History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)

Book Description

Recorded history is a finely-woven magic fabric of intricate lies about events predating the sixteenth century. There is not a single piece of evidence that can be reliably and independently traced back earlier than the eleventh century. This book details events that are substantiated by hard facts and logic, and validated by new astronomical research and statistical analysis of ancient sources.

Customer Reviews:

Calculations are only as good as your numbers.......2007-08-03

Yes, we can all agree that mainstream history is nearly 100% BS due to politics, economics, ego, problems with dating techniques, and various conspiracies. Agreed. But, I've been researching the distinct possibility that human history (in terms of civilizations) are much more ancient than we've been told, so coming across this book was very interesting to me. I wondered how Fomenko could be wrong (if at all) because he is very persuasive in his presentations. Then it dawned on me. If at previous times in prehistory, due to the various catastrophies that are well documented (comets, asteroids, planetary disruptions, plasma discharge, pole reversals, etc) the Earth was in a different position in relation to the sun, different tilt on its axis, different orbit, different rotation (in terms of velocity and DIRECTION), and the continents were in different positions, then would this not cause the ancients to see the sky (constellations) differently? In other words, is Fomenko making erronious assumptions about the physics of the Earth in pre-history, which then corrupt his data with regards to dating the relevant astrology? The last event to seriously disrupt our planet occured roughly 3500 years ago, according to other good researchers, so is it possible Fomenko has been confused by this? The vastly different physics of our planet in the not so distant past may explain this confusion, which is not to say the "mainstream" version of history is correct; on the contrary. I am not an expert in these fields, but wanted to see if this idea could spark discussion.

Pants on fire?.......2007-07-19

Will people ever read before spamming? Yes, Jesuits could not rewrite world history alone, they had help. Anyway, Dr Prof Acad A.Fomenko does not point to jesuits as the driving force of world wide history manipulation in published volumes 1,2,3;, actually he barely mentions the poor devils. Check it with 'Search inside' feature, please. China is rarely mentioned either, in fact, Dr Fomenko is completely eurocentric. Right, his theory contradicts all mainstream schools of history, because in their actual state they are all built on blatantly erroneus chronology. You don't need a mysterious cabal (conspiracy) to falsify history, the falsification is its modus operandi. It is inherent to history(ians) to falsify (distort) events, as it is inherent to humans to boast as it is inherent to power (authority) to legimize itself by referrring to glorious past made to its own order. Dr Prof Fomenko and team have identified scores of instances of such manipulation in Russian, European, etc.. history, and delivered valid statistical proof thereof. His own 'reconstruction' is completely another story. Forget c14 as a valid method of dating. W.Libby has initially discovered a brilliant method of INDEPENDENT dating. Too bad, c14 method has become a joke after a forced marrige with dendrochronology with consensual chronological scale inbuilt. Radiocarbon method can't stand blind tests, but is so very productive as a rubberstamp.

Accepted History & Chronology Must Be Changed. .......2007-04-09

There is no doubt that history as most know it is a sham, & institution's version of History both University & Church is fradulent & inaccurate. Everything was established with an agenda, The real "Dark Ages" are now when we have access to incredible amounts of information past authorities & more important 'common folk' didn't have but our institutions & educators are slow to evolve because of what has ignorantly & arrogantly been taught for too long. This is on many subjects not just Chronology.

For anyone to question "Why would a Mathematician have anything credible to say of History?" The answer is from Dr. Fomenko's preface in the book: "It would be worthwhile to remind the reader that in the XVI-XVII century Chronology was considered to be a subdivision of Mathematics." These volumes could possibly be some of the most important works to date & should be read by everyone with an interest in History, especially professors & educators who have a duty to the public. I have read both books & must say that 'Chronology 1' has some very eye opening & revolutionary information. Even if these volumes are part true the implications are profound & opens the doors to further investigations & questions which must be done. I speak several different lanquages & must say the logic Dr. Fomenko uses with "inflection" of words & words being read from left to right in one region & right to left in another then written backwards, the removal of vowels & get down to basics of words, or different cities & locations having the same name etc. is correct. Vowel usage has always been optional & varied, actually complicating linquistics & study. The first thing one has to understand is that words never had a fixed spelling in history like we do now, the spelling of words was mutable & regional, as well as names & titles of people were vast, varied & changed, NOTHING WAS FIXED or understood linear. Matters of Life & Death as well as financial profiteering yesterday & today were & are made with ignorant, illogical & conspiratorial views of history & reality, it's time people get closer to the Truth & society collectively grow up.

Very Interesting.......2007-03-07

It is a good proposal and I believe it will mature into something even better in the future. I think it deserves to be read.

History as Science Fiction.......2007-01-10

Anatoly Fomenko has written a very intriguing book, full of pictures, charts, and computer 'proof' of his thesis: backwards of AD900 we don't really know what happened or when. Between AD900 and AD1600 there is more certainty, but there is still a lot of fuzzy ground, and things don't get reliable until we get past the 1600's where the printing press made it very difficult for the perpetrators of this timeline manipulation to change anything that had been committed to print. The Dark Ages did not happen. Books were burned for a reason. One organization has doubled the actual length of its existence by expanding the real chronology. Read why.

I had always wondered why Christ died about AD33 and yet men waited until the 11th century to form the Knights Templar, the Cathars, etc and go after the Holy Land by force. Why the 1000 year gap? Turns out there wasn't more than a 10-12 year gap and he proves it using astronomy. This also implies that the planet is not as old as we have been told, and current Christian and other creationist scientists are already championing that idea without being aware of Fomenko's book. The two groups, creationist scientists and the Russian mathematical analysts corroborate each other. Fascinating.

Of course, all this flies in the face of what we have been told traditionally is the 'proper' chronology of western civilization, and most readers will experience 'cognitive dissonance' in reading this book. It means that our history going backwards from AD1600 becomes progressively more incorrect and unreliable until it cannot be trusted at all... in the space of 700-800 years.

Naturally, the curious, open-minded reader will want to know WHO did this, WHY, and did any of the events we think of as really ancient ever happen?
Dr. Fomenko is a respected scientist/mathematician at Moscow State University who has already answered these questions to the satisfaction of his initially skeptical colleagues. Most of them are now believers, a few still refuse to believe (the usual diehards), and of course the western press has ignored Fomenko's work -- for obvious reasons when you read the book. The ones who perpetrated this chronology ruse have a lot to answer for. They are still with us. That's why this book is a well-kept secret.

I gave the book a 4-star rating because I was unable to check out some of his claims; those I checked were as he said. But if even 1/3 of his claims are true, this punches a big hole in what we think is our history, the meaning of western civilization, our educational process (for repeating the ruse as gospel), and the trustworthiness of the organization that perpetrated this ruse, well-intentioned or not.

