Book Description
This book describes how understanding the structure of reality leads to the Theory of Everything Equation. The equation unifies the forces of nature and enables the merging of relativity with quantum theory. The book explains the big bang theory and everything else.
Customer Reviews:
The Real Deal.......2006-09-25
Although Mr. Wheatley is a little verbose in sections, his documentation of Zen Buddhistic Principles found throughout the disciplines of Mathematics, Physics, Theology, etc. forms a nice reference guide for anyone tuned into that wavelength. In particular, his explanation of how Godel's Theorem and Cantor's "Confusion" shed great light on the difference between GOD's Logic and Man's Logic should be a revelation to any undergraduate level math students who encounter these ideas for the first time. Curiously, Mr. Wheatley makes many misstatements about both Zen Buddhism Principles and the Bible, however. For example, by accepting the false biblical teaching of Original Sin, he misses the point that eating the proverbial apple gave Adam and Eve the ability to make Moral Discernments in fulfillment of GOD'S PERFECT PLAN. As proof, read Genesis 1 which states that Man and Woman were made in GOD's Image. Genesis 4 shows that Adam and Eve weren't the first humans on Earth at all, there were plenty of others by then. The allegorical meaning of the story of Eden, then, isn't that Adam and Eve were the first humans on Earth, but they were the first humans with the ability to make Moral Discernments (in GOD's Image). In fact, Moral Discernment is God's Unique Gift to Man, which is the basis of consciousness, not some Math Formula. But because the wages of the resulting, unavoidable sin are Death, many people foolishly try to return to Eden by: (1) living a sinless Life (2) by removing choice altogether by passing and enforcing strict Laws (3) by attempting to do away with Moral Discernment and the resulting consequences for our actions altogether by trying to remove Shame from Shameful actions. GOD is not some ethereal Man-In-Space, but is simply the Totality of all Real Things, The Set of All Real Sets. GOD's Love manifests itself from the amazing sub-atomic relationships that underly this magic Life all the way to the grandest of Macroscopic Scales, the Interconnected Totality itself. The Zen Buddhism connection can be found by simply superimposing the 0 symbol and the symbol for infinity (8 on its side) in Mr. Wheatley's supposedly "new" formulation that 1 = 0 x infinity. Superimposing them gives you the yin-yang symbol. A potential disadvantage of artificially separating the infinity from the zero, however, is that Mr. Wheatley is able to equate the entire expression to be equal to 1. This potentially might obscure the fact that the deepest meaning of the yin-yang symbol is that it is both 2 and 1 AT THE SAME TIME. His overall equation does preserve that important meaning by utilizing a single element on one side of the equation and two elements on the other side of his final TOE equation. This may be hard to see for some at first, however, which could potentially obscure the richest meaning of this beautiful symbol/equation. A much more GODLY TOE, in my opinion, comes from Euler, who discovered that e ^ (i * pi) - 1 = 0. When someone can explain that relationship, then they can say they know GOD.
A life changing experience??.......2005-06-13
This book is an easy read and does succeed in being somewhat thought-provoking. However, I am a little surprised at the awesome, "life changing" experience it apparently was for many of the readers. Wheatley's conclusions were interesting but nothing really new. All of his material should have passed through the mind of any thinking person without the aid of this book.
The reason I gave this book three stars is because he uses unneccessarily wordy ways of describing simple things. Also, the author and many other reviewers insist that Wheatley makes only one assumption. Wrong-his whole theory is one big assumption.
Overall though it was a very interesting and worthy book.
Should be Required Reading for everyone.......2004-06-26
This book will change your life. You will never think the same way you did before reading it.
I have a degree in chemistry and I think this book should be read by everyone in the sciences. Without a doubt, the best book I've ever read. Why and what are two of our best friends
A Very Important Book.......2004-01-26
I must preface my review by stating that I have never been so excited and moved by a book that I have wanted to contact the author. That is what I found myself doing upon reading this book. This book is just what its title says. The author does not "miss a beat" describing in great detail using practically every aspect of scientific knowledge from atomic structure through logic to quantum theory---we are even given a valuable explanation of Love. This text may be challenging to read for those unfamiliar with scientific terminology. And it can also be difficult for those with a science background, such as myself. However, for me it is well worth the work necessary to strive to understand the unfamiliar terminology. (I am continually learning from this book. I am presently on my third reread).
One of the author's main messages is "not" to believe anything without first verifying it with reality, as we know it. He calls it the "Personal Explanation Principle". He indicates that religions are just such belief systems that we as people "fall" victims of; because we do not verify the beliefs with the facts, as we know them, of reality. He gives a very detailed explanation of how the New Testament can be explored using his methodology.
The author methodically and meticulously walks us through his thought processes, which took 30 years to assimilate, of delineating the structure of reality and the nature of consciousness. Included in the "walk" are many of reality's phenomena made revelatory. An example of that, for me, would be the dual nature of light. It's particle/wave duality, which is explained as "functions". Also, when the author took me on the mental journey of "Setness" an exhilaration of the magnificence of life swelled up in me.
To me this is a very important book that should be read by all that are seekers of truth. It is for all those wanting to gain an understanding of the purpose for their existence, wanting to know where life is headed towards, and wanting to know who God is.
This book will enlighten and develop one's mind substantially. You will discover that this is our objective.
And yes, I contacted the author and he responded openly.
Illuminating!!!.......2002-12-30
This is a really great book. It combines philosophy and science in order to tackle a multitude of existential problems. The author's style of writing is fresh and alive, I recommend ths book to anyone interested in expanding the fronteirs of their understanding. Books I also liked are a Universe in an Nutshell by Steven Hawkings and Descent into Illusions by Paul Omeziri.
Product Description
Statistical Mechanics: Entropy, Order Parameters and Complexity (Oxford Master Series in Physics)
Customer Reviews:
Good for professors, not for students.......2007-03-08
This book is great, if you've already got an advanced physics degree and want a new/fresh look at Statistical Mechanics with a modern bent. The problems are very long and wordy, but that ususally means there's a lot of explanation...which is because none of it is explained in the text.
