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.

The Nature of Consciousness : The Structure of Reality: Theory of Everything Equation Revealed : Scientific Verification and Proof of Logic God Is

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The Real Deal
A life changing experience??
Should be Required Reading for everyone
A Very Important Book
Illuminating!!!

The Nature of Consciousness : The Structure of Reality: Theory of Everything Equation Revealed : Scientific Verification and Proof of Logic God Is
Jerry Davidson Wheatley
Manufacturer: Research Scientific Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0970316100

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.

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Reasoned, honest discussion
Brilliant Brevity
Review by a Social Scientist
An attempt at reconciling science and religion
About right on the question of religion and science

God's Universe
Owen Gingerich
Manufacturer: Belknap Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0674023706

Book Description

We live in a universe with a very long history, a vast cosmos where things are being worked out over unimaginably long ages. Stars and galaxies have formed, and elements come forth from great stellar cauldrons. The necessary elements are present, the environment is fit for life, and slowly life forms have populated the earth. Are the creative forces purposeful, and in fact divine?

Owen Gingerich believes in a universe of intention and purpose. We can at least conjecture that we are part of that purpose and have just enough freedom that conscience and responsibility may be part of the mix. They may even be the reason that pain and suffering are present in the world. The universe might actually be comprehensible.

Taking Johannes Kepler as his guide, Gingerich argues that an individual can be both a creative scientist and a believer in divine design--that indeed the very motivation for scientific research can derive from a desire to trace God's handiwork. The scientist with theistic metaphysics will approach laboratory problems much the same as does his atheistic colleague across the hall. Both are likely to view the astonishing adaptations in nature with a sense of surprise, wonder, and mystery.

In God's Universe Gingerich carves out "a theistic space" from which it is possible to contemplate a universe where God plays an interactive role, unnoticed yet not excluded by science.

Customer Reviews:

Reasoned, honest discussion.......2007-10-10

Christian conversations regarding the compatibility of science and religion must address two questions: What Biblical hermeneutic should be used for Genesis 1 and does current scientific theory preclude theistic belief? In "God's Universe," Gingerich addresses the only latter, and his answer is a resounding "no." This singularity of focus is not a weakness, but potential readers might like to know up front.

Gingerich relays the excitement that he has for the mysteries of the universe and how they feed his faith, giving the sense that his faith is not contigent on scientific understanding in any age. He also acknowledges that science does not and cannot offer any formal proof for the existence of God. As a scientist myself and a believer, I resonate with his views. In fact, most of the believing scientists with whom I'm acquainted more or less share his views. Although this does not necessarily mean that he is correct. Nevertheless, the book is fun and refreshing--read it with the understanding that he will not answer anyone's every question, but his perspectives are thought provoking and might just increase our appreciation of God's universe.

Brilliant Brevity.......2007-09-15

"The heart has its reasons that reason does not know." So ends this brief book on the convincing, consistent and coherent facts that point towards the existence of a divine Creator of the universe. Pascal's quote is a reminder that science can never conclusively prove or disprove the existence of God, since science is concerned with explaining how things work, not necessarily why they work.

Dr. Gingerich persuasively argues that one's predisposed worldview of belief steers them to conclusions about final causes when weighing the objective and rational truths of nature, whether in astronomy, physics, biology or chemistry. And, "what passes for truth in science is a comprehensive pattern of interconnected answers to questions posed by nature."

His challenge to search for similar convincing consistency in teleological and theological explanations leads to a coherent conclusion of a universe with purpose, designed by a transcendent Creator - a truly uplifting and inspiring result from a preeminent man of both science and faith.

Review by a Social Scientist.......2007-08-12

An absolutely superb book. A review of evidence from a scientific vantage by a prominent physical scientist.

An attempt at reconciling science and religion.......2007-07-09

Gingerich, who is an astronomer and a historian of science, believes in intelligent design with a small "I" and a small "d"; but he doesn't think that Intelligent Design should be taught in the science classroom. He "believes" in Darwinian evolution up to a point, but not in the random or "accidental" appearance of life. He writes, "I am personally persuaded that a superintelligent Creator exists beyond and within the cosmos, and that the rich context of congeniality shown by our universe, permitting and encouraging the existence of self-conscious life, is part of the Creator's design and purpose." (p. 39)

What I wonder is what purpose God would have created us for. Most people when asked what is the purpose of their lives, answer to serve others, to help others, maybe even to be good stewards of this planet. But such a purpose comes down to God playing with himself (you should excuse the expression) and is no more meaningful that the Darwinian, "to reproduce." Both, like the "turtles all the way down" of some primitive cosmology, end eventually with no purpose left. Clearly this is why many people who believe in a personal God say that the purpose of their lives is to please God.

But why should God want to be pleased? Why would God need or desire to create beings whose purpose is to please Him? Such a God, upon reflection, becomes an anthropomorphic projection of human beings, endowed with human emotions and human psychology.

In the first chapter, "Is Mediocrity a Good Idea?" Gingerich argues against the Copernican principle of "mediocrity" in astronomy. The principle states that humans do not occupy a special place in the cosmos, that we are not at the center of the universe, and that things are pretty much the same (taken generally and in very large chunks) anywhere in the cosmos. This is de rigeur in physics of course, and seems a good idea in, say, astrobiology. But Gingerich opines that we are special and so is the universe that we occupy. He uses the now familiar argument that because the universe is so precisely balanced as to be favorable for life in a myriad of ways, this is a clear indication that divine guidance has been at work. If any of a number of factors in terms of the nature of the elements or the speed of the expansion of the universe, etc., had been off by just a bit, we would not be here. This couldn't happen by chance is Gingerich's conclusion.

