years ago, which come in handy on these reviews.
Brave new world or genetically-enhanced pipe dream?.......2005-08-25
The basic thesis of Ramez Naam's book is that with our ability to shape (especially to enhance) our biological nature through the tools of our culture--in particular, genetic engineering--we will transform humanity into "a plethora of forms," which will eventually result in thousands if not millions of new species. Naam contends that we will spawn "a new explosion of life as sudden and momentous as that of the Cambrian explosion" some 570 million years ago. (p. 233)
That's the upside. What is also possible (although Naam does not dwell on this) is that with biological enhancement tools that are presently coming into discovery and use, we may transform ourselves into beings who will have satisfied their every desire, and with that satiation, have put an end to desire. The result may very well be the end of human evolution, biological or cultural. And following that, the end of the species that began as a big-brained walking ape six million years ago.
Or none of the above.
This is the exciting part. We have no idea where cultural evolution is going to take us. We have no idea whether we will develop the ability to stave off natural disasters (rogue comets; nearby supernovae; unstoppable pathogens) or overcome our propensity to self-destruction in the form of perpetual war or the poisoning of our environment. Yet, modern Luddites and social conservatives notwithstanding, we will indeed use the tools we develop to initially prevent and cure ailments and deficiencies, and ultimately to enhance our abilities to enjoy and to get the most out of life.
This is what this book is all about. Naam begins with the fuzzy distinction between using genetic engineering to heal or to enhance, and makes two telling points: (1) it is often impossible to distinguish between a procedure done as part of the healing arts, or one done to enhance our abilities; and (2) whether we like it or not, given human nature (as it now exists!) if the enhancement tools are there, promising greater intelligence or greater beauty or longer life, then we humans will inevitably use such tools. If the Bush administration or some other Luddite-mentality government tries to suppress these tools, people will just go elsewhere. And those societies that fall behind will fall very far behind. The genetically enhanced will inherit the earth, and indeed it isn't much of a stretch to imagine a future in which those who have enhanced themselves are so far in advance of those who have not as to constitute superior beings. Will the Luddites become pets?
More immediately--keeping these ideas in mind--will it only be the rich who will benefit? Naam argues--and I think convincingly--that yes, at first only the rich will use the tools to better themselves and their children, but then lagging only ten or twenty years behind will come the total mass of humanity. Naam compares this process to that in the present day pharmaceutical environment in which initially the new drugs are very expensive, but after they go generic they become affordable to the masses.
There is so much in the book that I will not be able to get to even a fraction of it. So let me say that Naam has anticipated a lot of the criticism that will be leveled at his position and he has done a good job of answering it. The idea that we can somehow stop genetic engineering to save our human nature is shown as bogus since human nature is an ever evolving, ever changing abstraction. Even the concrete species itself (which is us) has changed mightily over the eons from Australopithecus to homo sapiens. And whether we lift a finger or not, we will eventually change again or go extinct. That is the main point. We cannot stop change. We cannot hope to preserve the present human "endowment." We can only hope to engage change, and with our intelligence make life better for ourselves and those to come, people who will be different from us, and going far enough into the future, very different from us.
For the here and now, Naam sees biotech and neurotech enhancements as "investments in valuable human capital." (p. 76) I believe this is the primary reason the United States must overcome the backward mentality of the Bush administration and support not only more stem cell research, but encourage a greater investment in all forms of biological engineering. If we don't we will fall behind those who do.
For others who see the ghost of eugenics in his position, Naam has an effective answer. He writes, "the only people advocating state control over the genetic makeup of the population are those who would like to see genetic enhancement techniques prohibited. The advocates of human enhancement, on the other hand, are arguing for individual and family choice, the opposite of state control." In other words, "...the prohibitionists are the ones upholding the eugenic side of this debate." (p. 166)
Naam gets very specific about the enhancements possible or at least conceivable, including brain-computer interfaces, brain implants, human cloning, electrical stimulation of the brain, preimplantation genetic diagnosis (which takes in vitro fertilization one step further), etc. Near the end of the book, he sees us communicating not only ideas and words, but thoughts, feelings and emotions to others directly from our brains as one would communicate through a wireless network. Eventually we will have "the flexibility to do what we like with the contents of our thoughts, feelings, and imaginations..."
Since all of this may sound scary (yet exhilarating), Naam adds, "and society will respond with new social norms to guide our choices." (p. 219)
Oh, brave new world that has such things in it!