Excellent Advanced Statistical Mechanics Book.......2006-10-20
I immensely enjoyed studying this statistical mechanics book. I think that the author, James Sethna, has a "Feynman-like" ability to explore his subject matter with much depth, insight, and many playfully creative excursions. The exercises cover such topics as the thermodynamics of Dyson Spheres and black holes; of how many shuffles it takes to fully randomize a card deck; and of whether an advanced, intelligent being or civilization can, from a thermodynamic standpoint, manage to process an infinite number of thoughts before the heat death of the universe, or whether they are limited to a finite number of thoughts. I think that there is a lot of wisdom and insights in this book which is missing in other books I've read on statistical mechanics and thermodynamics, where I often feel overwhelmed by a zoo of partial derivatives and thermodynamic equations with little guidance given on how the entire structure fits together. I strongly recommend this book for anyone who has studied some statistical mechanics and/or thermodynamics in a lower-level undergraduate course, and is looking for more advanced upper-level undergraduate or graduate-level text.
Terrific breadth, but many grains of salt needed.......2006-06-17
I haven't yet had a chance to read this book from cover to cover. However, after several hours with it, some of its strengths and weaknesses became evident. Many of these complement each other.
It covers an exciting range of contemporary applications -- take a look at the table of contents. The problems are long, discursive, and even more intriguing than the main text, covering topics like the cosmic microwave background, origami microstructures, Langevin equations, snowflakes, biochemical reaction rates and NP-completeness. The book is rich in illustrations, and in footnotes that give an informal commentary on the main text.
One downside is that, being so wide, the coverage is also a bit thin in places. Many of the most interesting contemporary topics, such as the statistical mechanics of networks, are covered *only* in exercises. Thermodynamics is dismissed in less than 10 pages in the middle of the book, owing to that subject's being "cluttered" with a "zoo of partial derivatives, transformations and relations."
The exercises look to be more fun and tempting than usual in books on this subject. So it's a definite bummer that the book neither includes answers or hints, nor states problems in closed form ("Show that this stuff = X"). The book's web site contains only some hints for computational exercises, plus a bunch of additional problems (again, without answers). If you're interested in self-study, this tease is frustrating - an automatic one-star deduction.
There's more good news/bad news with the author's aim to be relevant to fields outside traditional physics -- e.g. in econophysics and social science. This certainly makes the book up-to-date and attractive, and was one of the reasons I bought it. But applying physics to social science is a tricky business. There's a couple hundred years of failed attempts, because people blithely modeled stuff without thinking enough about the limits within which such an analogy might be appropriate. And many who do think about those limits when deriving a model often forget about them when applying it.
An example is the Black-Scholes model of option pricing. The model's results are "simply wrong" (B. Mandelbrot). Its assumptions about volatility and the structure of the option contract aren't empirically justified. Its blind application contributed to the 1987 stock market break. And the investment fund run by one of its Nobel-laureate inventors went bust in flames in 1998. In this book, there's an exercise that walks you through some of the underlying concepts of Black-Scholes (pp. 32-33). But the author only praises the model, without so much as a footnote mentioning its darker side.
Even when doing "traditional" physics, one ignores philosophical issues at one's peril. A lot of the great physicists of the past century weren't being stupid to fret over them. On the other hand, there are lots of folks like my QM professor in the 1970s, who explained that the only reason Bohr, Heisenberg and Einstein discussed philosophy was that they didn't understand QM, "but today we understand it very well, so we don't need to worry about that stuff."
Unfortunately, this book continues that gung-ho, what-me-worry tradition. A disappointing example is the discussion of information and entropy (pp. 85 ff). The author states that interpreting entropy "not as a property of the system, but of our knowledge of the system ... cleanly resolves many otherwise confusing issues" (@ 85). This "cleanly" is a bit disingenuous, since plenty of people wouldn't agree with this interpretation (see, e.g., J. Bricmont's 1995 paper "Science of Chaos, or Chaos in Science?", available on the arXiv). The discussion of the arrow of time (pp. 80-81) does mention a couple of nuggets of relevant history, but the level of treatment is more suitable for a pre-med physics survey class than for a graduate course in stat mech.
A couple of pages later (pp. 87-90), the author slides from a discussion of Shannon entropy to discussing an algorithm for helping your roommate find her keys by asking her questions. Without acknowledging it, he introduces the notion of meaning into "information" -- but meaning wasn't relevant for Shannon. Indeed, the historical background for why Shannon called his quantity "entropy" -- John von Neumann advised him to use the term because "nobody understands entropy" -- suggests one should be very cautious about mashing up the various scientific and colloquial meanings of "information".
It's just this kind of unreflective enthusiasm when applying physics techniques outside their usual domain that leads to so many junk "Physics and Society" papers on the arXiv. At least one-half star deduction, for an upper bound of 3.5 stars.
NOTE ADDED 2007/03/27: I recently received a very gracious email from the author addressing some of the above comments. I wasn't convinced by him about Black-Scholes or entropy (which he claimed to understand "in the broad context" better than Claude Shannon or J. Bricmont), but I do appreciate his engaging me on those points. He's also prepared an answer key to the exercises, though you'll need to write to him and convince him that you aren't taking the course for credit before he'll send them to you. (In my case my review apparently was credible evidence enough; not sure what it might take in yours, but from his note it sounds like it's not an impossible task.) I can't say that this materially changes my rating of the book, but I certainly give five stars to the author for his sincerity.
Book Description
Statistics lectures have been a source of much bewilderment and frustration for generations of students. This book attempts to remedy the situation by expounding a logical and unified approach to the whole subject of data analysis.
This text is intended as a tutorial guide for senior undergraduates and research students in science and engineering. After explaining the basic principles of Bayesian probability theory, their use is illustrated with a variety of examples ranging from elementary parameter estimation to image
processing. Other topics covered include reliability analysis, multivariate optimization, least-squares and maximum likelihood, error-propagation, hypothesis testing, maximum entropy and experimental design.