Of course the answer to this is to invoke the anthropic principle and point out that the very fact that we are here necessitates a universe congenial with our being here! Another point to make is that had things been different, who is to say what kind of life might have evolved? When Gingerich speaks of "life" in this context he leaves out the very significant and necessary qualification "life as we know it." The universe could be "designed" in many different ways we know nothing about and still be hospitable to intelligent life. The fact that the universe is the way it is does not imply any tinkering by a supernatural being. Moreover, if there are an infinite number of universes comprising all possible configurations (about which we know nothing), then clearly one having our particular configuration is a cinch to be in existence.

In the second chapter Gingerich ask the provocative question, "Dare a Scientist Believe in Design?" He concludes that "just as I believe that the Book of Scripture illumines the pathway to God, I also believe that the Book of Nature...suggests a God of purpose and a God of design. And I think my belief makes me no less a scientist." (p. 79)

But the presumption of purpose and design is antithetical to scientific inquiry in the broadest sense. If we already hold it to be an article of faith that there is purpose and design, then we are practicing theology not science. Properly speaking science begins without preconceived ideas about what is true and what isn't and accepts only those findings that can be verified again and again, and at no time holds any discovery to be the final word. All science, as Gingerich agrees, is subject to falsification. His preconceived notion of purpose and design is not.

While Professor Gingerich insists on meaning and purpose in the universe, he doesn't say what that meaning or purpose might be. Several times he intimates that such things are beyond our ken. Appropriately enough the third and final chapter in this short, attractive book is entitled "Questions without Answers." The famous question, "Why is there something rather than nothing?" is posed but no attempt at an answer is made. It is the kind of question that can lead to enlightenment if meditated upon sufficiently. A possible and somewhat spooky answer is another question, How could "nothing" have meaning without "something"? Some people believe that such concepts are part of the apparent duality of our lives--things like pleasure and pain, good and evil, being and non-being--and may simply be conundrums imposed upon us by our limited logic.

Gingerich writes, "...rather than believe that the universe is simply meaningless, a macabre joke, I would prefer to accept a universe created with intention and purpose by a loving God...." (p. 96) Putting aside the false dilemma, might it be just as agreeable to realize that the universe exists in a way that is beyond our comprehension without implying anything that we should be uneasy with. Our notions of "meaning" and "purpose," like our physical and sensory abilities, are the products of our evolutionary experience and limited by that experience. We cannot see gamma rays or hear certain sounds because we have not had the evolutionary need for such ability. Probably it is the same for our limited understanding of "meaning" and "purpose."

About right on the question of religion and science.......2007-06-13

Owen Gingerich's little book on the place for God in the universe gets it about right, which means that he doesn't buy into hard-core materialism, but he also doesn't "prove" anything. When all the brouhaha over fundamentalism and new atheism dies down, we will be left standing about where Gingerich stands. Nobody's book is going to solve the problem. I respect his book for hitting the proper balance. He is a Christian believer, but there is very little dogmatism. (Perhaps the most interesting thing about his book is this paradox of the non-dogmatic believer. If there is no dogma or doctrine, what is the stuff of belief? In the end I think there is soft-spoken dogma in Gingerich's text, but it is not quite orthodox.)

At times I felt that I could just glimpse a kindly-uncle, Thomas-Kinkade Jesus lurking in background. I'm not sure that Gingerich's use of the image of a "dappled" world (taken from Gerard Manley Hopkins) to deal with the problem of evil quite does justice to the harshness of nature. But then "harshness" and "gentleness" are human ideas, which means they are fuzzy and changeable standards. On the whole, Gingerich sticks to his measured stance of claiming that there are many questions without answers. Science and religion both have metaphysical dimensions which are based on mental/aesthetic/spiritual instinct rather than empirical evidence. God, therefore, is a matter of faith. Gingerich feels that theism ultimately makes more scientific sense, while Dawkins (to pick a prominent counter-example) does not. But they both rely on their "sense" of things, not proof. This is nothing new.

The first part of the book makes the intriguing argument that the Copernican principle of mediocrity (i.e. that we should not consider ourselves a "special" part of the cosmos) runs into paradox. On the one hand it discourages us from placing any special value on intelligence, but on the other hand it justifies the assumption that intelligent life has developed throughout the universe. In other words, it both counters and supports the idea that intelligence is the "goal" of the universe.

More interesting is the theological concession that Gingerich makes to extraterrestrial life. He seems to believe that *self-reflective* beings rather than *human* beings are the goal of creation. In other words, aliens can look (and presumably behave) very, very differently from ourselves, which means that God as an Old Bearded MAN is totally out of the question. To be "made in God's image" is merely to think. (And yet, thought as we know it must be embodied. I can't help wondering why God should be an exception. Should God have mentality without physicality?) I really like how Gingerich's Christian cosmology serenely confronts the fantastic.

A good read, and a good model of a believer who does not villainize atheists.

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Expensive, but worth it
A good college text for non-science majors
A Very Delightful Book
A good college text for non-science majors

Life in the Universe (2nd Edition)
Jeffrey O. Bennett , and Seth Shostak
Manufacturer: Benjamin Cummings
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0805347534

Book Description

Key Message: Life in the Universe takes readers on a journey through the solar system and beyond, using a rigorous yet accessible introduction to astronomy, biology, chemistry, and geology to explain natural phenomena and explore unanswered scientific questions. The Second Edition has been thoroughly revised to include updated scientific discoveries, optional quantitative coverage, an enhanced illustration program, and expanded coverage of the solar system and stellar material. Key Topics: Introducing Life in the Universe: A Universe of Life?, The Science of Life in the Universe, The Universal Context of Life. Life on Earth: The Habitability of Earth, The Nature of Life on Earth, The Origin and Evolution of Life on Earth. Life in the Solar System: Searching for Life in Our Solar System, Mars, Life on Jovian Moons, The Nature and Evolution of Habitability. Life Among the Stars: Habitability Outside the Solar System, The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, Interstellar Travel and the Fermi Paradox. Epilogue: Contact – Implications of the Search and Discovery Market: For all readers interested in a rigorous yet accessible introduction to astronomy, biology, chemistry, and geology, while exploring fundamental pan-scientific questions such as: How did life begin on Earth? What are the most extreme forms of life currently known? What are the challenges of trying to colonize another planet?