The book is fascinating. Naam has not only done his homework, he has thought out the consequences of what he has found and provided the reader with some guidance.
Customer Reviews:
a great text for junior scientists.......2006-11-05
As a graduate student, I have gradually acknowledged the hidden rules of practicing sciences that, unfortunately, has never disclosed themselves during the regular programs. This book demistifies science and its practioners in the field using scientific methodology. This book becomes my favorite text at the expanse of T. Kuhn.
e-book is a mess.......2005-03-13
I bought and downloaded the eBook of this famous book for my research.
It is NOT usable. Most of the text is missing. I have never seen such a bad scanning result. Unbelievable.
Read this before "Science in Action".......2001-10-04
Latour's book "Science in Action" is more trendy... but I suggest you read this earlier book instead. It's clear and makes its points in a compelling fashion.
A classic in the philosophy of science.......2001-08-08
It seems to me that the previous reviewer is either a wooly-head theoretician or that the previous reviewer hasn't actually done any research in a laboratory. Because in this book, there are many sparkling insights into the way that science is practised.
It takes a while for Latour to get going as he is quite verbose in the early section, where he discusses his "anthropological" approach to science studies. However, after that, he makes a couple of points that as far as I know, he was the first philosopher of science to make.
First, Latour demonstrates the intimate relationship between the publication of scientific papers, scientific prestige, laboratory finances and actual experiments. He makes the seemingly obvious, though not so when the book came out, that the possibility of experiments in a lab requires the influx of an amazing out of money. The acquisition of this research money takes up a large proportion of the time of the head honcho scientist in a laboratory .
Second, Latour shows that entities in science are always defined by a network of properties that are experimentally determined. Scientific entities are hardly ever seen as objects with a few simple analytical properties. In fact, the more properties the better. And it doesn't matter if the mesh of properties is convoluted and seemingly contradictory. For each property concerned, there must be a vast array of material techniques to measure, control and manipulate that property. A new entity in science is accepted as real only when there are enough inter-locking properties to guarantee its existence. No method, by itself, is ever convincing.
Latour points out that once an object is deemed to be real, scientists often invert the logic and argue that the reason why the combined set of experiments worked in the first place was that the object was in fact real. Whether this inversion of logic stands up to philosophical scrutiny - I do not know - but I have seen many practising scientists make this jump in logic. I've even used it myself. It is here that the "realist" and "anti-realist" debate rages. However, I think Latour reports it just as he sees it.
Third, Latour carries out an analysis of scientific texts, which I have yet to see anywhere else. Scientific statments take on 5 modalities - from speculative hypothesis to proven statements to unspoken assumption. Latour gives a account of how the modalities of each statement are modified by how every other scientist in the field cites the statement in future scientific papers. They can ignore it, attack it as a useless hypothesis, bolster it by citing it as a supporting statement, adulate it by assuming that is a proven statement, and finally they just assume it's true. This scrutiny occurs continuously both inside the lab and in conferences.
However, the difference between this process in the sciences as opposed to the humanities, is that these statements are often associated with machines that act in the material world. Proving a statement means that a material effect is generated.
Using this method, Latour can analyse the fortunes of the scientists in a lab. And analysing the citations of scientific papers results in a reasonably good definition of scientific credibility. As a grad student in a biophysics lab, I've seen this happen - albeit on an intuitive level.
Although Latour has since gone onto to more and more abstract studies, the beauty of Laboratory Life is that it is firmly grounded in the actual practises of an existing laboratory, the Guillemen Lab at the Salks Institute.
Popular book, completely unjustified conclusion.......2000-10-26
I give this book a high rating because of its influence in the field. It is the first case study of laboratory science ever published, and is often quoted in anthropology, sociology, and philosophy of science. The book's conclusion is social constructivist in nature, to a very extreme degree. Scientific facts are not discovered, they are constructed through social processes. The actual study was done by Latour, a French philosopher, and the method was to assume strangeness. That is, Latour pretended he didn't know anything about what the scientists were doing and tried to make up (construct) an account. The usual problems with relativism plague Latour and Woolgar's brand of social constructivism, most notably issues with reflexivity. If scientific accounts are constructed and do not have to do with the phenomena, why should we think that Laboratory Life tells us anything about the phenomena of laboratory science? Their answer is that we shouldn't. The only question in evaluating texts is, "are you convinced?" If not, fine. Come up with a better (more persuasive) account. People who think that science, philosophy, and academe in general should have something to do with the real world will be horribly frustrated by this conclusion. But everyone should be frustrated by the fact that the conclusion just doesn't follow from the data Latour gathered. It seems to come entirely from prior convictions of the authors. I recommend reading the book, however, because of its popularity and because it is a fantastic exemplar of a bad relativist and constructivist argument. Get the revised edition, which has a postscript and extra references. For a chuckle, look up some of the reviews (cited in the 2nd ed. references) from scientific journals. They are mostly cheerful recognitions of the book's subject matter (laboratory science) without any reference to--or argument with--the strong anti-realist claims. It makes you wonder if these people acctually read the book.