This book relates to current research into a Young Earth paradigm, to John Keel's discoveries about our planet, and Fr Malachi Martin's insights (in his now out-of-print books). We are indeed sheep who are manipulated and kept ignorant -- for a reason. While knowing what these men have to say may be the "booby prize" (as in: 'what can you do with this knowledge?'), it will provide interesting reading. Didn't someone say: "...and the Truth will set you free."?? For you to judge if this book contains the truth.

Out of Control: The New Biology of Machines, Social Systems and the Economic World

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This Book Is Out of Control
Perhaps the most important book of the 90s
Cyberpunk Fact
Review for Out of Control
Original thinking the value of which I really do not have the tools to judge

Out of Control: The New Biology of Machines, Social Systems and the Economic World
Kevin Kelly
Manufacturer: Perseus Books Group
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Simulacra and Simulation (The Body, In Theory: Histories of Cultural Materialism)
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ASIN: 0201483408

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In many ways, the 20th century has been the Age of Physics. Out of Control is an accessible and entertaining explanation of why the coming years will probably be the Age of Biology -- particularly evolution and ethology -- and what this will mean to most every aspect of our society. Kelly is an enthusiastic and well-informed guide who explains the promises and implications of this rapidly evolving revolution very well.

Customer Reviews:

This Book Is Out of Control.......2007-03-19

I must admit that I'm a little ticked at spending a considerable amount of time reading a 500 page book with too many ideas and lack of focus. The editing left a lot to be desired. Throughout the book, the author asserts that if dumb, simple things (e.g. a swarm of bees) continuously communicate with each other they will eventually become capable of performing highly complex tasks not feasible by the will of intelligent beings. Yet, this point is expressed in such a complex manner that it makes one wonder why the author didn't follow his philosophy by dumbing down his arguments and letting the plentiful explain the more difficult concepts.

The main premise of the book is the idea of intelligent beings, in this case humans, giving up control of their creations, which are machines, and letting them "adapt on their own, evolve in their own direction, and grow without human oversight."

There are some intriguing ideas such as: No sustaining ecosystem is in equilibrium or completely "in control". Some chaotic or "out of control" events are required for complex systems to function. For example, the earth's atmosphere is made up of 20% oxygen. This oxygen content is just enough to maintain viable ecosystems without burning up the earth from fires.

"Out of Control" was written in 1994, and 14 years later global warming is a hot button. What happened to the Kelly's grand ideas of recycling (see example of Danish companies recycling each others' waste somewhere in the book)? How much closer are we to eco-friendly intelligent homes and personal belongings? Instead of moving to cheap renewable energy sources, we are experiencing the use of fossil fuels like never before with the fast growing economies of China and India. Crucial counteracting forces seemed to have been completely ignored by the author in projecting a sea of changes in how humans behave. Solar energy will never succeed as a viable energy source unless Big Oil has a monopoly over the sun. Digital cash has been a failure because its success would've destroyed the profits of Visa/Mastercard.

The author is a proponent of the idea of passing down learned behavior innately to offsprings, i.e. through genes. For example, experiments cited from one scientist proved evolution with learned behavior passed down to offsprings is superior to natural evolution. In this instance the author ignored the prospect of passing down negative and undesirable learned behavior that is criminal in nature for example. It's best that all offsprings are created much like computers, and most behavior is learned much like software. It is precisely individuality that facilitates variability, the hallmark of evolution. The author himself even argues for systems thriving at the edge of chaos; systems flexible enough to adapt to the changing environment, yet not rigid enough to become unadaptable. Passing down learned behavior to offsprings would undoubtedly create a more rigid system. Besides, most people already harbor the ill effects of bad parenting. The last thing they need is to acquire this cr*p at conception.

At the end of the book, Mr. Kelly mentions "The Nine Laws of God". One law in particular stood out: "Grow by chunking" which states "The only way to make a complex system that works is to begin with a simple system that works. Attempts to instantly install highly complex organization-such as intelligence or a market economy-without growing it, inevitably lead to failure..... Time is needed to let each part test itself against all the others...." The failure to observe this law has been aptly demonstrated in the U.S. effort to build democracy in Iraq, and to a lesser degree the pressure exerted on Russia by the west to quickly move to a market economy following the collapse of communism.

Inspite of all the criticism, I'm glad I read this book. The ideas could have been expressed in 200 pages fewer and more coherently. Pick up a copy and fasten your seat belt. You will be riding this one for a while.

Perhaps the most important book of the 90s.......2006-08-24

Why are the three most powerful forces in our world--evolution, democracy and capitalism--so controversial? Hundreds (in the case of democracy, thousands) of years after they were first understood, we still can't quite believe these three phenomena work. Socialist Europe resists capitalism, the religious right in America questions evolution and the Middle East makes a mockery of democracy. When you think about it, it's easy to understand why: all three are radically counterintuitive. "One person, one vote?" What if they vote wrong?

But that's the problem--we're thinking about it. Our brains aren't wired to understand the wisdom of the crowd. Evolution, democracy and capitalism don't work at the anecdotal level of personal experience, the level at which our story-driven synapses are built to engage. Instead, they're statistical, operating in the realm of collective probability. They're not right--they're "righter". They're not predictable and controllable--they're inherently out of control. That's scary and unsettling, but also hugely important to understand in a world of increasing complexity and diminishing institutional power (mainstream media: meet blogs; military: meet insurgency).

Fortunately, this book that makes sense of all of this. Out of Control was first published in 1994, well before its time, but it's one of those rare books that sells better each year it gets older. That's because Kelly recognized that the messy markets of natural selection, enlightened self-interest and invisible hands all anticipated the Internet and the delights of watching peer-to-peer cacophony create the greatest oracle the world has ever seen. Some of the examples may be a bit dated a dozen years later, but the message has only become more true: "There is no central keeper of knowledge in a network, only curators of particular views," he writes. The emergent mob wisdom of the blogosphere and Wikipedia were unimaginable then, but somehow Kelly imagined them all the same. This may be the smartest book of the past decade.

Cyberpunk Fact.......2006-08-05

The first half of the book is simply as good as it gets. Each Kelly pronouncement reads like a mantra from on high. The second half of the book is merely brilliant, but Mr. Kelly gives you a pretty good run for your money at 500 pages. There's only a couple of people even close to Kevin Kelly in the futuristic field, Ray Kurzweil, Howard Bloom, and Thomas L. Friedman. Alvin Toffler may have pioneered in a field that H.G. Wells started, but the new mavens like Robert D. Kaplan, Mike Davis, and Kevin Kelly, achieve levels of literacy as beautiful as a Dali. There are about ten must-read human futures, "Out of Control" is one of them.