Customer Reviews:

Expensive, but worth it.......2006-06-24

This is a really expensive paperback, but it should have an honored place in your home, next to your dictionary, your atlas, your Roget's Thesaurus and your Holy Bible, Koran or any other book that is important to you.

Its opening chapter, "A Universe of Life," is awe-inspiring, summoning up as it does the almost-endless, vast reaches of known creation and inviting us to consider how MUCH there is out there that might be home to any form of life --from the submicroscopic to beings, well, something like us (although not much of the book is given over to the latter possibillity).

It tackles the place of religion, too, in all of this -- including Creationism and its offshoots -- and gives you some pretty good reasons for setting aside your feelings and just going along for the scientific ride in this 346-page stunner (plus appendixes).

The artwork is superb. Worth the price of admission by itself.

So, drag out the old credit card and put yourself even deeper into literary debt, because you will return to this book again and again over the years.

A good college text for non-science majors.......2006-01-22

This book seems to have two goals. One is to teach the reader something about astrobiology. The other is to be a text for a science course for college undergraduates (in most cases, underclassmen majoring in something other than science).

The book begins by discussing how stars and planets are formed. And then comes a major point: biology may be common in the universe given evidence that organic molecules form fairly easily, life appears to have originated early in the Earth's history, and there's evidence that Earth life can survive under a wide range of conditions. Next, there's a section on the nature of science and the scientific method. And then some material on the definition and nature of life. From there we go to the Earth's geological record. And there's a useful discussion of greenhouse gases, possible high surface temperatures on Earth when life first developed, and a possible "Snowball Earth" much later.

Now comes a key chapter: how did life get started? And when. The text shows that it was not all that long after the Earth emerged from forming and being heavily bombarded. And that hyperthermophiles may well have been the common ancestor of life on Earth today. The book speculates that the process was: synthesis of organic precursor molecules, development of replicators (RNA), development of protocells (enclosing membranes), primitive cells (the RNA world), and then DNA-based cells. It also addresses the question of whether life could have migrated to Earth from Mars or elsewhere. There's a discussion of the rise of oxygen in the atmosphere. And how primitive life evolved into the intelligent life that now exists.

These are certainly the right topics to start with. But I wish this book, even with the constraint of being for non-science majors, had gone into just a little more detail on all of them. It does just that on the rest of the topics.

The book continues with an excellent section about possibilities of life elsewhere in our planetary system, including the environmental requirements. We look at Mars (including evidence from Martian meteorites), Jovian moons, and Titan. And we see why Venus is too close to the Sun to be in the "habitable zone." I hope that the next edition of this book, due out in 2006, will mention the Saturnian moon Enceledus as well.

After that, there is a discussion of extrasolar planets and the serach for extraterrestrial intelligence. If anything, there is an excess of material here, including speculations about the possible technology levels of an intelligent society and interstellar travel. But this does lead to a worthwhile discussion of the Fermi paradox: if there are relatively nearby extraterrestrials, why aren't they here by now?

Writing an overview of this field for non-science majors is a daunting task, and I think the authors did a really good job. After reading such a book, I think one will find it much easier to understand any advances made in this field in the future.

A Very Delightful Book.......2005-04-22

This is the ONE Science Textbook I will keep forever and ever.

A good college text for non-science majors.......2004-12-02

This book seems to have two goals. One is to teach the reader something about astrobiology. The other is to be a text for a science course for college undergraduates (in most cases, underclassmen majoring in something other than science).

The book begins by discussing how stars and planets are formed. And then comes a major point: biology may be common in the universe given evidence that organic molecules form fairly easily, life appears to have originated early in the Earth's history, and there's evidence that Earth life can survive under a wide range of conditions.

Next, there's a section on the nature of science and the scientific method. And then some material on the definition and nature of life. From there we go to the Earth's geological record. And there's a useful discussion of greenhouse gases, possible high surface temperatures on Earth when life first developed, and a possible "Snowball Earth" much later.

Now comes a key chapter: how did life get started? And when. The text shows that it was not all that long after the Earth emerged from forming and being heavily bombarded. And that hyperthermophiles may well have been the common ancestor of life on Earth today. The book speculates that the process was: synthesis of organic precursor molecules, development of replicators (RNA), development of protocells (enclosing membranes), primitive cells (the RNA world), and then DNA-based cells. It also addresses the question of whether life could have migrated to Earth from Mars or elsewhere. There's a discussion of the rise of oxygen in the atmosphere. And how primitive life evolved into the intelligent life that now exists.

These are certainly the right topics to start with. But I wish this book, even with the constraint of being for non-science majors, had gone into just a little more detail on all of them. It does just that on the rest of the topics.

The book continues with an excellent section about possibilities of life elsewhere in our planetary system, including the environmental requirements. We look at Mars (including evidence from Martian meteorites), Jovian moons, and Titan. And we see why Venus is too close to the Sun to be in the "habitable zone."