Book Description
Richard Alley, one of the world's leading climate researchers, tells the fascinating history of global climate changes as revealed by reading the annual rings of ice from cores drilled in Greenland. In the 1990s he and his colleagues made headlines with the discovery that the last ice age came to an abrupt end over a period of only three years. Here Alley offers the first popular account of the wildly fluctuating climate that characterized most of prehistory--long deep freezes alternating briefly with mild conditions--and explains that we humans have experienced an unusually temperate climate. But, he warns, our comfortable environment could come to an end in a matter of years.
The Two-Mile Time Machine begins with the story behind the extensive research in Greenland in the early 1990s, when scientists were beginning to discover ancient ice as an archive of critical information about the climate. Drilling down two miles into the ice, they found atmospheric chemicals and dust that enabled them to construct a record of such phenomena as wind patterns and precipitation over the past 110,000 years. The record suggests that "switches" as well as "dials" control the earth's climate, affecting, for example, hot ocean currents that today enable roses to grow in Europe farther north than polar bears grow in Canada. Throughout most of history, these currents switched on and off repeatedly (due partly to collapsing ice sheets), throwing much of the world from hot to icy and back again in as little as a few years.
Alley explains the discovery process in terms the general reader can understand, while laying out the issues that require further study: What are the mechanisms that turn these dials and flip these switches? Is the earth due for another drastic change, one that will reconfigure coastlines or send certain regions into severe drought? Will global warming combine with natural variations in Earth's orbit to flip the North Atlantic switch again? Predicting the long-term climate is one of the greatest challenges facing scientists in the twenty-first century, and Alley tells us what we need to know in order to understand and perhaps overcome climate changes in the future.
Customer Reviews:
Excellent Book.......2007-01-10
Richard B. Alley can spin a good yarn. The book was very enlighting, I enjoyed the professional script. My hat's off to him & wish him luck in his future endeavors regarding the issues of past climates.
Time Traveler.......2006-09-12
Is global climate change a threat to humanity? Our best evidence comes from an uninterrupted 2-mile ice core taken from the Greenland ice pack. A pristine record of climate events over the last 110,000 years is displayed as delicate annual ice layers containing trapped atmospheric glasses, volcanic ash, pollen, lead levels, and isotope ratios. Dr. Alley's personal involvement in the project gives insight into the hardships and technical hurdles faced by scientists collecting this remarkable ice core. He does a good job of describing the intricate science that leads to a startling forecast -- our peaceful-appearing world is actually subject to wildly gyrating climate changes that can swing 40 degrees within a few years. During the last few millennia, have we have enjoyed a period of anomalous warm stability almost unprecedented in the 110,000 record of the ice core -- a happy condition that could suddenly end due to greenhouse warming from human industrialization. Within the space of a few years, high temperatures could melt the antarctic, flood our shorelines, and stall the gulf stream that brings warm tropical water to the British Isles. By the last half of the century, England might be buried under glaciers, and the distribution of our world's deserts and rain forests could be reshaped by chaotic, planet-wrecking storms. Science fiction? Not according to Dr. Alley -- whose ice cores show many similar events throughout history. The last half of Dr. Alley's book seems less interesting than the first -- perhaps because of his scientific hesitation at predicting what will really happen. The vast cost, the loss of biodiversity, and the potential threat to human lives -- or even our civilization -- is left mostly to the reader's imagination. Nevertheless one fact is clear -- we are riding a climate roller coaster that may soon start to take some sickening dips -- and the key to our survival may be locked within quiet, blue layers buried deep within the Greenland ice mass. -- Auralgo
Want to understand climate change?.......2006-04-12
In contrast to some other reviewers, I did NOT find this book a big yawn. I was fascinated by the exposition of how conclusions can be drawn about climate change. Alley briefly explains several different methods, but goes into detail on how ice cores can be used to make educated guesses about past climate. Very simply, every year there is a new layer on top of the Greenland glacier that can be analyzed chemically and differences in the chemical makeup of the layer reflect differences in the underlying climate (temperature).