Review for Out of Control.......2006-05-23

Kevin Kelly was the executive editor at Wired, and his own magazine had a negative review. It describes distributed computing systems and concommitant communication problems in a new light, vastly expanding the scope of otherwise mundane academic articles on the topic. Kelly defines the rules of complex system behavior that simultaneously apply to traditional distributed computing, to markets, to a flock of birds or a bee hive. This book is tedious but worth a read.

Original thinking the value of which I really do not have the tools to judge .......2006-05-14

This is Kevin Kelly's own summary of his bottom- line conclusions.

" As we make our machines and institutions more complex, we have to make them more biological in order to manage them.
The most potent force in technology will be artificial evolution. We are already evolving software and drugs instead of engineering them.
Organic life is the ultimate technology, and all technology will improve towards biology.
The main thing computers are good for is creating little worlds so that we can try out the Great Questions. Online communities let us ask the question "what is a democracy; what do you need for it?" by trying to wire a democracy up, and re-wire it if it doesn't work. Virtual reality lets us ask "what is reality?" by trying to synthesize it. And computers give us room to ask "what is life?" by providing a universe in which to create computer viruses and artificial creatures of increasing complexity. Philosophers sitting in academies used to ask the Great Questions; now they are asked by experimentalists creating worlds.
As we shape technology, it shapes us. We are connecting everything to everything, and so our entire culture is migrating to a "network culture" and a new network economics.
In order to harvest the power of organic machines, we have to instill in them guidelines and self-governance, and relinquish some of our total control."

This is the kind of book I find extremely difficult to know how to read. I just do not have the proper scientific- technical background to evaluate the kinds of claims which are being made here. And this when I am naturally skeptical about books which claim to have a sure general understanding of the shape of the human future.
My skepticism also relates to the meaning of this kind of 'evolution' for the lives of individual human beings, and for society as a whole. Is the suggestion that we are on the verge of some vast transcending or de- humanizing of humanity, some creation of an 'organic collective mechanical consciousness' which will somehow 'direct' or guides society as a whole.?
If so , once again, what does this say about our own individual freedom and identity?

History: Fiction or Science? Chronology 2 (Chronology)

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Check and see
Suprise! Suprise!
Prescient St Augustine?
Something of a disappointment
Romulus courts Helen, Paris founds Rome, Moses goes to Troy..

History: Fiction or Science? Chronology 2 (Chronology)
Anatoly T Fomenko
Manufacturer: Delamere Resources LLC
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Product Description

`History: Fiction or Science? Chronology 2` is the second volume of the most explosive and astounding tractate on history ever written - however, every theory it contains, no matter how unorthodox, is backed by rock solid scientific data. The book is easy and pleasant to read; it is well-illustrated, contains hundreds of charts, graphs and illustrations, copies of ancient manuscripts, and countless facts attesting to the falsity of the chronology used nowadays. You will be amazed to discover: - That the chronology universally accepted today and taken for granted is simply wrong; - That ALL methods of dating of ancient sources and artefacts known today are erroneous or non-exact; - That there is not a single document that could be reliably dated earlier than the XIth century; The Author refers to the Middle Ages as the Antiquity and proves mutual superimposition of the Second and the Third Roman Empire, both of which become identified as the respective kingdoms of Israel and Judah. Furthermore, he asserts that the famous reform of the Occidental Church in the XI century by Pope Gregory Hildebrand was the reflection of the XII century reforms of Byzantine emperor Andronicus who in his turn identifies with Jesus Christ. The Trojan war counted by Homer happened only as late as of the XIII century A.D. and the great poet actually lived in XIV century A.D. No stone in history of Antiquity is left unturned. Literally. This book is the beginning of a major correction to the chronology we live with.

Customer Reviews:

Check and see.......2007-06-21

I don't care what other people say of this book. Those affirmig it's fake, they hadn't ever read it. Or have some special reasons to do so. "Living is easy with eyes closed, misunderstanding all you see..." This book won't make you feel comfortable. It'll make you feel free. It'll make you feel you're "not the only one" to feel you'd been lied to for centuries.

Suprise! Suprise!.......2007-03-22

Here is a serie of books which turns "the whole world" upside down. I learned a lot of it and I hope that a new book from A.T. Fomenko will follow very quick. A absolute must for everybody who is interested in history or even a little bit from it.

Prescient St Augustine?.......2006-02-05

We can so far divide the New Chronology into the following three parts:

a) The verifiable theory that proves consensual chronology wrong with the aid of astronomy, statistics and mathematics;

b) The new chronology hypothesis based on a new understanding of known historical facts and the most likely logical explanation of the most obvious inconsistencies inherent in the official version of history;

c) The history conjectures, that is experimental historical reconstructions based on assumptions that the authors believe to make sense in the light of their research and linguistic parallels - void of ironclad factual support to date.

Fomenko's theory complies with the most rigid scientific standards as a whole:

It gives a coherent explanation of what we already know.

- It is consistent: independent lines of inquiry all lead to the same conclusion.

- The predictions it makes are confirmed empirically.

Fomenko goes by the following axioms:

- Chronology is the basis of history;

- Human evolution has always been linear, gradual and irreversible;

- The "cyclic" nature of human civilization is a myth, likewise all the gaps, duplicates, "dark ages" and "renaissances" that we know from consensual history;

- The accumulation of geographical knowledge as reflected in cartography is a gradual and irreversible process;

- The chronological distance between a given manuscript and the events described therein is proportional to the amount of distortions it contains;

- There is no "useless" information in authentic ancient sources.

Why the mainstream historians do not shower mathematician Academician Dr.Prof Fomenko with thanks and laurels?

The Russians:

Because Fomenko asserts that there was no such thing as the Tartar and Mongol invasion followed by three centuries of slavery, providing a formidable body of documental evidence to prove his assertion. The so-called "Tartars and Mongols" were the actual ancestors of the modern Russians, living in a bilingual state with Arabic spoken as freely as Russian. The ancient Russian state was governed by a double structure of civil and military authorities. The hordes were actually professional armies with a tradition of lifelong conscription (the recruitment being the so-called "blood tax"). Their "invasions" were punitive operations against the regions that attempted tax evasion. Fomenko proves that Russian history as we know it today is a blatant forgery concocted by a host of German scientists brought to Russia by the usurper dynasty of the Romanovs, whose ascension to the throne was the result of coup d'état, charged with the mission of making their reign look legitimate. Fomenko proves Ivan the Terrible to be a collation of four rulers, no less. They represented the two rival dynasties - the legitimate rulers and the ambitious upstarts. The winner took it all! Over some 30 years of controversy, Russian historians have made a most remarkable transition - they were initially accusing the young mathematician Fomenko of anticommunist dissident activity and attempts to deface the historical legacy of Soviet Russia; nowadays the middle-aged mathematician is accused of adhering to "pro-communist Russian nationalism" and defacing the proud historical legacy of Great Russia.