After that, there is a discussion of extrasolar planets and the serach for extraterrestrial intelligence. If anything, there is an excess of material here, including speculations about the possible technology levels of an intelligent society and interstellar travel. But this does lead to a worthwhile discussion of the Fermi paradox: if there are relatively nearby extraterrestrials, why aren't they here by now?

Writing an overview of this field for non-science majors is a daunting task, and I think the authors did a really good job. After reading such a book, I think one will find it much easier to understand any advances made in this field in the future.

What Is Life?: with "Mind and Matter" and "Autobiographical Sketches"

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An Absolute Classic from a Great Thinker
Stimulating Reading
A physicist's essay on a topic he cannot know as a scientist, only as a human being
Pons Asinorum? It Wasn't Then !
A Classic

What Is Life?: with "Mind and Matter" and "Autobiographical Sketches"
Erwin Schrodinger
Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0521427088

Book Description

Nobel laureate Erwin Schrödinger’s What is Life? is one of the great science classics of the twentieth century. A distinguished physicist’s exploration of the question which lies at the heart of biology, it was written for the layman, but proved one of the spurs to the birth of molecular biology and the subsequent discovery of the structure of DNA. The philosopher Karl Popper hailed it as a ‘beautiful and important book’ by ‘a great man to whom I owe a personal debt for many exciting discussions’. It appears here together with Mind and Matter, his essay investigating a relationship which has eluded and puzzled philosophers since the earliest times. Schrodinger asks what place consciousness occupies in the evolution of life, and what part the state of development of the human mind plays in moral questions. Brought together with these two classics are Schrödinger’s autobiographical sketches, published and translated here for the first time. They offer a fascinating fragmentary account of his life as a background to his scientific writings, making this volume a valuable additon to the shelves of scientist and layman alike.

Customer Reviews:

An Absolute Classic from a Great Thinker .......2007-08-03

In "What is Life?" monograph, Schrodinger brilliantly enlightens us with the true concept of life science. He proposes what himself calls "a naive physicist's ideas about organisms." Years before the discovery of double helix structure of DNA, Schrodinger beautifully details how the huge volume of information is related to the structure of what he calls "aperiodic crystal" (what we currently call it "protein structure."

The ideas are still fresh and everybody who really wants to start the REAL and TRUE molecular biology must read this classic. It is astonishing to see how this great thinker and physicist had elaborated, very correctly and properly, to use the statistical tools in physics (statistical physics) to explain the fundamentals of life.

It is an absolute classic from a great legend. Please read and enjoy it.

Stimulating Reading.......2006-10-15

Schroedinger, one of the great physicists of the 20th Century, applied the knowledge he gained in his own discipline to analyze human life. Based upon lectures that he gave in the 1940s, this brief book contains Schroedinger's fascinating speculations on the nature of life, several of which have proven prophetic (including the discovery of DNA). The reader comes away with the joy of having shared in the workings of a great mind.

Perhaps the most impressive achievement of the book is that it can be readily understood by persons relatively untrained in science or mathematics.

A physicist's essay on a topic he cannot know as a scientist, only as a human being.......2004-12-19

I'm wondering why scientists are allowed to give their opinion as scientists about topics they know nothing about as scientists. The beginning of the title ("What is Life") sounds like if Schrodinger can claim anything about the difference between mind and matter as a pure consequence of physics. Too bad, as the rest of the title might make you think that there will be some discussion about why and whether there might be a difference between mind and matter. What remains of mind when you stick to the physics? That would be a very nice question to think about, if only this was the topic of the book...but it's not what is done here.

Pons Asinorum? It Wasn't Then !.......2004-08-30

While I was reading the book I thought "this is pretty obvious stuff!" Then I began reminding myself that "If I see further, it's because I stand on the shoulders of giants."
I read the book because J.D.Watson said it was good in his book "DNA The Key To Life." He was right. The first chapter was fascinating.

A Classic.......2004-03-08

What is Life? is an absolute classic. Schrodinger felt that life must be explainable by physics and chemistry, yet seemed to violate the normal behavior of entropy-- and he understood further that this was a remarkable wedge point to explore. He figured out the explanation: life is the result of evolution of genetic information, which selects for complex processes that by ordinary considerations would be very unlikely. He predicted that there must be a molecule capable of carrying the genetic information (incorrectly thinking it would be a protein.) His beautifully-written book was influential and timely. Within 4 years, Von Neumann elucidated the mechanisms involved in self-reproducing automata (illustrating his abstract discussion with a picture looking remarkably like DNA to the eyes of readers today); and within a decade, Watson and Crick grasped the structure of DNA. You should not read Schrodinger's book today as one of your first sources to understand life-- there has been remarkable progress in the 50 years since Watson and Crick-- but you should read it to gain appreciation for how science can be advanced when the time is ready and a wedge point, an apparent conflict between fundamental ideas, is analyzed.

The volume also includes another lecture by Schrodinger, Mind and Matter, which is historically interesting in another way. In Schrodinger's day, the state of understanding had not advanced to the point where it was possible to make as useful conjectures about the structure of mind as of life, and he accordingly felt "[mind] may well be beyond human understanding."

Readers interested in Schrodinger's book will also enjoy What is Thought?, published 2004. What is Thought? argues that mind must be explainable by computer science, that the fundamental issues are computational, and that there is again a wedge point: the question of how the workings of a computer, which are always purely syntactical, can correspond to meaning and understanding. The situation is parallel to the one that faced Schrodinger with respect to life in two respects: first, mind is the outcome of evolution, which has built thought processes that seem inconsistent with our standard science, and second, scientific research has advanced to the point where, if we focus on the wedge point, significant understanding is obtainable. What is Thought? brings to bear on the problem of mind core ideas from computational learning theory, complexity theory, and evolutionary computing, as well as molecular and evolutionary biology, cognitive science, and other areas. The result is a principled and concrete explanation, consistent with the vast array of available data, of how meaning, understanding, language, consciousness, and all the various aspects of mind arise from execution of an evolved computer program.