The Second Edition of this successful tutorial book contains a new chapter on extensions to the ubiquitous least-squares procedure, allowing for the straightforward handling of outliers and unknown correlated noise, and a cutting-edge contribution from John Skilling on a novel numerical technique
for Bayesian computation called 'nested sampling'.
Customer Reviews:
In-Depth and Practical.......2007-08-03
Sivia and Skilling give a concise and clear exposition of Bayesian statistical analysis, and pair it with practical, real examples. It has been a great aid to me in doing actual data work. This text gets the balance of theoretical detail and practicality just right. In particular, abandoning the usual emphasis on analytical solutions and instead pairing real examples with numerical solution algorithms when appropriate, is perfect for someone concerned with applying Bayesian statistical analysis to real problems. A great and genuinely useful book!
Average customer rating:
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Systems of Conservation Laws 1: Hyperbolicity, Entropies, Shock Waves
Denis Serre
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Systems of Conservation Laws 2: Geometric Structures, Oscillations, and Initial-Boundary Value Problems
ASIN: 0521582334 |
Book Description
Systems of conservation laws arise naturally in physics and chemistry. To understand them and their consequences (shock waves, finite velocity wave propagation) properly in mathematical terms requires, however, knowledge of a broad range of topics. This book sets up the foundations of the modern theory of conservation laws describing the physical models and mathematical methods, leading to the Glimm scheme. Building on this the author then takes the reader to the current state of knowledge in the subject. The maximum principle is considered from the viewpoint of numerical schemes and also in terms of viscous approximation. Small waves are studied using geometrical optics methods. Finally, the initial-boundary problem is considered in depth. Throughout, the presentation is reasonably self contained, with large numbers of exercises and full discussion of all the ideas. This makes it an ideal text for graduate courses in the area of partial differential equations.
Book Description
Time is generally thought to be one of the more mysterious ingredients of the universe. In this intriguing book, Paul Horwich makes precise and explicit the interrelationships between time and a large number of philosophically important notions.
Ideas of temporal order and priority interact in subtle and convoluted ways with the deepest elements in our network of basic concepts. Confronting this conceptual jigsaw puzzle, Horwich notes that there are glaring differences in how we regard the past and future directions of time. For example, we can influence the future but not the past, and can easily gain knowledge of the past but not of the future. Moreover we see a profusion of decay processes but little spontaneous generation of order; time appears to "flow" in one privileged direction, not the other; and we tend to explain phenomena in terms of antecedent circumstances, rather than subsequent ones. Horwich explains such time asymmetries and examines their bearing on the nature of time itself.
Asymmetries in Time covers many notoriously difficult problems in the philosophy of science: causation, knowledge, entropy, explanation, time travel, rational choice (including Newcomb's problem), laws of nature, and counterfactual implication -- and gives a unified treatment of these matters. The book covers an unusually broad range of topics in a lucid and nontechnical way and includes alternative points of view in the philosophical literature.
Customer Reviews:
Well this IS the most psychedelic trade..........2006-01-17
...and it remained my least favorite one, neck to neck with Kissing mr. Quimper story. It is , basically, telepathic interogation of battered and bruised King Mob and Invisibles to the rescue. Since I didn't like it so much, well, get it only if you wanna see it through the end.
The Invisibles continues to astonish!.......2005-05-14
After somewhat losing its pace in Apocalipstick (I didn't care much for Jill Thompson's artwork and Lord Fanny's origin story, but it was overall a good read) the Invisibles gets back on track with this stunning addition to the title. King Mob and Lord Fanny have been captured by the Archons and are being tortured by the ruthless Sir Miles. Meanwhile Boy, a (female) member of KM's Invisibles cell, searches for Jack, the next Buddha, and Ragged Robin meets up with the voodoo rapstar Jim Crow (he has the coolest gun!). It was when Boy found Jack that the Invisibles became my favorite comic ever. The part where Barbelith (I'm not going to try to explain that...charcter?) forces Jack to feel the pain humanity has gone through (the Holocaust, famine, disease, war) is the most touching and convincing scene I have ever read in any book. Paul Johnson's rough artwork is a perfect match for Morrison's writing in the issue. So buy this volume, and then buy them all, for the Invisibles is truly an experience.
The Invisibles, Book 3: Entropy in the UK.......2005-03-16
After the sometimes-underwhelming art of the previous two collections, Phil Jimenez's artwork in the first half of Book 3 of the Invisibles is sort of like a slap to the face: vibrant, detailed, masterful. Luckily, he later became the regular artist on the series, but here he only illustrates the opening arc, a three-part saga that details King Mob's torture at the hands of Archon agents, and which also provides this volume with its title.
In a way, this is the true beginning of what the Invisibles would soon become known for: fast-paced ideas and action, and an onslaught of mysticism, fringe science, and conspiracy theories. I've never been sure if it was Jimenez's amazing artwork that lead to this, or if Morrison finally thought his readers were "ready" for the big time, but regardless, from here on out things happen, and events unfold at a maddening pace all the way until the final volume of the series.
Having been captured at the end of Book 2, Invisibles King Mob and Lord Fanny are at the mercy of Sir Miles Delacourt, straightlaced and overbearing agent of the demonic Archons. Here, finally, we get to know a bit more about King Mob, as Delacourt invades his mind and sorts through his past. This is full-on psychedelia, as King Mob attempts to defend himself in the guise of fictional character Gideon Stargrave, a mod super-spy from the `60s (and author Michael Moorcock's Jerry Cornelius in all but name; something Morrison readily admitted). This results in Delacourt waging a mental war against King Mob's psychic defenses, with the Stargrave segments providing some outrageous cross-dimensional action sequences. Very heady stuff, with lots of mystic ideas dropped, this arc is easily one of the high points of the entire series.