The Westerners:

Because Fomenko blows consensual Russian history to smithereens, successfully removing a crucial cornerstone from underneath the otherwise impeccable edifice of World History. Fomenko adds insult to injury, wiping out one by one the Ancient Rome (the foundation of Rome in Italy is dated to the XIV century A. D.), the Ancient Greece and its numerous poleis, which he identifies as the mediaeval crusader settlements on the territory of Greece, and the Ancient Egypt (the pyramids of Giza become dated to the XI-XV century A. D. and identified as the royal cemetery of the Global "Mongolian" Empire, no less). The civilization of the Ancient Egypt is irrefutably dated to the XII-XV century A. D. with the aid of the ancient Egyptian horoscopes cut in stone. He was the first one to decipher and date all such horoscopes, coming up with mediaeval dates in every case. English historians rage at the suggestion that the history of Ancient England was de facto a Byzantine import transplanted to the English soil by the fugitive Byzantine nobility. To reward the English historians who consider themselves the true scribes of World History, the cover of the present book portrays Tintoretto's Jesus Christ crucified on the Big Ben.

The Chinese:

Because Fomenko wipes out the Ancient History of China outright. No such thing. Full point. The compilation of the so-called Ancient Chinese History is reliably datable to the XVII-XVIII century only. It is perfectly recognizable as the Ancient European history, reworked and transcribed in hieroglyphs as yet another historical transplantation, this time performed on the Chinese soil by the loving Jesuit hands. The Chinese are the next in line to go berserk. Chinese history is inevitably bound to get both more ancient and more eventful, proportionally to the growing involvement of China in the world affairs. Chinese historians will keep on finding valid proof of prehistoric Chinese spaceflights until the Politburo orders them to shut up.

The Arabs:

Too bad. Islam with all its key figures is datable to XV-XVI century A. D. Arabic historians may find consolation in the crucial historical role of the Ottoman Empire in the XVI-XVII century. The trouble is that this empire was initially a Christian state, with Hagia Sophia identifiable as Temple of Solomon, according to Fomenko! We can only guess if the acquisition of Alexander the Great (a Macedonian and a Christian) as the founder of the Muslim World Empire will make Fomenko's theories more acceptable to the Arabic mainstream. He certainly does not spare any holy cows at all, claiming The Stone of Qa'Aba in Mecca to contain the lost Arch of the Covenant.

The Divinity:

Despite of reiterated statement that his theory is all about chronology and not Religion, Fomenko stirs up a whole condominium of wasp nests. His collection of anathemas, fatwa, and other condemnations from all parties concerned is already considerable. Little wonder, considering that the history of religions à la Fomenko looks as follows: the pre-Christian period (before the XI century and JC), Bacchic Christianity (XI-XII century, before and after JC), JC Christianity (XII-XVI century) and its subsequent mutations into Orthodox Christianity, the Catholicism, Islam, Buddhism, and so on.

According to Fomenko we know strictly NOTHING about the events that predate the X century A. D.

St Augustin was prescient when he spoke unto us: "be wary of mathematicians, particularly when they speak the truth."

Something of a disappointment.......2005-09-09

After having read the first volume of this expected series of 7 volumes I was triggered by the thesis of these authors that ancient Greek and Roman history did in fact take place in the Middle Ages. So I started studying medieval history of the Middle East - also known as Islamic history - to find out if the opponents of the ancient Greeks and Romans - the Acheamenid Persians, Sassanids, Scythians, Egyptians, etc. - also have their duplicates in medieval history. My search was disappointing: none of the many medieval Islamic dynasties seemed to correspond to the ancient middle eastern rulers.

However, I did find a close correspondence between Herodotus' Persian kings and medieval events:

- the defeat and capture of an Anatolian king - the Lydian Croesus - by the Persian conqueror Cyrus is identical to the defeat and capture of another Anatolian king - sultan Bayezid - by the Asian/Mongol conqueror Tamerlane;
- the Persian conquest of Egypt by the cruel tyrant Cambyses reds almost exactly as the Ottoman conquest of Egypt by Selim the Grim (note the nickname!);
- Darius the Lawgiver of the Persian Empire looks very much alike to Sulayman the Magnificent, the Lawgiver in Islamic history;
- Xerxes, whose main claim to fame is to be defeated by the Greeks at the naval battle of Salamis, looks like Selim II (the Sot) whose main claim to fame is to be defeated by a Spanish-Italian alliance at the naval battle of Lepanto.

I should have expected Fomenko et al. to arrive at similar conclusions, however, they claim that the Persian kings are the alter egos of the Angevin kings of Sicily whose biographies do not contain the exploits of the Persian kings.

The similiarities I indicate lead to the conclusion that Herodotus must have written his Histories at the close of the 16th century. But this is extremely late, given that Herodotus is "the Father of History", so therefore all other "ancient" histories must have been fabricated even later. Yet, the founders of modern chronology - Scaliger and Petavius - laid their foundations also at the close of the 16th century and had the full corpus of ancient histories already at their disposal.

It seems to me that Fomenko has to address these inconsistencies, maybe in the forthcoming 5 volumes?

Another critique of their book is that the correspondencies between different rulers are often based on a superficial comparison of the biographies; upon a more thorough comparison many details appear that do not correspond at all.

Finally, the authors rely heavily on the works of Gregorovius (1821-1891!!) - his medieval histories of Rome and Athens - as the source of medieval history; these works are - at least in the West - hoplessly outdated and have been superceded by more up-to-date works (for instance, Julius Norwich's trilogy on Byzantine history is not even cited).

Romulus courts Helen, Paris founds Rome, Moses goes to Troy.........2005-07-30

If you agree with Fomenko that Roman chronology is basically the foundation of the entire edifice of global chronology; you would also certainly agree that despite its numerous gaps and inconsistencies, Roman history is the best-documented field of ancient history, and thus a reference scale. But how well is the actual date of the Eternal City's foundation known?

Firstly, Rome is supposed to have been founded by the Trojans who had to flee after the fall of Troy. Some claim Rome to have been founded by Aeneas and Ulysses shortly after Troy had fallen; others are of the opinion that there was an entire dynasty that ruled for 500 years between the fall of Troy and the foundation of Rome.

Well, that's just an innocent 500 years long misunderstanding compared with what heretic Fomenko says, asserts, proves in his second volume: Second Roman Empire, Third Roman Empire, Biblical Kingdom of Israel, Biblical Kingdom of Judah, Holy Roman Empire are stories about basically same events, written from different points of view at different times. The underlying events have actually taken place during xii-xv cy. These histories have been written and perfected by multitude of highly talented humanist and clerical writers of xiii-xvi cy disguised as "ancients" with glorious names like Homer, Pluto, Thucydides etc..Chronology 2.0 beta..