Average customer rating:

A must for graduate students

Supernovae and Nucleosynthesis (Princeton Series in Astrophysics)
David Arnett
Manufacturer: Princeton University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Principles of Stellar Evolution and Nucleosynthesis

Nucleosynthesis and Chemical Evolution of Galaxies

Cauldrons in the Cosmos: Nuclear Astrophysics (Theoretical Astrophysics)

An Introduction to the Study of Stellar Structure

Accretion Power in Astrophysics (Cambridge Astrophysics)

ASIN: 0691011478

Book Description

This book investigates the question of how matter has evolved since its origin in the Big Bang, from the cosmological synthesis of hydrogen and helium to the generation of the complex set of nuclei that comprise our world and our selves. A central theme is the evolution of gravitationally contained thermonuclear reactors, otherwise known as stars. Our current understanding is presented systematically and quantitatively, by combining simple analytic models with new state-of-the-art computer simulations.

The narrative begins with the clues (primarily the solar system abundance pattern), the constraining physics (primarily nuclear and particle physics), and the thermonuclear burning in the Big Bang itself. It continues with a step-by-step description of how stars evolve by nuclear reactions, a critical investigation of supernova explosion mechanisms and the formation of neutron stars and of black holes, and an analysis of how such explosions appear to astronomers (illustrated by comparison with recent observations). It concludes with a synthesis of these ideas for galactic evolution, with implications for nucleosynthesis in the first generation of stars and for the solar system abundance pattern. Emphasis is given to questions that remain open, and to active research areas that bridge the disciplines of astronomy, cosmochemistry, physics, and planetary and space science. Extensive references are given.

Customer Reviews:

A must for graduate students.......2000-06-11

"Supernovae and Nucleosynthesis" is not a textbook, but it is extremely useful for astronomy students, especially in stellar and chemical evolution. There are lots of formulae, tables and figures, helping to understand the basics of synthesis and evolution of nuclei in our Cosmos. The thermonuclear reactions are well-explained, but less emphasis was taken in chemical evolution (especially in the observational part). In some parts is similar to the classic stellar evolution textbook by Clayton, but with update material. This book is a must for any astronomy library, serious students and professional astronomers.

At Home in the Universe: The Search for the Laws of Self-Organization and Complexity

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At home in the universe, A New Proposal...
Proposals to Unanswered Questions
Fascinating Science Applicable to Evolution and Business
A fascinating look at self-organization
Fantastic and enlightening

At Home in the Universe: The Search for the Laws of Self-Organization and Complexity
Stuart Kauffman
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0195111303

Amazon.com

The best treatment I have yet encountered about how order emerges naturally -- and possibly even necessarily -- out of chaos. Profoundly important, and considerably more informed than better-known pop-science treatments of chaos theory. Very highly recommended.

Book Description

A major scientific revolution has begun, a new paradigm that rivals Darwin's theory in importance. At its heart is the discovery of the order that lies deep within the most complex of systems, from the origin of life, to the workings of giant corporations, to the rise and fall of great civilizations. And more than anyone else, this revolution is the work of one man, Stuart Kauffman, a MacArthur Fellow and visionary pioneer of the new science of complexity. Now, in At Home in the Universe, Kauffman brilliantly weaves together the excitement of intellectual discovery and a fertile mix of insights to give the general reader a fascinating look at this new science--and at the forces for order that lie at the edge of chaos. We all know of instances of spontaneous order in nature--an oil droplet in water forms a sphere, snowflakes have a six-fold symmetry. What we are only now discovering, Kauffman says, is that the range of spontaneous order is enormously greater than we had supposed. Indeed, self-organization is a great undiscovered principle of nature. But how does this spontaneous order arise? Kauffman contends that complexity itself triggers self-organization, or what he calls "order for free," that if enough different molecules pass a certain threshold of complexity, they begin to self-organize into a new entity--a living cell. Kauffman uses the analogy of a thousand buttons on a rug--join two buttons randomly with thread, then another two, and so on. At first, you have isolated pairs; later, small clusters; but suddenly at around the 500th repetition, a remarkable transformation occurs--much like the phase transition when water abruptly turns to ice--and the buttons link up in one giant network. Likewise, life may have originated when the mix of different molecules in the primordial soup passed a certain level of complexity and self-organized into living entities (if so, then life is not a highly improbable chance event, but almost inevitable). Kauffman uses the basic insight of "order for free" to illuminate a staggering range of phenomena. We see how a single-celled embryo can grow to a highly complex organism with over two hundred different cell types. We learn how the science of complexity extends Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection: that self-organization, selection, and chance are the engines of the biosphere. And we gain insights into biotechnology, the stunning magic of the new frontier of genetic engineering--generating trillions of novel molecules to find new drugs, vaccines, enzymes, biosensors, and more. Indeed, Kauffman shows that ecosystems, economic systems, and even cultural systems may all evolve according to similar general laws, that tissues and terra cotta evolve in similar ways. And finally, there is a profoundly spiritual element to Kauffman's thought. If, as he argues, life were bound to arise, not as an incalculably improbable accident, but as an expected fulfillment of the natural order, then we truly are at home in the universe. Kauffman's earlier volume, The Origins of Order, written for specialists, received lavish praise. Stephen Jay Gould called it "a landmark and a classic." And Nobel Laureate Philip Anderson wrote that "there are few people in this world who ever ask the right questions of science, and they are the ones who affect its future most profoundly. Stuart Kauffman is one of these." In At Home in the Universe, this visionary thinker takes you along as he explores new insights into the nature of life.