I found the book fascinating, although it reads somewhat like a textbook rather than a story. However, my purpose in reading it was to try to understand for myself how conclusions on climate change are being reached, and the book fills that purpose admirably.
What happened?.......2005-05-21
Alley created an excellent Scientific American article ("Abrupt Climate Change", November 2004, available online) in terms of information and engaging writing style. His "Time Machine", though occasionally informative, reads like a slow elementary-school or sagacious politician's overview. "Many clever people are studying things in ice, and learning many things." Yawn. Maybe this was his intent, though nowhere are we forewarned. He's best when reporting his personal adventures in the ice core data recovery field he's part of. A crucial hinge in the unfolding "climate change" arena - what we used to call "global warning" until PR firms (minions of political parties and conglomerates, generously applying political correctness) changed the name to sound less ominous. This book is not about the most recent GRIP, Greenland Ice Core Project, cataloging 123,000 years of earth's atmospheric history in that region (and some 2 million year old plants to boot). It does reveal findings of a previous drilling - good for 110 millennia - and the Vostok ice core, extending back about 450,000 years. (Take that Creationists.)
These cores read like pages in a book, one year's ice layer piled atop another, trapping gases, dust and aerosols in each. According to Alley (repeated by Brian Fagan) the good news is, compared to previous interglacial warming periods, we humans have been remarkably lucky during the Holocene, the last 12,000 years (since the invention of agriculture), with relatively stable climate, except for a few major hiccups. The bad news is plural. Contrary to opinions, measurable, repeatable data shows we have among the highest concentrations of CO2 in these recorded histories; The thermohaline circulation (the ocean's equator-to-pole hot/cold exchange system) is a smoking gun in massive change (which according to NOAA data is shutting down via ice melt freshening); And the biggest news of all - ice cores show dramatic, even catastrophic climate shift, as Alley writes, "in less time than it takes it get a college degree". Oops. Apparently nature has a threshold. Once tripped, it's a long ride back - about a hundred thousand years. Such audacity nature has to act in a nonlinear fashion is inexcusable.
But nature and man are not without their ironies. While politicians, conglomerates and talk show hosts paint their rosy picture of longer summers on the beach (ignoring these beaches may be under water) or flourishing plant life in CO2-rich atmospheres (ignoring they may be fried in heat and dryness), as it turns out ice ages are triggered by warming. Standby. Exciting times coming, except nobody knows when. The Pentagon considers global warming a national security risk (at least enough to fund a study) - though to what generation? We'll keep rolling the dice, but at least Alley is trying to sound the alarm. Unfortunately, to the world's biggest offender, we heard all this in the Sixties, then tried to change the world by collecting litter on Earth Day - that's been a thousand fads ago. Nobody's listening.
Disappointing Book.......2005-04-11
If you read this book expecting to find out about what ice cores from Greenland tell us, prepare to be disappointed. That topic is covered, but not in much depth. Mr. Alley makes the point that the ice cores demonstrate rapid climate change has been the planetary norm, except over the last few thousand years while human civilization was developing -- an anomalous period of unusual climate stability.
The book spends more time on what could have been a fascinating topic -- the human side of an isolated group of people working hard to make incredibly precise measurements in a hostile but beautiful environment. Unfortunately, it would have taken a writer with the talents of, say, a Tracy Kidder to have done the story justice. Mr. Alley tries hard, but he is no Tracy Kidder -- no shame there; very few people are in that league.
Unfortunately, the book spends most of its pages on a rather unconvincing recitation of the highly politicized IPCC's tired old discredited case for anthropogenic climate change. While Mr. Alley strives for scientific even-handedness, that case sounds even more hollow than usual, given his observations of clearly non-anthropogenic rapid climate change over most of the last hundred thousand years.
Amazon.com
"Science," writes physicist Gregory Derry, "is the active and creative engagement of our minds with nature in an attempt to understand." Not to understand anything in particular, mind you--just to understand, to gain a sense of our place in the world. Whether viewed as a body of knowledge, a collection of techniques, or a way of seeing, Derry adds, science is just plain interesting. It is also difficult to live in the modern world, which is so entangled economically and culturally in technology, without some grasp of science, technology's sire.