Historians are kindly invited to report the bugs.

Eugenics and Other Evils : An Argument Against the Scientifically Organized State

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Eugenics
Eugenics and Other Evils : An Argument Against the Scientifically Organized State
Catholic church was right about eugenics.
Towering ingnorance combined with degenerate wit = true evil
The Evils of the Scientifically Managed State.

Eugenics and Other Evils : An Argument Against the Scientifically Organized State
G. K. Chesterton
Manufacturer: Inkling Books
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Binding: Paperback

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War Against the Weak: Eugenics and America's Campaign to Create a Master Race
Preaching Eugenics: Religious Leaders and the American Eugenics Movement
What's Wrong With the World
The Nazi Connection: Eugenics, American Racism, and German National Socialism
The Hope, Hype, and Reality of Genetic Engineering: Remarkable Stories from Agriculture, Industry, Medicine, and the Environment

ASIN: 1587420023

Book Description

In the second decade of the twentieth century, an idea became all too fashionable among those who feel it is their right to set social trends. Wealthy families took it on as a pet cause, generously bankrolling its research. The New York Times praised it as a wonderful "new science." Scientists, such as the brilliant plant biologist, Luther Burbank, praised it unashamedly. Educators as prominent as Charles Elliot, President of Harvard University, promoted it as a solution to social ills. America's public schools did their part. In the 1920s, almost three-fourths of high school social science textbooks taught its principles. Not to be outdone, judges and physicians called for those principles to be enshrined into law. Congress agree, passing the 1924 immigration law to exclude from American shores the people of Eastern and Southern Europe that the idea branded as inferior. In 1927, the U. S. Supreme Court joined the chorus, ruling by a lopsided vote of 8 to 1 that the sterilization of unwilling men and women was constitutional.

That idea was eugenics and in the English-speaking world it had virtually no critics among the "chattering classes." When he wrote this book, Chesterton stood virtually alone against the intellectual world of his day. Yet to his eternal credit, he showed no sign of being intimidated by the prestige of his foes. On the contrary, he thunders against eugenics, ranking it one of the great evils of modern society. And, in perhaps one of the most chillingly accurate prophecies of the century, he warns that the ideas that eugenics had unleashed were likely to bear bitter fruit in another nation. That nation was Germany, the "very land of scientific culture from which the ideal of a Superman had come." In fact, the very group that Nazism tried to exterminate, Eastern European Jews, and the group it targeted for later extermination, the Slavs, were two of those whose biological unfitness eugenists sought so eagerly to confirm.

What are sometimes called the "excesses" of Nazism drove the open advocacy of eugenics underground. But there's little evidence that the elements of society who once trumpeted the idea have changed their mind. Dr. Alan Guttmacher provides a good example. The fact that he had been Vice-President of the American Eugenics Association was no hindrance to his assuming the Presidency of Planned ParenthoodWorld Population in 1962. And his seedy past did not keep Congress from providing millions of dollars in federal funds to Planned Parenthood. Nor did it stop the Supreme Court from carrying out the central item in Dr. Guttmacher's political agenda‹legalized abortion. Many of those who now admit that eugenics was evil have trouble explaining why so few of its advocates were every exposed and why so many are still honored.

As the title suggests, eugenics is not the only evil that Chesterton blasts. Socialism gets some brilliantly worded broadsides and Chesterton, in complete fairness, does not spare capitalism. He also attacks the scientifically justified regimentation that others call the "health police." The same rationalizations that justified eugenics, he notes, can also be used to deprive a working man of his beer or any man of his pipe. Although it was first published in 1922, there's a startling relevance to what Chesterton had to say about mettlesome bureaucrats who deprive life of its little pleasures and freedoms. His tale about an unfortunate man fired because "his old cherry-briar" "might set the water-works on fire" is priceless.

That tale illustrates Chesterton's brilliant use of humor, a knack his foes were quick to realize. In their review of his book, Birth Control News griped, "His tendency is reactionary, and as he succeeds in making most people laugh, his influence in the wrong direction is considerable. Eugenics Review was even blunter. "The only interest in this book," they said, "is pathological. It is a revelation of the ineptitude to which ignorance and blind prejudice may reduce an intelligent man."

History has been far kinder to Chesterton than to his critics. It's now generally agree that eugenics was born of evolution and the "ignorance and blind prejudice" of social elites. But never forget that Chesterton was the first to say so, condemning what many of his peers praised.

The completely new edition of Chesterton's classic includes almost fifty pages from the writings of Chesterton's opponents. They illustrate just how accurate his attacks on eugenists were. For researchers, it also includes a detailed, 13-page index.

Customer Reviews:

Eugenics.......2007-10-01

Eugenics is a GREAT EVIL. Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parent Hood, was associated with Adolph Hitler. She wanted birth control for only people of color, the poor and the catholics. When the Holocost came up front, they pulled back. But, the philosophy hasn't changed. They are fighting to export abortion to foreign countrys. I really think that we really need to wake up. We have professors that think we should kill babys born with Down's Syndrom and Spina Bifida. This is after they are born. What more do we need to know? Pax

Eugenics and Other Evils : An Argument Against the Scientifically Organized State.......2007-09-10

For a collection of essays written prior to the first World War, Chesterton may have been addressing a modern audience rather than his contemporary one; yet anyone who has read Chesterton could say that regarding any number of his books. True, this book was published after WWI, much of it was written as a response to what Eugenicists were asserting at the time. A note for the editor: have the copy proofread prior to publishing. There are many errors which ought to have been caught before printing. The idea of re-printing the Eugenic articles is a novel idea.

On a final note, much of the eugenic ideal has been absorbed into modern thinking. The hate has been better disguised, but the hateful ideas are well incorporated into the fabric of modern life.

Catholic church was right about eugenics........2006-03-28

I'm a brazilian(unemployed) agronomist.I read this good book free on internet.This is a good book.
When this good book was writen, eugenics was supported by great scholars,famous politics, famous doctors(Dr. Morris Fishbein, the AMA's President), famous americans presidents,etc.
Against all of these stooges, came Gilbert K. Chesterton, a writer catholic man.
After all, Roman Catholic Church and G. K. Chesterton were right about eugenics.
After nazism, eugenics became so ridiculous, that now, eugenics has a new name:Ecology.

Towering ingnorance combined with degenerate wit = true evil.......2006-02-23

This book is a good one in illustrating how a great wit can be beset by such towering and willfully destructive ignorance. The only true evil is ignorance. Chesterton says that eugenics is somehow evil and immoral, but by any objective standard it is just the opposite. There has never been either a logical or cogent argument against eugenics. There are mountains of evidence for the importance and benefit of eugenics in modern science (see Richard Lynn "dysgenics", for one example).