Customer Reviews:

At home in the universe, A New Proposal..........2007-04-05

In this book, Stuart Koaffman opens new doors to us. Through the theory of the chaos, proportions fractals and their networks boulinas, give an interesting speculation us on the origin of the life, the complex systems and the societies. It is hour to be on the awares and to try to focus to us in new horizons. This book took to him of the hand by these new horizons. It is hour to know our house in the universe...

Proposals to Unanswered Questions.......2006-09-16

Stuart Kaufman's At Home in the Universe is a lay redaction his scientific hypotheses from his Origins of Order, a rich, fascinating, sophisticated, and complementary set of hypotheses added to Darwin's theories of evolution. For the moment, at least, they are the promising fruit of speculative or theoretical biological hypotheses (with physics, chemistry, geology, paleontology, mathematics, game theory, and economics thrown in), but they go a long way to filling in many of the gaps that strict Darwinists seem content to ignore. And some of his hypotheses, he readily admits, are heretical.

One of the obvious problems, if not primary one, that Kaufman sets to answer, Is how can natural selection work, culling the fittest to survive, without something to act on? In other words, natural selection operates on the already existent (i.e., regressive engineering), not in the formation of the entity itself. Another problem is that 4 billion years, long as that is, is still not sufficient time for natural selection to have acted through a totally random, step-by-step process in determining today's survivors. Even 100 billion years would not be enough. Another problem is how could so many species have come into existence and failed to survive (99.9%), leaving a mere 100 million for the present, in the span of a mere 4 billion years (mathematically impossible on Darwin's theories alone).

The central theme of Kaufman's work is Self-organized Criticality, a scientific twist on the notion of irreducible complexity (from the Discovery Institute's lexicon, no less), where a minimal degree of inherent complexity in a subcritical-supercritical phase transition is what spontaneously orders the animate world and generates and sustains life in accord with other, as yet, unknown, but implicit laws. From the moment that a sufficiently critical diversity of molecules reached the ideal phase transition, life itself was "spontaneously generated" as inevitable, not by accident. Once life appeared, the acts of natural selection, adaptation, coevolution, evolution of coevolution, cellular, morphological, and physiological differentiation, ontogeny, niches, populations, stable cum-chaotic dynamics, etc., could operate, but in addition to forces beyond natural selection. And while speculative, apparently many scientists share Kaufman's intuitions, inferences, and insights.

But the "other" force or forces is not mystical, much less divine, even if they may be truly awesome. Rather, it is in the nature of the universe, and more particularly in our evolving earth, that these implicit laws work in tandem with Darwin's laws. At this point, these laws are posited from the empirical knowledge we do have, but have not yet demonstrated in the scientific manner to make them even hypotheses. But Kaufman's speculative biology is not a whimsical or arbitrary metaphysics, but logical inferences based on laws and facts already in place. Having done the easy work (thinking the notions of what these other general laws of nature must be like), now science must work in earnest to confirm or reject his speculative hypotheses.

The key word and concept throughout this humorous, heady, and exacting exposition is "complexity" and within the manifold complexities of lives, environments, and mutually intersecting dynamics is a spontaneous order that arises "for free" that in turn sustains stable and steady systems just at the subcritical-supercrticial phase transition (e.g., horizon, or "edge of chaos"). Another key word and concept is "dynamic." Steady-state and homeostasis are often thought of as a static plateau, but that is mistaken, as such states are actually in a fluctuating dynamic at the phase transition between equilibrium (death) and disequilibrium (disorder). Indeed, on many different levels, living organisms are born, dwell, and die precisely at this phase transition between the subcritical (stasis, moribund) and supercritical (chaotic, disordered) states. And the key thesis is that order ("for free") is embedded in the delicate balancing act precisely at this phase transition.

Kaufman extrapolates some of these implicit biological laws and applies them to human cultural and technological advancement. The "fit" is remarkably uncanny, helping us to understand some of the dynamics of technological improvements (and diminishing returns), innovation, extinction, and spontaneity of the economy. Perhaps the most salient features are the concepts of "dynamic" and "spontaneous."

Moreover, if an analogy can be drawn from the biosphere and ecology to the social and political realms, the overwhelming preponderance of biological evidence screams complexity, diversity, and interdependence of organisms and their environments, which arise spontaneously and reciprocally to each other, in a constant dynamic that is vibrant, active, and always on the threshold of "chaos," but retains some stability through change. It is only those social and political forms that are "adaptive" that are socially and politically the "fittest," and democracy and market economies are obviously the most adaptive mechanisms to adapt to changing human needs.

Frederick Hayek addressed himself to these very issues over 50 years ago, and called the market economy and democracies "spontaneous" associations, in contradistinction to "planned" economies and governments. The former "adapt" to changing environments and circumstances, while the latter lack flexibility, and thus do not easily yield to adaptive mechanisms. "Planned" economies attempt to calculate rationally human desires, motivations, and needs in either an abstract or a priori fashion, then calculate the mode of production, the degree, and whether to accommodate, as if some "Absolute Human Mind" could anticipate all contingencies and changes by a simple mathematical formula. The problem is that bureaucrats are notoriously theory-laden and too calculating to include, much less advance, diversity (think Medicare Part D for "planned" absurdity). In practice, socialisms impede innovation and stifle ingenuity. With no means of adaptation, there is no "fittest," much less any mechanism to adapt to the actual dynamics of the world.