After this storyline, the narrative slows down for a moment as we have a single-issue peek into Boy's background. Boy, the black female martial artist Invisible, was never Morrison's strongest creation. In fact, he eventually admitted this, and basically dropped the character toward the end of the series. Therefore, her spotlight issue, "How I Became An Invisible," is probably my least favorite story in the Invisibles canon. It hints at interesting developments that later become integral to the series (shadowy government agents taking innocent black Americans prisoner, and shipping them off in mysterious trains), but Morrison ruins it all by having the characters speak in some of the most fake "black" dialog ever. You can tell he's out of his element, a Scottish writer creating "urban" dialog for inner-city black Americans. It doesn't really work.
Things get back on track after this, with the narrative picking right up after the events in the opening arc. Though King Mob and Fanny have defeated Sir Miles, they're still trapped in a building that's crawling with enemy soldiers and ultraterrestrial beings. The remaining Invisibles cell (Dane, Boy, Ragged Robin) call in reinforcements, and fellow Invisibles Jim Crow and Mr. Six show up to help. This results in a multi-issue storyline that features all sorts of high-concept action, as the Invisibles wade through hell-on-Earth protective spells and defend themselves against cancer-inducing nanoweapons.
The book ends with a single-issue look at Division X, the swaggering British counterpart of the X-Files (Mr. Six is one of the three members of Division X, incidentally). This story seemingly has nothing much to do with anything else in the series so far, until much later, when the themes brought up here are developed. The story does feature the first appearance of the impish, demonic Quimper, a frightening little creature who will cause the Invisibles much trouble in future volumes.
As mentioned, Phil Jimenez provides the art for the first half of the book, with Steve Yeowell filling in the other half. This is pleasing thematically, as Yeowell started off the series, and his finishing up the first major arc makes sense. However, I've never been the greatest fan of his work. The Boy/Division X issues are penciled by fill-in artists: one scratchy, the other Todd McFarlane-esque.
This trade paperback wraps up what was the first volume of the Invisibles comic run. After these issues, DC/Vertigo halted publication for a few months, and Morrison revised his approach to the story. After this, no longer would the story come off as methodically-paced as it had in earlier issues (the Marquis de Sade storyline in the "Say You Want a Revolution" trade in particular); instead, the series would feature nonstop action, sex, and ultraviolence. Some say this new approach was a "watered down" version of the Invisibles, but I say that's hogwash. The stories collected in this book are great, true, but the best was yet to come for the Invisibles.
Satisfyingly satisfying.......2003-03-10
Entropy in the UK concludes the story told in Vol.1 through 3. And what an ending it is...
Broken down into parts, the first 3 issues detail the torture of King Mob, and his interesting way to counteract it. Morrison is forever writing himself into his stories, and he takes off with it, writing himself as Mod Spy Gideon Stargrave. Insanity ensues...
The final issues show the Invisibles at work, fighting Ultradimensional monsters with Voodoo and Buddha. Morrison, while writing this, was struck with numerous sicknesses, cumulating in an infected lung and a serious life crisis. This shows in the story, as everyone is subjected to airborne nanotech cancer agents and King Mob suffers from a collapsed lung.
This is great storytelling, but requires that you read the first two volumes to even come close to understanding it.
A real treat.
The end of the beginning for THE INVISIBLES -- good reading.......2001-10-20
ENTROPY IN THE UK is a thought-provoking read, and a satisfying conclusion to this first major arc in THE INVISIBLES. It balances Morrison's usual rush of madcap ideas with solid plot advancement and continued character development, as Boy and Dane question their involvement with the resistance group and Fanny and King Mob try to resist psychic interrogation and torture.
The book's opening arc, also entitled Entropy in the UK, is probably my favorite. One of the recurring themes of The Invisibles is the limits of human beings' ability to perceive their surroundings - the limitations imposed on them from the outside, and the limitations they place upon themselves. The interrogation sequence in this story is one of the finest explorations of this issue, especially in its discussion of the role of language. One of the drugs that Miles and his men pump into King Mob causes him to be unable to distinguish between a word and the concept that the word describes; as Miles uses it to warp Mob's perceptions, he talks about the limits of the English language and alphabet. It's a great sequence, one that illustrates the power of words, as well as their limits. Phil Jiminez's beautiful pencils display the dazzling, chaotic landscape of King Mob's mind and thoughts, while the narration and script lay out the dizzying ideas and mantras of the two combatants. It's very clever, very enjoyable stuff.
The rest of the book is also strong, although I preferred Jiminez's work to that of any of the other artists here -- no knock against them, as I'm a really big fan of Jiminez. Morrison wraps up some threads from SAY YOU WANT A REVOLUTION and APOCALIPSTICK, and sets a number of others into motion -- so at the end of this, you'll definitely want to keep reading with BLOODY HELL IN AMERICA.
Book Description
Dr. John Sanford, a retired Cornell Professor, shows in Genetic Entropy and the Mystery of the Genome that the "Primary Axiom" is false. The Primary Axiom is the foundational evolutionary premise - that life is merely the result of mutations and natural selection. In addition to showing compelling theoretical evidence that whole genomes can not evolve upward, Dr. Sanford presents strong evidence that higher genomes must in fact degenerate over time. This book strongly refutes the Darwinian concept that man is just the result of a random and pointless natural process.
Customer Reviews:
A tragic misrepresentation of reality - read at your peril.......2007-09-21
Here's an example of how easy it is to dispose of the arguments Sandford presents in his book:
Sandford says that the problem is not survival of the fittest but arrival of the fittest, since information theory proves noise (mutation) can only degrade, not improve a signal. Sounds fair enough?
However, 'degrade' and 'improve' in information theory only refer to the accuracy with which a transmitted message is received. Of course, noise cannot make a signal a MORE accurate version of what was sent. But information theory says nothing at all about the value of the modified message to the recipient.