Additionally, eugenics was God's own method for creating and sustaining life on Earth. This is apparent to anyone who can open their eyes to the world around them. This fact of nature can hardly be disputed except by the most willfully ignorant. It is difficult to see the benefits of eugenics if you are ignorant, because it involves the integration and extrapolation of complex ideas over time. This is itself an argument for eugenics. Most ingnorant folk simply live for today, live for pleasure now.... Many unpleasureable things are necessary for the future of life, unfortunately. We have courts and jail systems and these require intellect and fairness for justice to be served. This is also a form of eugenics and quite moral. Evolution is imperfect -- sometimes the otherwise superior are killed by chance occurances in nature, and the errant low-IQ criminal here and there. Ignorance is universally destructive of all the ideals of civilization, science is the destruction of ignorance. Read this book with these things in mind in the spirit of Ripley's Believe it or Not! Believe it or not, people actually think this way against all the facts. Fascinating reading.

The process of selection in evolution can be disconnected by advancing technologies, etc. Unfortunately genetic deterioration is a constant threat which needs to be selected out. The most highly prolific in modern abundant societies are the least beneficial and those with the least vision and intellect. This cannot go on for two many generations without it all crashing down. How is this moral? Since when is destruction and creating a hell on Earth moral? More important than IQ is conscientiousness -- a reliably measureable personality trait -- which is in rapid decline.

We must have concern for genetics in eugenics and ecological concerns for the environment and all for all the other consequences of technologically advanced societies. This is an emergency situation of epic proportions -- the most pressing imperative of the 21st century... read this book to get an idea of the astounding depravity of populist ignorance and its danger to us all and to our childrens future.

The Evils of the Scientifically Managed State........2004-07-10

In the book _Eugenics and Other Evils_, Roman Catholic writer G. K. Chesterton takes on the eugenists and their immoral and unethical program for human breeding. At the time, eugenists (among both the Social Darwinist "Right" and the Socialist Left) proposed various methods for interfering with human breeding to promote a social agenda and impact the human population. One form of eugenics, referred to as "positive eugenics", sought to increase the birthrate of the "fit" (mainly the upper, educated classes) through incentive programs. Another form of eugenics, referred to as "negative eugenics", sought to decrease the birthrate of the "unfit" (mainly the lower classes, the "mentally feeble", and chronically ill populations) through birth control (or even more diabolical means, later on, such as abortion or euthanasia). Chesterton takes on both forms of eugenics as well as the "birth controllers", both of whom planned on limiting the rights of those deemed "mentally feeble" to procreate, and shows through a series of paradoxes exactly how immoral, unethical, and downright mean their program is. Chesterton's condemnations of this program are consistent with his Roman Catholic beliefs and the condemnation of both eugenics and birth control by subsequent popes. It is for this reason that many involved in the birth control movement came to label Chesterton as a "deeply reactionary man" who stood in the way of progress. In his book _The Servile State_, Chesterton's friend and fellow writer Hilaire Belloc notes how society is progressing in a direction towards servility, in which more and more will work for less and less, collectively losing their liberties. Belloc contrasted this state of affairs to the current capitalist state (run according to the principles of competition and greed, amounting to plutocracy) and that state dreamed up by socialist reformers (calling for the elimination of property rights, and thus a complete suppression of liberty), both of which Belloc regarded as immoral and un-Christian. As an alternative, Belloc proposed a "distributivist state" which would allow for mass ownership of private property and the means of production, while curtailing the evils of monopoly capitalism run amok. Like Belloc, Chesterton too advocates a distributivist state, championing property while at the same time pointing to the excesses of monopoly capitalism and plutocracy-oligarchy. In addition, Chesterton notes that while the "servile state" is upon us, so is the "eugenic state" in which the right to marriage and procreation will be limited by the elite controllers within the state. Chesterton points out how diabolical and grossly unfair this situation is, with plenty of recourse to his usual writing style and witticism. As Chesterton notes, within the current state of affairs, those among the lower classes and the poor do not stand a chance, their rights to property being denied them (contrary to the situation that existed within the Middle Ages, where a serf could at least maintain a right to property), and are often imprisoned unfairly or abused by the system. Chesterton sees within the eugenics movement another form of abuse (particularly of the poor and those deemed "feeble minded"). Indeed, much of this book is spent critiquing various legislative actions taken against the so called "feeble minded", which Chesterton shows to be a term without meaning, being used merely as a slur against certain unpopular and not well liked individuals among the lower classes. To explain the rise of eugenics Chesterton examines the social Darwinist views of the capitalist class. As Chesterton notes, many of those in the highest class have swung full spectrum from the Socialist Left to the extreme "Right" as they accumulate wealth and advance plutocracy. In America, robber barons such as Rockefeller notoriously funded the eugenics movement, in an attempt to further his power and as Chesterton cynically notes to provide workers for his business. Indeed, the documented evidence against Rockefeller's involvement in such immoralities is enormous and certainly merits additional study. While many of those who supported eugenics (and especially birth control) consisted of those among the Socialist Left, Chesterton notes that these individuals remain largely dupes to their elite controllers, as well as radical feminists who fail to understand the true virtues of womanhood. Certainly these radical feminists (almost entirely composed of women from the upper classes, coincidentally) do not represent the vast majority of the female race, who are certainly not opposed to motherhood, whether or not they personally desire to become mothers themselves. These sorts of observations of Chesterton would prove especially prescient, especially in light of the events that were to come during the Second World War (as well as the evils of the Soviet state bureaucracy) and the modern day legalization of abortion and proliferation of birth control methods. While eugenists maintain that they are champions of the poor or of the unborn child, as Chesterton shows they are merely evil individuals among the elite classes whose sole interest is limiting the growth of "undesirable" elements within society, or alarmist Malthusians. This essay of Chesterton reveals him as a champion of liberty and individualism against the encroaching influence of a maleficent state, under the control of elite plutocrats, as well as a compassionate individual who truly cares for the human person. The book ends with a series of compiled pieces from various eugenics journals and birth control writers, noting their diabolical features as well as their arrogant criticism of Chesterton and Belloc.

Virtual Organisms: The Startling World of Artificial Life

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EnterýInorganic Life
An Excellent Introductory Text
Annoying, boring
Wonderful book for the rest of us.
Not recommended

Virtual Organisms: The Startling World of Artificial Life
Mark Ward
Manufacturer: Thomas Dunne Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Artificial Life: A Report from the Frontier Where Computers Meet Biology
Artificial Life: An Overview (Complex Adaptive Systems)
Emergence: The Connected Lives of Ants, Brains, Cities, and Software

ASIN: 031226691X

Book Description

Harmless artificial life forms are on the loose on the Internet. Computer viruses and even robots are now able to evolve like their biological counterparts. Telecommunications companies are sending small packets of software to go forth and multiply to cope with ever-increasing telephone traffic. Protein-based computers are on the agenda, and a team in Japan is building an organic brain as clever as a kitten. Welcome to the startling world of Artificial Life.