Communism's planned economy is an extreme case of an irrational calculus asserting what the government will allow, applying the lowest-common denominator as a criterion of sufficiency. We all know of the U.S.S.R.'s food lines, limited products, forced housing, inferior merchandise, and minimal labor investment. But even weaker forms of the rational calculus, such as socialism, does not do much better. At least their democracies allow policies to change, even if it becomes years for government to adapt to the new exigencies. Even the most socialized societies have "capitalist" outlets, to provide some barometer of social wants and meeting them. Social insurance makes sense on many fronts, but social or state "planning" of economics has rotted state and worker. Kaufman's biological analogies explain why.

Postscript: Kaufman's book is a provocative, challenging, and fascinating (sometime heady) read. Even if all of his hypotheses in the abstract are found to be untrue, at least he captures the reader's imagination, and asks the questions that most of us non-dogmatic Darwinians have raised for some time. In a time when the "easy" and "orthodox" are all too convenient for slipping under the rug, Kaufman's questions (and suggested answers) go the the very nexus of the difficulties. His suggested answers are at once perhaps too simple, on the other hand, perhaps too complex. What is refreshing, above all, is that he's not afraid to ask, and even less fearful of suggesting solutions. Thank gawd for the Sante Fe Institute, where brave and curious minds still ask questions.

Fascinating Science Applicable to Evolution and Business.......2006-05-17

Stuart brings the science of complexity and complex adaptive systems to a broad range of topics from evolution to business to learning curves. The book is masterly written to allow you to skim over the formulas without lossing the excitement or to dig into the technology to understand its broad application.

A fascinating look at self-organization.......2005-01-18

We see a great deal of order in living systems. Where does this order come from? Is it entirely from natural selection? The author says no. He explains that much of the order we see in the world is spontaneous, such as in the symmetry of snowflakes, and that much of the order needed for the origination of life and in living organisms is of this spontaneous nature.

Kauffman is making a non-trivial point here, as the extent to which spontaneous order is more important than selected order is not entirely obvious. While a snowflake is indeed an example of a system that is highly ordered as it gets synthesized, that's not true of, say, a solar system, in which short-lived bodies quickly depart the scene in favor of long-lived ones. It's clearly significant that disordered entities tend to be shorter-lived and unable to replicate.

The author then addresses theories of the origin of life. Could it have started with RNA? After all, replicating RNA could then produce the needed proteins. Kauffman says no. The amino acid chains one would need would be too long to replicate accurately enough (the "error catastrophe"). I tend to agree. Besides, RNA is awfully fragile (DNA is not fragile). And once one hypothesizes that RNA has a template to keep it safe, one's theory is that templates came first.

Of course, the "error catastrophe" is devastating if the minimum complexity of a living cell is rather large. Kauffman argues that this minimum complexity is indeed large, and that it is no accident that there are hundreds of genes in pleuromona, perhaps the simplest free-living (non-virus) organism.

Spontaneous order also refutes the argument of Hoyle and Wickramasinghe that life could not have arisen on Earth because the chance of creating the 2000 functioning enzymes would be too small: 1 in 10 to the 40,000. Well, given that life does exist here, the Hoyle argument is almost certainly wrong anyway (with a chance that small, the odds would be overwhelmingly small for life to arise anywhere, ever, so the chance that the argument is wrong must be huge, since a correct argument might then give a much higher probability for life to appear).

The author then asks how we get the large polymers we need. After all, life is basically autocatalysis (that's what I was taught in the 1960s, and that's what Kauffman says as well). How does this big autocatalytic set get into gear? The author makes an analogy to putting connectors between random pairs of entities. At first the length of a connected chain will be small. But once the number of connections is about half the number of entities, the longest chain quickly becomes almost as large as the number of entities. That raises the question of how all these entities can interact, but Kaufmann says that having reactions on a substrate, effectively reducing the region to two dimensions, helps. So does having less water around.

We then get to the question of homeostasis. That requires plenty of order. Is there a way to get that order "for free?" The author says there is, and here is where he makes his most dramatic point. He points out that a network with 100,000 entities (call them "light bulbs") with two states each, has 10 to the 30,000 possible states. One might expect such a network to cycle through the square root of the number of states, or 10 to the 15,000. But it actually tends to cycle through the square root of the number of binary variables, which is only the square root of 100,000 or about 317. That is a huge amount of "order for free!" And it argues strongly for life's origination to be unsurprising. As Kauffman puts it, this changes life on Earth from being "We, the improbable," to "We the expected."

There's plenty more in this fine book. The author discusses order in ontogeny. And he has a chapter on the relationship between the diversity of species in an ecosystem and the diversity of organic molecules added from outside. And there's also plenty of material on "fitness landscapes."

One question that arises in this book is statistical: how long does a species tend to last? That has implications for the question of how long humans will last. It may not be that long. But that doesn't bother me, as long as we're replaced with something better. After all, I'm for progress!

Fantastic and enlightening.......2004-03-21

This particular book is a fantastic revelation and study of the boundary between order and chaos as it applies to the evolution of life, culture, technology and anything else in the universe. Its goal is to seek a universal law regarding the emergence of order in what we've traditionally considered unordered or random sets of fundamental stuff. For example, one of the observations that it makes is that evolution as Darwin revealed it is by itself not a sufficient explanation (scientifically) for why and how creatures like us could be here at all. In other words, natural selection is not sufficient to accomplish what life has accomplished in this world of ours. It needed the help of a very important other "force"... the life force, I might call it, and to which I've alluded many times in many forms through my writings. It's that special something about the nature of the universe that brings about the cooperation of systems, the autocatalytic closure which makes "hanging together" and "existing" some sort of "goal" deeply encoded in the nature of it all. You might be able to see how I might identify these ideas very closely with that term "lifetoward". What goal-oriented force brought life to be and continues to make life strive for ever more order and complexity? This book answers I think very well with: it's not a force, per se, but rather a fundamental aspect of the basic nature of the universe. To quote the book, "We the expected." We as living beings belong here and are an integral part of an incredibly awe inspiring process of creation of meaning and order in a world aching to give birth to it. The book closes with a nice summary, which much like a message I had posted to the lifetoward@yahoogroups.com list some time ago, extols the development of a new and enlightened faith, based on a realization of the wonder of the way the universe deeply is and how we are in it.