Easy to follow example: say a bank transfer for £100 is accidentally corrupted, and becomes a transfer of £1000. Good, or bad? Depends on whether you're paying or being paid! Same goes for if it is corrupted to £10 - its value to you depends upon context. Either change represents a degradation of the original signal - it's not what it SHOULD have been - but that's irrelevant when considering whether or not the modified signal is of greater or lesser value to the recipient.
Now, if you think an author who can miss something as obvious as that is worth listening to on a subject as complex as evolution, by all means buy his book.
Extremely Important Study of Latest Genome Research.......2007-09-04
Sanford proves definitively that natural selection has never been up to the job of weeding out the overwhelming number of slightly harmful mutations and therefore the human genome and other animal and plant genomes have been deteriorating for a long time. Also he shows that natural selection has never been able to detect and accumulate any slightly favorable mutations. Evolution desperately needs a new paradigm. The present paradigm of mutation - selection has been a big joke ever since it was introduced 70 years ago.
Prof. Sanford's population genetics points.......2007-06-12
Prof. John Sanford's population genetics points are also directly relevant to prebiotic molecular evolution models. Although written for laymen, the book contains solid academic content. The unavoidable conclusions will have far-reaching impact, and are of great significance to macroevolutionary thought. This book is a must read for academics and lay readers alike.
A few quibbles on presentation, but fascinating read.......2007-01-18
The Darwinists are going to have to address the actual allegations in this book. Dr. Sanford makes a convincing case that the genome is, and must, deteriorate. Simply put, he explains what is known about how DNA works and shows that any possible improvements must of necessity be accompanied by many more deleterious mutations.
I thought the book could have been a bit better organized, and some of the language was imprecise. I did not notice that he ever provided a working definition of "fitness." Aside from these quibbles, the overall message is quite convincing.
Note to Libb Thims: your review would be more effective if you addressed the substance of the book and forbore ad hominems.
Note to L Batik: See Appendix 4 beginning on page 189.
A Great Critique of the Neo-Darwinian Synthesis.......2006-12-23
This is a great popular-level work that analyzes the merits of the neo-Darwinian synthesis (i.e. the theory that random mutation + natural selection working through long periods of time created...oops, I used the `C' word...ahem!...resulted in...the existence of higher forms of life) and shows it to be an illusory solution to the existence of life. Rather than discussing whether or not a completely naturalistic form of evolution happened using such things as the fossil record or experimental laboratory results, Sanford analyzes the merits of the combination of chance and necessity acting on the genome of biological organisms in abstract (i.e. using statistical mathematics). Now, before you jump ship and assume that he is arguing that "the chances of such and such evolving into such and such is one chance in ten to the blah, blah, blah (really big number) power", like a few creationists have, you're wrong. Rather, he looks at the basic assumptions of neo-Darwinian evolutionary theory (NDET from now on) and compares them to what actually happens in nature. In other words, he contrasts how the ND assumption and the actual workings of nature differ greatly in their results. I will elucidate in my description of some of the chapters below.
Before I get to the review of the chapters, I would like to comment on something. It has been noted that Sanford is a young-earth creationist, and for some reason, that is like the plague to certain people. However, any honest reader of this book will also note that anyone (i.e. Christian and non-Christian) could have written the first nine (out of ten) chapters. Only in the tenth chapter does he make an argument for the historicity of Scripture. Even if it wasn't that way, Dr. Sanford, who possesses a doctorate in genetics and the inventor of the gene-gun, deserves to be heard. Now, to the chapters:
Chapter 1
Here, he discusses the basics of genetics (i.e. genes, nucleotides, genotype, phenotype, etc.) and explains what the neo-Darwinian synthesis is. He then goes through and refutes the famous computer algorithm argument used by Dawkins in The Blind Watchmaker.
Chapter 2
Here is where we start getting into the analysis of NDET. Sanford discusses the statistical distribution of mutational effects (i.e. the magnitude of good and bad mutations affecting fitness) and their frequency. Sanford points out a number of differences between NDET and reality:
A. NDET posits that most mutations are neutral. However, Sanford argues that there is no such thing as a truly "neutral" mutation. Rather, most mutations are "near-neutral" (whether increasing fitness or decreasing fitness). Even a single point-nucleotide mutation in a minor area of the genome disrupts the genetic code to some degree (no matter how small). This is key for the rest of his book.
B. The naïve view of mutational distribution is a bell curve (though many Darwinists recognize that the actual distribution found in nature is nothing like it). The real distribution is a Kimura curve (named after the *Darwinist* population geneticist who created it) where the *vast* majority of the curve is near-neutral. Sanford notes that if the normal distribution (i.e. "bell curve") was true, then an increase in complexity would be inevitable. However, with the Kimura curve, it is hard to see any substantial increase in fitness "getting off the ground" so-to-speak.
C. NDET acknowledges that most mutations are harmful, but doesn't suggest that the ratio is so small as to never allow an increase in fitness that would affect a population. Contrary to that assumption, the actual ratio, as noted by the population geneticists (most of whom are Darwinists!) whom Sanford cites, is so small that population geneticists don't even place the beneficiary curve on the distribution graph! The ratio that Sanford cites (again, from the population geneticists) is between 10,000 to 1,000,000 harmful mutations for every one beneficial (though probably closer to the former figure rather than the latter). Sanford chooses to be conservative, and for the rest of the book, he assumes the 10k ratio. Keep this in mind when the next point is cited.
D. NDET assumes that natural selection will take out all of the bad mutations and leave only the good (notice that that was a near quote of Darwin himself). However, citing the population geneticist, Kimura, for support, Sanford notes that there is a "zone of near-neutrality" on both the beneficial and harmful sides of the curve in which natural selection doesn't select for or against. This is due to the fact that most mutations are point-nucleotide mutations. These only cause an ever-so-slight decrease in fitness that natural selection can't "see" them 99% of the time. It would be like a single pixel on your television screen going out. Would you really be able to tell a difference? Furthermore, since the beneficiary mutations curve is so small (see point C. above), the "zone of near-neutrality" (a.k.a. the "no-selection box") covers 99% of the beneficiary mutation side of the distribution! This ensures that natural selection will never see 99% of the good mutations while allowing the bad (which are vastly greater in number) to accumulate. Thus, the genome will suffer from "genetic entropy" (and hence the title of the book).