All that said, Derry states his aim: to show his readers how to think scientifically. In this aim he is quite successful, as his narrative proceeds through case studies that draw on real-world situations to discuss the importance of precise measurement, replicable experimentation, clear research design, logical thought--and imagination. He is quite clear on what constitutes good science, and he profiles a few heroes (Kepler, Einstein, Helmholtz, Joule) to illustrate how that good science is conducted. He is just as clear on what constitutes bad science, which often results when money and politics enter the laboratory. The fundamental virtue required of a scientist is honesty, he remarks, and a scientist who is dishonest or unethical scarcely deserves the name.
Part textbook, part manifesto, Derry's book offers both entertainment and food for thought for readers inclined to learn the ways of science. --Gregory McNamee
Book Description
How does a scientist go about solving problems? How do scientific discoveries happen? Why are cold fusion and parapsychology different from mainstream science? What is a scientific worldview? In this lively and wide-ranging book, Gregory Derry talks about these and other questions as he introduces the reader to the process of scientific thinking. From the discovery of X rays and semiconductors to the argument for continental drift to the invention of the smallpox vaccine, scientific work has proceeded through honest observation, critical reasoning, and sometimes just plain luck. Derry starts out with historical examples, leading readers through the events, experiments, blind alleys, and thoughts of scientists in the midst of discovery and invention. Readers at all levels will come away with an enriched appreciation of how science operates and how it connects with our daily lives.
An especially valuable feature of this book is the actual demonstration of scientific reasoning. Derry shows how scientists use a small number of powerful yet simple methods--symmetry, scaling, linearity, and feedback, for example--to construct realistic models that describe a number of diverse real-life problems, such as drug uptake in the body, the inner workings of atoms, and the laws of heredity.
Science involves a particular way of thinking about the world, and Derry shows the reader that a scientific viewpoint can benefit most personal philosophies and fields of study. With an eye to both the power and limits of science, he explores the relationships between science and topics such as religion, ethics, and philosophy. By tackling the subject of science from all angles, including the nuts and bolts of the trade as well as its place in the overall scheme of life, the book provides a perfect place to start thinking like a scientist.
Download Description
How does a scientist go about solving problems? How do scientific discoveries happen? Why are cold fusion and parapsychology different from mainstream science? What is a scientific worldview? In this lively and wide-ranging book, Gregory Derry talks about these and other questions as he introduces the reader to the process of scientific thinking. From the discovery of x-rays and semi-conductors to the argument for continental drift to the invention of the smallpox vaccine, scientific work has proceeded through honest observation, critical reasoning, and sometimes just plain luck. Derry starts out with historical examples, leading readers through the events, experiments, blind alleys, and thoughts of scientists in the midst of discovery and invention. Readers at all levels will come away with an enriched appreciation of how science operates and how it connects with our daily lives. An especially valuable feature of this book is the actual demonstration of scientific reasoning. Derry shows how scientists use a small number of powerful yet simple methods -- symmetry, scaling, linearity, and feedback, for example -- to construct realistic models that describe a number of diverse real-life problems, such as drug uptake in the body, the inner workings of atoms, and the laws of heredity. Science involves a particular way of thinking about the world, and Derry shows the reader that a scientific viewpoint can benefit most personal philosophies and fields of study. With an eye to both the power and limits of science, he explores the relationships between science and topics such as religion, ethics, and philosophy. By tackling the subject of science from all angles, including the nuts andbolts of the trade as well as its place in the overall scheme of life, the book provides a perfect place to start thinking like a scientist.
Customer Reviews:
Facinating book that was mailed in record time.......2005-09-16
This is a book that everyone should read whether or not they like to study and leatn about science. Amazon.com did an excellent job at making sure that the item got to me quickly and efficiently. Thanks.
A great book I might use for textbook.......2001-05-09
Informative, especially for the non-technical people. I am considering using this book for an introductory course to the Art and Literature students in Taiwan.
The book is well written and concise. Well suited for today's short attention-span students!
A pretty good book........2000-05-23
If I could summarize my opinion of this book in a single word it would be "ambivalence." The book definitely has its good points, but it lacks closure on many themes, is open ended in many ways, and it's a little of order. Perhaps Derry wanted it that way because scientific progress often goes the same route. This is supposed to be an explanatory text, though, and I would have organized it differently.