Artificial Life scientists are taking inanimate materials such as computer software and robots and making them behave just like living organisms. In the process they are discovering much about what drives evolution and just what it means to say that something is alive. Virtual Organisms traces the origins of this field from the days when it was practiced by a few maverick scientists to the present and the current boom in Alife research.

Leading technology correspondent Mark Ward presents a fascinating survey of current ideas about the origins of life and the engines of evolution. Through interviews with leading developers of Artificial Life, and through his own compelling research, Ward shows how the convergence of technology with biology has enormous implications.

In an accessible, entertaining manner, Virtual Organisms reveals an unexplored avenue in predicting the future of Artificial Life , and whether new forms of Alife may be evolving beyond their designer's control.

Customer Reviews:

EnterýInorganic Life.......2002-10-15

This book is an interesting survey of progress in using intelligent computer programs like cellular automata to replace older, more rigid programs. Ward attempts to redefine life as the passing of information. He concludes that "the informational basis of life can be abstracted away from the bodies we find it in and lose nothing in the process."

He wants to attribute "life" to both organic and inorganic species, thus his title. He moves by steps to show that the quality of human life is no more special than the life of plants, birds, mammals, insects, algae and fish. Although man has advantages with manipulating symbols, other life forms are superior as receptors of smells (ants and dogs) and gravitational maps (salmon and migrating birds). Ward wants the reader to accept the idea that there is nothing any more special about human life than there is about ant life. In fact many of the Artificial Life programs were inspired by ant behavior. All life becomes a matter of processing information.

Most of the examples given were in the field of telecommunications, network switching. Parallels were drawn between the information passed in DNA replication and that passed by computer programs. The groups he discusses are endeavoring to breed software in an evolutionary manner analogous to breeding animal life. To his thinking a string of computer bits are agents analogous to a string of amino acids in the chromosome of living agents-interesting ideas.

An Excellent Introductory Text.......2001-12-05

I have to disagree with many of the other reviewers that have commented on this text as I feel that it provides an excellent introduction to the field of Artificial Life. Any reader who picks up a 'penguin' style softback book with a jazzy cover running to no more than a couple of hundred pages and expects entensive algorthmic listings has little or no experience of printed IT literature. Bearing in mind the limitations imposed upon the author by the parameters of this work, this text provides an excellent theoretical perpective of the field free from the restrictive and time consuming portrayal of endless lines of coding that some reviewers would prefer to see. This is not a technical manual and does not purport to be, it is an excellent introductory text designed for those who use computers and are not used by them.

Annoying, boring.......2001-05-18

The first entire chapter is just an annoying and unconvincing lecture on evolution that has, from what I can see, nothing to do with the book. The rest seems to be nothing but a history lecture on the people that researched and developed the concepts of digital DNA, cellular automa (Like Conway's game of life) etc... The history was mildly amusing, but without getting very technical, the author lost my intrest soon.

Wonderful book for the rest of us........2001-05-15

Another book from an English writer that covers the subject of information in living organisms. This follows on the subject covered in "The Bit and the Pendulum" about the DNA and RNA using digital code in the process of reproduction. Nerds are not invited to read the book. English writers seem to stay away from the Hype and let us in on Memes and Genes and present research on psychology in a methodical manner that references wide ranging thinking and writing such as this one does.

Not recommended.......2001-01-05

The book description states, "...Mark Ward presents a fascinating survey..." but the book does not even come close to remotely interesting. The cover art, title, and book description are the highlights of this book, anything beyond that is an extremely dry read.

I am surprised that such an interesting subject could be transformed into such a boring lecture. The first 60 pages is dedicated to a tedious review of basic evolution which has become common knowledge. Only later, after losing the readers' interest, does Ward begin to tie this in with the actual subject of the book, artificial life. Yet even when he gets to artificial life, programming codes are not included in the book, so don't even think about it. It's as if Ward were a humanities major writing an extremely tiresome thesis on artificial life.

Book Description

This contemporary approach to liberal arts math breaks away from traditional instruction and moves towards a more “modern” course that stresses rich ideas, little review, and more visualization. This readerfriendly book offers an accessible writing style and mathematical integrity. Its unique three-part organization (Life, Society, the World) presents readers with sound, relevant mathematics, leaving them with the (correct) impression that math is useful and affects their lives in many positive ways. Mathematical Structures and Methods. Descriptive Statistics. Collecting and Interpreting Data. Inferential Statistics. Probability. Consumer Mathematics. Management Mathematics. Critical Thinking, Logical Reasoning, and Problem Solving. Geometry. Growth and Scaling. For anyone who needs to learn or review basic math concepts and practical applications.

Evolution Isn't What It Used to Be: The Augmented Animal and the Whole Wired World

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A bit slow going, but thought-provoking
An outstanding book on biotechnology and it future
A superficial book based on unfair generalizations.

Evolution Isn't What It Used to Be: The Augmented Animal and the Whole Wired World
Walter Truett Anderson
Manufacturer: W.H. Freeman & Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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The Future of the Self
The Next Enlightenment: Integrating East and West in a New Vision of Human Evolution
The Truth about the Truth (New Consciousness Reader)

ASIN: 0716731347

Amazon.com

From the author of Reality Isn't What it Used to Be, comes a new book questioning the burgeoning enterprise of genetic engineering. Anderson argues that technology, in replicating nature's chemistry, will actually transform the process of evolution, creating man-machine interdependency. While this could permit us to eradicate fatal illnesses or create a "global nervous system" to determine how to manage natural resources, Anderson warns there could be dire consequences. Some people, as they do now, may refuse to accept technology. For those who do accept, comes the responsibility of playing God or becoming a "worldmaker." Anderson believes a moral examination of technology is needed, and that ultimately, some form of governance must be in place.

Customer Reviews:

A bit slow going, but thought-provoking.......2003-02-23

The title is misleading for this book in that it is only peripherally concerned with Darwin's theory. The subtitle is only slightly better. The difficulty in naming this book is its interdisciplinary nature. Anderson covers biology, cybernetics, information technology, agriculture, environmentalism, and genetic research. Although all are specialized fields, Anderson shows how they interact with each other cud every one of us. It is an exciting time to be alive, Anderson says.