Now, a typical reply (which is, in fact, found below in one of the negative reviews) is that biologists have witnessed and documented such beneficiary mutations that have given great benefit to organisms in their environment. However, many biologists are becoming aware that the vast majority of these changes in phenotype are due to "pre-programmed" changes in the genome, not random ones as NDET demands. Secondly, as Sanford points out in Appendix 4, many of these "beneficial" mutations actually end up giving the organism a net decrease in fitness (as in the case of homeostasis in cold-climate creatures to warm climates or drug-resistant bacteria) making them deleterious in reality!
Chapter 3
Here, he starts to go into human population genetics. He cites several twentieth century population geneticists who believed that if there were as many as 0.5 deleterious mutations per person per generation, then the human race would be doomed to extinction. He then cites the actual number of 100 deleterious mutations per person per generation! This is a topic that he comes back to in other chapters of his book. However, from now on, I will concentrate on the implications for NDET. Next, he debunks the junk-DNA and pseudo-gene myth (i.e. those genes really do have a function as scientists are now finding out).
Chapter 4
In this chapter, he discusses the actual power of natural selection as found in nature compared to that which is presupposed by NDET. He notes that most biologists see natural selection as a "magic wand" that eliminates any decrease in complexity while preserving all those changes and variations which give an increase in fitness. Here, he points out a few more problems with NDET when it is contrasted with reality:
E. NDET presupposes that each individual nucleotide is selected for or against. This is a necessary presupposition for all (or even most) deleterious mutations to be selected out (since most mutations are point-nucleotide mutations). In reality, however, it is an entire gene that is selected for or against. In combination with the 10,000 bad to good mutation ratio, this will ensure that for every (random) beneficial mutation that occurs on a gene, there will be (on average) 10,000 bad ones of the same magnitude (as that of the good). This is what Sanford calls "Muller's Ratchet" (named after another population geneticist). Even if a gene with a beneficial mutation is selected for, it will carry many, many more deleterious ones with it. This inevitably causes genetic entropy, not a complexity increase.
F. While he noted, in chapter 2, that natural selection doesn't see most of the mutations that occur in the genome (i.e. the "near-neutral" ones which comprise 70-80% of all the bad and 99% of all good), the problem is actually worse due to environmental "noise". Environmental "noise" is simply the fact that random environmental factors affect who survives to a much greater degree than general fitness. For example, a tree may have greater fitness than that of another tree. However, if the seed of the one with greater fitness lands in a deep valley with little sunlight, and the other lands on a hill that receives proper sunlight, then the one with lesser fitness will survive. In fact, the population geneticist, Kimura (remember: a Darwinist himself), estimates that heritability due to phenotypic superiority (i.e. fitness) is as low as 0.4%! Thus, the "no-selection" box is increased *several* fold, ensuring that the vast majority of all bad mutations will go unnoticed by natural selection, and 99.99% of all beneficial mutations will also go unnoticed. So, while NDET assumes that all (or almost all) selection is due to general fitness, reality says that only about 1/250 of all selection is due to general fitness.
G. While not stated explicitly, NDET presupposes an infinite selection "bank" from which it can assume that all members of a population without a superior genotype can be killed off, leaving only those with superior fitness. [Otherwise, the beneficial mutation would be diluted when it is mingled with the rest of the population.] In reality, however, the selection cost to make a single beneficial mutation (no matter how small) dominant in a population is near extinction! [Sanford cites Kimura who, after doing the math, estimated that each parent in a population must leave about 3.27 million offspring in order to keep up with the selection pressure!] Thus, even if you kill off almost all of a population to keep one beneficial mutation, you will never be able to stop the deterioration of the genome due to the ratio of bad to good mutations and the resultant in-breeding among such a small population. Again, genetic entropy, not increasing complexity, is inevitable.
Chapters 5, 6, 7, and 8
Here, he goes through and refutes various attempts to save NDET from all the problems with it (as mentioned above). Also discussed is the deterioration of the human genome.
Chapter 9
In this chapter, Sanford discusses more of what was discussed in chapters 5-8, but he also throws in several more problems with NDET:
H. NDET assumes that the billions of years (a.k.a. "deep time") that the earth has been in existence is plenty of time for random mutation and natural selection to give rise to the diversity of life found today. [In my personal experience, I have found that even the mention of "deep time" is enough to dispel any doubts a Darwinist has in his heart about NDET!] However, even assuming that the above problems (A.-G.) don't exist, the time needed to make only one beneficial nucleotide mutation dominant in a population is *far* too long for even the "deep time" provided. Sanford cites J.B.S. Haldane, another Darwinian geneticist, who calculated that (again, ignoring problems A.-G. above) it would take 300 generations to make a genetic trait fixed in a population. [Note: 300 generations is a conservative number. The average number found in nature is larger than 300.] So, for example, it would take several billion years for a chimp-like ancestor to evolve into a human (again, assuming only beneficial mutations). This famous problem for neo-Darwinism has historically been known as "Haldane's Dilemma".
I. NDET assumes that DNA is a linear code, and that one change in a sequence won't affect other functions in the phenotype. However, recent discoveries have shown that most DNA sequences are "poly-constrained". That is, DNA sequences can have meanings on several different levels. For example, imagine a coded message that has a valid meaning when read forward, another valid meaning when read backwards, another every 5 letters, and yet another when placed on top of another few messages (making it 3D). This is how most DNA functions, just more complex! Any change in the code could cause an incoherent message, and thus, one good mutation one way might also cause several bad mutations in other ways.