The book begins with a chapter consisting of several stories from the history of science, including the discovery of the structure of Benzene and the development the Smallpox vaccine. There are five in all, and each illustrates a different application of the method of science to discovery. The one thing lacking from this chapter (and from the book, for that matter) is a cohesive summary of the principles brought out through these examples. I think Derry wanted his readers to figure it out themselves, and so he shuns summary tables and lists as a way of making the reader think. Part of the author's message is that science does not work according to a given set of rules -- the kind of rules you might have learned in grade school. Instead, Derry presents science as a more fluid construct. I agree, but telling the stories had a point, and I believe he should have been more succinct in bringing out his opinion about what the point was suppose to be, especially in relationship to the stories meant to illustrate how science works.
The next few chapters list some important methods used by scientists -- some of which are illustrated in the examples from chapter 1. For example, chapter two describes how looking for patterns in nature provides important clues in scientific exploration. Chapter three describes the importance of instrumentation in scientific work, primarily in allowing scientists to observe phenomena in which they would be otherwise unaware. Chapter four explains how sometimes small discrepancies between observation and theoretical prediction often leads to the abandonment of old theories and the development of new ones.
Chapter five is a condensed history of astronomy, from the early Greeks through Galileo and Newton (the book uses examples from many branches of science, but mostly from physics, Derry's field of expertise). This chapter brings together many of the unifying concepts in science, but (again) they must be found and understood by the reader -- the author does not deliver them point-by-point in list or table format (even in summary).
Chapter six begins the second part of the book (there are four) by describing models, modeling, and approximations. This chapter is definitely long on "how science works" and short on "what science is." Reading the chapter on models, for example, might leave the reader with the impression that truth and reality are almost irrelevant and that the objective of science is to simply develop models that predict the outcome of experiments. I agree that models are important. However, I think it's safe to say they are more important in applied science and engineering than they are in pure science, and that there is still some expectation by scientists that fundamental scientific theories somehow give us a window into the way the universe "really is."
Chapter seven is among the best, and deals with the way logic, reason, critical evaluation, and evidence are built into the scientific method. This chapter describes deductive and inductive logic, the importance of documented (and repeatable) evidence, and evaluating causality. It also has some really good stuff on bogus arguments, giving examples of half-a-dozen or more common techniques used by people to fool themselves and/or mislead others.
There is also a chapter on science and religion, as well as science and how it relates to society and ethics. Both these chapters have little to do with the book's thesis (what science is, and how it works). The chapter on science and religion, in particular, is brief and tends towards reasoning based on semantics.
Another good chapter (12) deals with pseudoscience and how to recognize it. Derry offers "claims for perpetual motion" and "creation science" as examples of pseudoscience. Unlike other examples in the book, Derry shows exactly how and why these two inventions of human imagination ought to be classified as pseudoscience, and how they are fundamentally different from modern science. Chapter 13 describes boarder-land areas like cold fusion and parapsychology. These, Derry argues, qualify as science, but (especially in the case of cold fusion) illustrate ways in which science can (and sometimes does) go awry.
The third part of the book ends with chapters 14 and 15, which deal with the philosophy of science. Here Derry actually explains the important parts of theory formation, but only briefly. Most of this chapter deals with things of a pretty philosophical nature, such as questions about what causes scientific revolutions and how we know things. The nuts and bolts of theory formation are in the chapters on modeling -- chapters that unfortunately and amazingly virtually never mention the word "theory."
The last part seems almost like a separate book, and consists of six chapters that supposedly describe unifying concepts. While I could certainly find unifying concepts in the examples, I'm not at all sure that these are the best examples. For example, one chapter describes how volume grows faster than area, which grows faster than length, and how this determines maximum sizes for some animals. Another describes the importance of symmetry in mathematics and in art. Yet another describes thermodynamics and the "arrow of time." Finishing off the list are chapters on feedback loops, linear dependence, and exponential growth.
For me, this book started out slow, but ended up being reasonably interesting. Overall I don't think it's a great book on the nature of science, but it's okay and certainly has its good points.
Great Science Book.......2000-04-29
This book is incredibly well-written and imformative. It spans all of the sciences, and describes many breakthroughs and issues in the sciences, both current and from centuries ago. It delves into topics both simple and complicated, from symmetry to pseudoscience. Derry writes in language both simple enough to understand and interesting enough to keep you raptly engaged. One of the best books spanning general science. All levels.