In terms of the meaning and importance of this book, I would recommend it to everyone. However, I will warn you that it may be a significant challenge to read. It calls on a deeply considered understanding of a variety of disciplines, including most notably evolutionary biology, organic chemistry, mathematics, anthropology, and economics. It proceeds with an assumption that the reader has realized or can quickly recognize the common ground between these different areas of study. It uses a lot of mathematical models and visualizations of 2, 3 and hyperdimensional spaces to discuss the nature of this common law and its emergence in the world around us.

Average customer rating:

Slightly let down

Free will has price tag

Prove Yourself/You Are the Move You Make

Did not Prove His Theories

Compatiblism by Evolutionary Constructs

Freedom Evolves
Daniel C. Dennett
Manufacturer: Penguin (Non-Classics)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Darwin's Dangerous Idea: Evolution and the Meanings of Life

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ASIN: 0142003840
Release Date: 2004-01-27

Book Description

Can there be freedom and free will in a deterministic world? Renowned philosopher Daniel Dennett emphatically answers “yes!” Using an array of provocative formulations, Dennett sets out to show how we alone among the animals have evolved minds that give us free will and morality. Weaving a richly detailed narrative, Dennett explains in a series of strikingly original arguments—drawing upon evolutionary biology, cognitive neuroscience, economics, and philosophy—that far from being an enemy of traditional explorations of freedom, morality, and meaning, the evolutionary perspective can be an indispensable ally. In Freedom Evolves, Dennett seeks to place ethics on the foundation it deserves: a realistic, naturalistic, potentially unified vision of our place in nature.

Customer Reviews:

Slightly let down.......2007-08-23

I very recently became enthralled with evolutionary psychology after having enjoyed Pinker's "Blank Slate", Haidt's "Happiness Hypothesis" and Wright's "Moral Animal."

I bought "Freedom Evolves" while on vacation, when the store didn't have a copy of "Darwin's Dangerous Idea."

Given Dennett's sterling reputation, and craving a convincing and well-honed argument to back-up my intuitive sense that a hard determinist world view verges on lunacy, I came away slightly let down (although I enjoyed the book).

(The opening pages recount a very disturbing incident--which Dennett uses masterfully to frame his argument-- that I'd previously assumed to be urban legend. I find myself calling daycare to make sure my wife dropped the kids off safely. And, although I'm not typically characterized as compassionate, I can't help but be subsumed with compassion for this poor man whose tragic story Dennett recounts.)

Hopefully someone will further develop Prof. Dennett's argument for freewill/determinism compatibility, but in the meantime, I'm plenty content to breeze along with my ownintuitive (and admittedly unsophisticated)instinct that a deterministic world view is, from a practical perspective, absurd.

After all, the notion that determinism is the 'correct' stance is meaningless so far as its impact on ethics or our day-to-day lives. If one were to subscribe to determinism, he'd be lumped in with the sniping, whiny leftist lemmings who naively parrot the "more evolved" motto that we have "no right to judge" criminals and madmen (unless, of course, they happen to be baptists from the south).

By "absurd" I mean simply as follows: To argue (as some do) that we can't blame or praise someone's actions or hold him accountable for his deviant or illegal behaviors because his genes and unfortunate upbringing alleviate any moral culpability, is, at its root, to ignore the naked fact that natural selection also endowed me with genes and an upbringing. Only my genes and environmental influences (deterministically)instruct me to seek retribution for the bad guy's "blameless" deviance. If you can't blame him then you can't blame me for my desire to punish him either--neither of us are free to act otherwise.

Free will has price tag.......2007-04-30

If reality is deterministic, then can anyone seriously believe in free will.

In giving an emphatic "yes" Dan Dennett posits a philosophy which attempts to show that -- properly understood -- determinism does indeed reconcile itself with the notion of free will (ostensibly something non deterministic).

In laying out his thesis, Dennett draws from a variety of sources however, amazingly enough, not choas theory.

This isn't surprising because in his earlier Darwin's Dangerous Idea, Dennett confessed that he didn't understand physics.

Regrettably, this lack of knowledge has denied him an important additional method by which to reconcile the two phenomenon he purports to discuss. Though certainly not a panacea, choas theory does posit that in sufficiently choatic systems, periodic patches of order emerge.

The significance of this view is obvious when one is discussing a field so broad a free will.

When properly viewed it emerges that free will isn't free.

Where Dennett took the example of baseball player responding to a pitch, let us take the example of you saying hello to a friend. While it's true that your friend may respond by singing a song or doing a dance, the smart money is on the idea that you will get some type of greeting in response to your greeting. In other words, free will isn't free but rather yields responses that lie within a fairly predictable horizon of responses.

Another good case in point is an individual choosing a mate. Research by Dr. Helen Fisher (see her Why we love) says that our romantic choices will ultimately combine two features: 1) a common economic, religious, social background with 2) those physical traits we deem desireable (themselves predictable as pointed out in the Nancy Etcoff book Survival of the Prettiest by means symmetry, youth, apparent reproductive fecundity and the like).

Still another good case in point is the individual in choosing a religion. Typically, children follow the faith of their parents.

True, in each of these situations, it is predictable that a certain percentage of random choices will occur outside th