J. Irreducible Complexity. [There has been much debate on this topic, but I agree with Sanford (and Behe for that matter) that direct *and indirect* Darwinian pathways are extremely unlikely (and might as well be impossible). See Behe's Afterword in the 10th anniversary edition of Darwin's Black Box.]
Chapter 10
Sanford concludes that the degeneration of the genome is unstoppable and Darwinism could never have gotten off the ground. Contrary to one reviewer's beliefs about this book, Sanford only spends a few paragraphs on the declining life-spans of the generations of men after Noah. He shows that the life-spans of post-flood man, as recorded in the Bible, follow a curve that is eerily similar to a declining fitness curve found in earlier chapters of this book. In fact, Sanford believes that these recorded life-spans could only have been fabricated if the writer of the Pentateuch (i.e. the 5 books of Moses) used "sophisticated mathematical modeling". Of course, while this makes Christians (like myself) smile with joy, it probably won't convince any non-believers.
Everyone who follows this debate should own this book. Even if you are hostile to anyone that even questions NDET, you should read it since college I.D. clubs are handing this book out to their members and, undoubtedly, biology students. My personal opinion is that Sanford gives a devastating critique of neo-Darwinian evolutionary theory. These are insurmountable problems for NDET, and the math and logic prove it. Instead of climbing up Mount Improbable (using Dawkins' analogy), the genome is tumbling down Mt. Impossible!
Book Description
Statistics lectures have often been viewed with trepidation by engineering and science students taking an ancillary course in this subject. Whereas there are many texts showing "how" statistical methods are applied, few provide a clear explanation for non-statisticians of how the principles of data analysis can be based on probability theory. Data Analysis: A Bayesian Tutorial provides such a text, putting emphasis as much on understanding "why" and "when" certain statistical procedures should be used as "how". This difference in approach makes the text ideal as a tutorial guide for senior undergraduates and research students, in science and engineering. After explaining the basic principles of Bayesian probability theory, their use is illustrated with a variety of examples ranging from elementary parameter estimation to image processing. With its central emphasis on a few fundamental rules, this book takes the mystery out of statistics by providing a clear rationale for some of the most widely-used procedures.
Customer Reviews:
concise but clear.......2006-03-06
Sivia offers a brief but thorough explanation of how to use Bayesians in data analysis. He illustrates with important examples that commonly often arise in the sciences. As in estimating the true amplitude of a signal in the presence of background noise. These days, for anyone in a lab sitting next to an electronic gadget acquiring data, you can surely emphathise with this problem.
The necessary background for his book includes being familiar with multivariable calculus. Specifically, with the Taylor expansion in several variables, and with the Jacobian matrix of second partial derivatives. Plus of course a grounding in statistics, including maximum likelihood estimations and the normal distribution.
A gem........2005-12-05
This tutorial on Bayesian data analysis is a gem: very terse, yet explaining the concepts very clearly, giving many insightful examples along the way. This is achieved within only 180 pages by focussing on understanding and intuition instead of mathematical formalism. After reading this tutorial, the reader will be familiar with the way of thinking in Bayesian statistics. The tutorial thus encourages the reader to get more independent from the (conceptually more complicated) cook book statistics with the associated risk of misusage. When reading this book I felt as if a whole jumble of more or less unconnected pieces of statistical wisdom was finally falling into place within the Bayesian framework.
A few critical remarks: (1) A clearer structure with more informative section and subsection headings would help to quicker find things and keep the material orderly in one`s mind. (As an example, the two core chapters are entitled Parameter estimation I" and Parameter estimation II"). (2) The chapter on non-paramteric estimation is much harder to understand than the first six chapters. This is in part justified by the advancedness of the topic but it could profit from a streamlining (and updating). (3) This book certainly would have the chance to become much more popular than it is now if it was more reasonably priced.
The reader should have a firm command of elementary probability theory, first year calculus (Taylor expansion, multidimensional integration, finding the maximum of a multi-variable function), as well as elementary linear algebra (diagonalization, eigenvectors, determinants). Ideally, she should be familiar with basic classical statistics, as this will make her appreciate the elegance of the Bayesian view more. Physicists will love this book.
Bayes' Theorem made simple.......2004-10-02
This is an excellent tutorial for the both the beginner (undergraduate) and more advanced scientist. Sivia takes the reader through several examples with simple and concise explanations. I have used many of the examples discussed in the book as starting points for problems that I have encountered in my work. I would recommend giving it a try...
Learn what it means to be a "Bayesian".......2004-09-15
For years I listened to people present "Bayesian" solutions to problems without appreciating the subtler implications of the term. Bayes' theorem is one of the first topics taught in freshman-level probability and statistics. It's taught, and it's used, but it isn't a central part of the teaching of modern statistics.
Bayesians make it central. Sivia does a masterful job of deriving most of statistics from judicious applications of Bayes' theorem. He can do this, in part, because the visible universe is finite. Infinities and limit theorems can be bypassed, and previously impossible functional forms become workable.
The book is a tutorial; you have to think. But it's well worth it.
poor pedagogy.......2004-01-17
Maybe it's just me but I found this book not very helpful. The easy stuff is repeated often (Bayes's theorem is quoted every few pages) but when a difficulty arises it is glossed over. Maybe it gets better: I decided not to finish the book.
Product Description
Buffy, the Vampire Slayer: Gatekeeper Omnibus of three novelizations (all 1999) in a trilogy based on the TV show based on the movie: Out of the Madhouse, Ghost Roads, and Sons of Entropy. This special SFBC edition has ISBN 0-7394-0582-9; it lacks a price and has the SFBC number on the back jacket. Copyrighted by Twentieth Century Fox.
Customer Reviews:
Still the best of the "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" novels.......2004-08-03
"Buffy the Vampire Slayer" is dead and gone and so is "Angel," so all we have left are comic books and novels continuing the adventures of Joss Whedon's characters. As we are about to finish our first decade of the "BtVS" universe in terms of novels "The Gatekeeper Trilogy" by Christopher Golden and Nancy Holder is still the standard by which such things are judged, especially if one is ambitious enough to attempt a "BtVS" and/or "Angel" trilogy.