Great Science Book.......2000-04-29
This book is incredibly well-written and imformative. It spans all of the sciences, and describes many breakthroughs and issues in the sciences, both current and from centuries ago. It delves into topics both simple and complicated, from symmetry to pseudoscience. Derry writes in language both simple enough to understand and interesting enough to keep you raptly engaged. One of the best books spanning general science. All levels.
Average customer rating:
- Put the postmodern waffle on the side, please.
- A very good book
- Games of Computer Life
- Great introduction to Artificial Life
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The Garden in the Machine
Claus Emmeche
Manufacturer: Princeton University Press
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ASIN: 0691029032 |
Book Description
What is life? Is it just the biologically familiar--birds, trees, snails, people--or is it an infinitely complex set of patterns that a computer could simulate? What role does intelligence play in separating the organic from the inorganic, the living from the inert? Does life evolve along a predestined path, or does it suddenly emerge from what appeared lifeless and programmatic?
In this easily accessible and wide-ranging survey, Claus Emmeche outlines many of the challenges and controversies involved in the dynamic and curious science of artificial life. Emmeche describes the work being done by an international network of biologists, computer scientists, and physicists who are using computers to study life as it could be, or as it might evolve under conditions different from those on earth.
Many artificial-life researchers believe that they can create new life in the computer by simulating the processes observed in traditional, biological life-forms. The flight of a flock of birds, for example, can be reproduced faithfully and in all its complexity by a relatively simple computer program that is designed to generate electronic "boids." Are these "boids" then alive? The central problem, Emmeche notes, lies in defining the salient differences between biological life and computer simulations of its processes. And yet, if we can breathe life into a computer, what might this mean for our other assumptions about what it means to be alive?
The Garden in the Machine touches on every aspect of this complex and rapidly developing discipline, including its connections to artificial intelligence, chaos theory, computational theory, and studies of emergence. Drawing on the most current work in the field, this book is a major overview of artificial life. Professionals and nonscientists alike will find it an invaluable guide to concepts and technologies that may forever change our definition of life.
Customer Reviews:
Put the postmodern waffle on the side, please........2007-07-04
Perhaps it's the translation, but the author comes off as overly dubious about the field he claims to want to introduce to us. The book might be useful to philosophers who want to pick fights with a-life enthusiasts, but it's very unsatisfying if you want to learn anything. Some philosophy of science books are much more than cursory glances at the science (Cartwright's How the Laws of Physics Lie or Mayo's Error and the Growth of Experimental Knowledge come to mind), but this isn't one of them. There are so many facinating paths that you can explore starting from the idea of a-life that Emmeches' attempts to fence-in the field come across as premature and pointless.
A very good book.......2003-03-18
Emmeche's slim book is a great intro for those interested in this new & theoretical science. It is well-written, with a constant eye towards the philosophical side of the emerging discipline of "artificial life". Crucial to this discipline is the idea that "form"--a self-organized pattern in space--takes precedence over the material substrate of which it is made. As Emmeche emphasizes throughout his narrative, computer scientists have gained better results at modeling artificial life with the "bottom-up" approach (in contrast to "top-down" attempts to legislate global behavior of these systems). This is a good book for those who might want to study the amazing work of Chris Langton and Stuart Kaufmann. Those chapters in particular are excellent.
Games of Computer Life.......2001-05-21
Great little introduction to the world of artificial life. Short, but to the point, and without the exaggerated claims of many of its proponents trying to use these models to justify Darwinian theories, the book gives a glimpse of the main elements of the field. We must be seeing the evolutionary theories of the future, the first real ones, being born here.
Great introduction to Artificial Life.......2001-02-13
"If life is information, and information is an answer...What was the question?"
In this insightful piece of work danish theoretical biologist Claus Emmeche introduces Artificial Life as a true interdisciplinary scientific subject and discusses the topic from both a scientific and philosophical point of view.
Using a language that's easy to understand but also complete the book deals with artificial (computer-simulated) life and its relationship with areas such as auto-organization, emergence, cellular automata, chaos theory, fractals and artificial intelligence.
Although not very extense the book features 7 chapters with 170 excellent references to the "creme" of the subject which are alone worth its price. Computer geeks (such as me) will undoubtly suffer the lack of any source code or companion software.
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The Evolution of Morality (Life and Mind: Philosophical Issues in Biology and Psychology)
Our Inner Ape
The Altruism Equation: Seven Scientists Search for the Origins of Goodness
Evolution for Everyone: How Darwin's Theory Can Change the Way We Think About Our Lives