Like many popular books on science, Evolution starts off slowly. Because Anderson cannot be sure of the background that every reader brings to his book, he spends the first half of each section in a survey of one or two of his inter-connected subjects. Interspersed in the survey are some delectable bits of controversy and discovery, but he saves the items That have the most impact for the last sections. Since the book is organized into four different sections, this makes for a thrilling roller coaster ride through some of the most exiting terrain in science today.

In the first 50 pages, I was somewhat bored by Anderson's prose (he is no David Quammen) and slightly skeptical of his early opinions. At the halfway point I realized that I was reading much more smoothly and often nodding my head at the text. When I found myself quoting this book at a business meeting the next day, I knew I was learning from this book.

Anderson's basic thesis is that humans have taken control of their own evolution, and the mechanisms of this control are the convergence of biology and technology, and seen today in the growing field of biotech. I have long thought that information is the opposite of entropy (in a local sense) and Anderson closely dovetails into this idea with his concept of information being the control mechanism by which we modify our biological environment. In a sense we have done this in the past, through the use of corrective lenses and vaccines. But these are only baby steps compared to the strides we may be capable of shortly.

Anderson's personal background is rooted in the environmental movement (which, if you were unaware of it, you find out in the last section), and his moderate stance on certain issues is quite refreshing compared to the demagoguery we are subjected to daily. While you may disagree with his predictions, it is important to think about and discuss them.

An outstanding book on biotechnology and it future.......1998-12-23

I've read a lot of books on biotechnology, and I have to say that this is my absolute favorite. Dr. Anderson has tremendous insight, and does a nice job explaining this how this tremendously powerful technology is going to affect all of us, and in fact already does. An excellent book.

A superficial book based on unfair generalizations........1998-12-07

Anderson argues that evolution has accelerated tremendously as a result of the "augmentation" of humans through technology. Because Anderson is so enthralled with technological developments, he doesn't pay much attention to the downside. He breathlessly reports on one invention after another without acknowledging that they don't always work the way they're supposed to. For example, he talks about the wonders of penile implants without saying a word about all the problems people have experienced with them. Anderson talks in grant generalizations that are removed from concrete reality. He likes to think of himself as the practical guy in the middle of the extremists of the right and left, but he is basically setting up straw men; he exhibits little interest in trying to understand where they are really coming from. So, for example, he portrays what he calls "the Far Green" as follows: "By demonizing technology, it renders itself incapable of helping us to understand life in a high-technology, informatizing world." If he stopped to think about what he means by "demonizing technology," he would realize how nonsensical his charge is. There are legitimate criticisms to be made of some environmentalists, but Anderson makes no attempt to evaluate them fairly.

Artificial Worlds: Computers, Complexity, and the Riddle of Life

Average customer rating:

for the Biology Scientist who wants to make computer models
Computers and evolution
Computers and evolution
misleading title

Artificial Worlds: Computers, Complexity, and the Riddle of Life
Richard Morris
Manufacturer: Plenum Publishing Corporation
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Book Description

An exciting exploration of how complexity theory is answering all of our questions about evolution and might even show us how life developed.

Customer Reviews:

for the Biology Scientist who wants to make computer models.......2001-07-18

This book is a must for the Biology scientist knowing a little about computers and how they work, if you want to study the Evolution and nature of life on a computer. I found it so overwhelming that I decided to become a Biology scientist and focus my life on making simulations of the Evolution of Life by making computer models. So many things to discover! So little time!

Computers and evolution.......2000-06-19

I am writing review this because a previous review may mislead some people. This book does not claim to deal with Artificial Life; instead, computers are used to provide a better understanding of life's processes, especially evolution. Given that this is the stated objective of the author, the book is excellent, well written, and rich with examples.

I have purchased multiple copies of this book because I have "loaned" my copies to people interested in computational evolution. When I leave administration, I would like to teach a course in evolution, and if it is not too far in the future, I will require this book as outside reading.

Computers and evolution.......2000-06-19

misleading title.......2000-03-02

This book is a superficial discussion of evolution on earth, not artificial life. The actual content on artificial life and agents would make a mediocre and short magazine article. This book brings out the shortcommings of buying a book online because less than five minutes in a bookstore aisle would reveal the uselessness of this book.

Possessing Nature: Museums, Collecting, and Scientific Culture in Early Modern Italy (Studies on the History of Society and Culture , No 20)

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Possessing Nature: Museums, Collecting, and Scientific Culture in Early Modern Italy (Studies on the History of Society and Culture , No 20)
Paula Findlen
Manufacturer: University of California Press
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Binding: Paperback

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Wonders and the Order of Nature, 1150-1750
Merchants and Marvels: Commerce, Science, and Art in Early Modern Europe
To Have and To Hold
The Eye of the Lynx: Galileo, His Friends, and the Beginnings of Modern Natural History
Cultures of Natural History

ASIN: 0520205081

Book Description

In 1500 few Europeans regarded nature as a subject worthy of inquiry. Yet fifty years later the first museums of natural history had appeared in Italy, dedicated to the marvels of nature. Italian patricians, their curiosity fueled by new voyages of exploration and the humanist rediscovery of nature, created vast collections as a means of knowing the world and used this knowledge to their greater glory.
Drawing on extensive archives of visitors' books, letters, travel journals, memoirs, and pleas for patronage, Paula Findlen reconstructs the lost social world of Renaissance and Baroque museums. She follows the new study of natural history as it moved out of the universities and into sixteenth- and seventeenth-century scientific societies, religious orders, and princely courts. Findlen argues convincingly that natural history as a discipline blurred the border between the ancients and the moderns, between collecting in order to recover ancient wisdom and the development of new textual and experimental scholarship. Her vivid account reveals how the scientific revolution grew from the constant mediation between the old forms of knowledge and the new.

Infertility in the Modern World: Present and Future Prospects (Biosocial Society Symposium Series)

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Infertility in the Modern World: Present and Future Prospects (Biosocial Society Symposium Series)

Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
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Binding: Paperback

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philosophy hope in a jar daily moisturizer
Braun IRT 4020 ThermoScan Ear Thermometer

ASIN: 0521643872

Book Description

As we enter the twenty-first century, a number of medical, environmental, and social changes have profoundly affected human reproduction. This book discusses some of the more dramatic changes in an accessible manner, illustrating the ways in which human biology and culture can affect fertility. It provides a unique interdisciplinary perspective on the subject. Topics of discussion include medical technological advances that equip us with potential cures for many causes of infertility; diseases, such as AIDS, that have a devastating impact on the reproductive and social lives of humans; increasing industrialization and the development of fabricated materials that pollute our environment in unforeseen ways with possibly devastating effects on human health and fertility; and social revolutions that profoundly alter human relationships, such as nonmarital unions between heterosexual couples, same-sex relationships, and adoption and surrogacy.

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