"The Gatekeeper Trilogy" is an epic story that manages to get the Slayer and the Scoobies out of Sunnydale. Unbound by considerations of stage space and shooting budgets the first volume, "Out of the Madhouse" manages to get the Slayer and most of her cohorts to Boston. The plot has to do with the Sons of Entropy trying to unleash chaos on the world at the behest of Il Maestro, who works mainly behind the scenes in Book One. Suddenly all sorts of wicked things come to Sunnydale and it turns out that there have been released from the Gatehouse where the Gatekeeper is dying, leading up to an initial showdown in Boston. The other recurring concern throughout the book is more personal, dealing with what Buffy, Xander, Willow and the gang are going to do when they get finally graduate high school, so there is a concern for the entropy of the group along with the potential destruction of all human life on the planet. Implicit in their concerns is the unspoken knowledge that Buffy is fated to die young as a slayer and their realization that whatever hopes and aspirations they might have seem somewhat secondary to saving the world from big evil.
The middle volume, "The Ghost Roads," is the best in the trilogy. The Ghost Roads of the title are a network of inter-dimensional shortcuts that allow Buffy, Angel and Oz to travel quickly to Europe to search for the son of the dying Gatekeeper. What they do not know is that Spike and Drusilla have the boy and are looking to make a deal with the Sons of Entropy. Meanwhile, back in Sunnydale, the Flying Dutchman has appeared off shore causing problems for Giles and the rest of the Scooby Gang. Even worse, the Sons of Entropy have kidnapped Joyce Summers in an effort to force the Slayer to return so Buffy can be sacrificed by Il Maestro to the greater glory of his demon overlord and the end of the world as we know it. Golden and Holder are clearly working on that higher level in this book: Giles has to leave behind students to die during an escape, Angel tortures a wounded man to get vital information, and Joyce deals with the idea of sacrificing herself so that Buffy can save the world (Note: This is NOT a Buffy book for younger readers).
In the concluding volume, "Sons of Entrophy," the truly tragic figure that emerges from this trilogy is Jacques Regnier, the young boy who has to become the Gatekeeper following the death of his father. His fate is different from that of Buffy as the Slayer, but he is also a Chosen One and there is a certain pathos to his having to grow up too quickly. The creation of the Gatekeeper and the Gatehouse are one of the best ideas to come out of the "BtVS" books. Ironically, Buffy has less to do that most of the other characters in the final volume, but it was definitely great to see that Xander have a bright shinning moment as the substitute Gatekeeper. His character had been the comic relief for the Scooby Gang for so long that you forget he brought Buffy back from the dead at the end of season one. They also do a nice job of getting to what Cordelia is thinking behind her tactless remarks, but Oz is back to quipping a bit too much as he was in Book One and Willow is much more the successful little wicca she ended up being in the series. However, the character who really shines in this volume is Joyce Summers, dealing with being the mother of the Slayer as best she can.
Golden and Holder were perfectly suited to the task of constructing a literary epic for Buffy, not only because they are far and away the best writers working on the Buffy books but also because they have researched the characters and the attendant mythos of the series, having worked on all of the official companion guides for the series. They have come up with a plot line well suited to a three volume tale and you only have to read a couple of chapters to acknowledge this book is so far above the vast majority of the Buffy books. Furthermore, they get beyond the surface level with all of the characters, although admittedly they are guilty of putting too many quips into dialogue. They get the important stuff right. It has been several years since "The Gatekeeper Trilogy" first came out and you still will not find a better Buffy the Vampire Slayer story (Golden's "The Lost Slayer" serial novels come closest).
Book Description
Over 130 years ago, James Clerk Maxwell introduced his hypothetical "demon" as a challenge to the scope of the second law of thermodynamics. Fascination with the demon persisted throughout the development of statistical and quantum physics, information theory, and computer science, and links have been established between Maxwell's demon and each of these disciplines. The demon's seductive quality makes it appealing to physical scientists, engineers, computer scientists, biologists, psychologists, and historians and philosophers of science. Since the publication of Maxwell's Demon: Entropy, Information, Computing in 1990, Maxwell's demon has been the subject of renewed and increased interest by numerous researchers in the fields mentioned above. Updated and expanded, Maxwell's Demon 2: Entropy, Classical and Quantum Information, Computing retains many of the seminal papers that appeared in the first edition, including the original thoughts of James Clerk Maxwell and William Thomson; a historical review by Martin Klein; and key articles by Leo Szilard, Leon Brillouin, Rolf Landauer, and Charles Bennett that led to new branches of research on the demon. This second edition contains newer articles by Landauer, Bennett, and others, related to Landauer's principle; connections with quantum mechanics; algorithmic information; and the thermodynamics and limits of computation. The book also includes two separate bibliographies: an alphabetical listing by author and a chronological bibliography that is annotated by the editors and contains selected quotes from the books and articles listed. The bibliography has more than doubled in size since publication of the first edition and now contains over 570 entries.
Customer Reviews:
The Second Law.......2007-01-16
A collection of articles that explain the Second Law of Thermodynamics by looking at its most famous violator. It contains articles by William Thompson (who had not yet been made Lord Kelvin), Leo Szilard, Charles Bennett, Rolf Landauer and a cartoon by Larry Gonick (a fragment of which, a grinning little demon sitting on Maxwell's shoulder, is on the cover). The modern solution to the paradox posed by the demon is that the erasure of previously stored information in order to make room for the result of the observation increases the entropy of the demon by at least as much as the entropy of the vessel is decreased. Read Feynman Lectures on Computation for more context.
Clear, complete, and well-organized.......2003-02-20
Maxwell's Demon 2 is one of the best books I've found in the field - the authors address key issues in a clear and engaging manner. This is an excellent and well-organized reference book and includes any number of original papers which are difficult to find through other sources. Highly recommended.
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