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 Fabric of the Cosmos: Space, Time, and the Texture of Reality

Average customer rating:

Enough with the stupid pop-culture references
Excellent book!! not written like an encyclopedia
This book is great
einstein for dummies
Marvelous (if occasionally uneven) presentation of marvelous physics

The Fabric of the Cosmos: Space, Time, and the Texture of Reality
Brian Greene
Manufacturer: Vintage
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0375727205
Release Date: 2005-02-08

Amazon.com

As a boy, Brian Greene read Albert Camus' The Myth of Sisyphus and was transformed. Camus, in Greene's paraphrase, insisted that the hero triumphs "by relinquishing everything beyond immediate experience." After wrestling with this idea, however, Greene rejected Camus and realized that his true idols were physicists; scientists who struggled "to assess life and to experience the universe at all possible levels, not just those that happened to be accessible to our frail human senses." His driving question in The Fabric of the Cosmos, then, is fundamental: "What is reality?" Over sixteen chapters, he traces the evolving human understanding of the substrate of the universe, from classical physics to ten-dimensional M-Theory.

Assuming an audience of non-specialists, Greene has set himself a daunting task: to explain non-intuitive, mathematical concepts like String Theory, the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, and Inflationary Cosmology with analogies drawn from common experience. For the most part, he succeeds. His language reflects a deep passion for science and a gift for translating concepts into poetic images. When explaining, for example, the inability to see the higher dimensions inherent in string theory, Greene writes: "We don't see them because of the way we see…like an ant walking along a lily pad…we could be floating within a grand, expansive, higher-dimensional space."

For Greene, Rhodes Scholar and professor of physics and mathematics at Columbia University, speculative science is not always as thorough and successful. His discussion of teleportation, for example, introduces and then quickly tables a valuable philosophical probing of identity. The paradoxes of time travel, however, are treated with greater depth, and his vision of life in a three-brane universe is compelling and--to use his description for quantum reality--"weird."

In the final pages Greene turns from science fiction back to the fringes of science fact, and he returns with rigor to frame discoveries likely to be made in the coming decades. "We are, most definitely, still wandering in the jungle," he concludes. Thanks to Greene, though, some of the underbrush has been cleared. --Patrick O'Kelley

Book Description

From Brian Greene, one of the world’s leading physicists and author the Pulitzer Prize finalist The Elegant Universe, comes a grand tour of the universe that makes us look at reality in a completely different way.

Space and time form the very fabric of the cosmos. Yet they remain among the most mysterious of concepts. Is space an entity? Why does time have a direction? Could the universe exist without space and time? Can we travel to the past? From Newton’s unchanging realm in which space and time are absolute, to Einstein’s fluid conception of spacetime, to quantum mechanics’ entangled arena where vastly distant objects can instantaneously coordinate their behavior, Greene takes us all, regardless of our scientific backgrounds, on an irresistible and revelatory journey to the new layers of reality that modern physics has discovered lying just beneath the surface of our everyday world.

Customer Reviews:

Enough with the stupid pop-culture references.......2007-10-01

As other reviewers have pointed out, the book tends to unnecessarily incorporate stupid pop-culture references to make the material seem more accessible to the layperson. Instead of making the material more accessible it seems extremely contrived and insults the intelligence of the reader. References to the Kwik-E-Mart, Mulder and Scully, and all of the other hoohah this book contains obscure the reader from what is essentially a fine work. Brian Greene's writing and explanatory power is unbelievable and it is a shame that the publisher probably insisted on the pop-culture references.

The book was definitely worth the purchase for its clear explanations of extra dimensions and the arrow of time. However, I did feel the portions dealing with time travel and black holes to be of lesser quality than writings by other authors like Michio Kaku. I recently read Kaku's "Parallel Worlds," and this book back to back and would say that if you're purchasing one book I would side with Kaku. This book contains much more on time than "Parallel Worlds" but the other topics covered are pretty much identical.

Excellent book!! not written like an encyclopedia.......2007-08-16

I found this book to be excellent. The author really understands how to take a complex subject like this and not make it read like a tedious textbook, also without dumbing it down to the point you feel like a 2 year old.. excellent read. Fascinating. Highly reccomend

This book is great.......2007-08-11

This book is great but I do not know if audio version is the best choice.
I would like to re-read some parts and see the releated illustrations. I believe it makes it easier to understand.

einstein for dummies.......2007-07-12

makes a very complicated subject readable for the layman.
it seemsthat the more science advances the more mysterious the
world becomes.
for me it reveals Gods creation as even more amazing as time
goes by
h.g.

Marvelous (if occasionally uneven) presentation of marvelous physics.......2007-07-11

I read the first half of _The Elegant Universe_, but I didn't finish it. I think it was because I felt that Greene was giving too much string theory without enough justification for giving me so much string theory. This may sound like an odd complaint, but it makes sense if you compare the earlier book with The Fabric of the Cosmos. Greene spends more time walking through..well..the fabric of the cosmos, and when he does get to string theory, it makes more sense why.

I actually found the string theory portion of the book (section 4 out of 5) less interesting than the first sections, which give a lot of experimentally based information about really, really crazy things in general relativity and quantum mechanics (inflation, entanglement, the time "loaf," quantum uncertainty, multiple pasts, entropy, symmetry, etc.). Greene is very good at explaining what these experiments & theories mean on an intuitive level. Sometimes too good. (Some of the examples using Bart Simpson, etc. are a little slower than necessary, but never egregiously so.) There are plenty of moments in the text that hurt your brain, however, so if the material is new to you, the presentation will not detract.

One of the best features of the book is the leitmotiv of time's arrow. Greene keeps returning to the problem of time: why does it only flow in one direction, when physical law seems to suggest that it could just as well flow in both directions? The answer (as far as we know) is entropy, and he uses time and entropy to tie his narrative together.

The last section of the book (section 5) is a pastiche, and some of it seemed disjointed. But the book ends on a fascinating reflection on the composite, non-fundamental nature of spacetime, and he does encourage his reader to check out Lee Smolin's theory of quantum loop gravity, which is a counter to string theory.

Having recently read Dawkin's _God Delusion_, I took note of the fact that Greene also declares himself (toward the end of the book) as a determinist-materialist-monist. I was struck by how infinitely less aggressive Greene's representation of this position is.

A great read!

The Fabric of Reality: The Science of Parallel Universes and Its Implications

Average customer rating:

Quantum Theory and Multiple Universes
Good Reading IF...
Not Memorable
On the quixotic quest for a theory of everything
whole > parts

The Fabric of Reality: The Science of Parallel Universes and Its Implications
David Deutsch
Manufacturer: Penguin (Non-Classics)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 014027541X

Amazon.com

"Our best theories are not only truer than common sense, they make more sense than common sense," writes physicist David Deutsch. In The Fabric of Reality, Deutsch traces what he considers the four main strands of scientific explanation: quantum theory, evolution, computation, and the theory of knowledge. "The four of them taken together form a coherent explanatory structure that is so far-reaching, and has come to encompass so much of our understanding of the world, that in my view it may already properly be called the first Theory of Everything." Deutsch covers some difficult material with unusual clarity. Each chapter ends with a summary and definitions of important terms, which makes the work an invaluable sourcebook.

Customer Reviews:

Quantum Theory and Multiple Universes.......2007-09-24

This is a difficult book. Deutsch, a British theoretical physicist, asks scientists to face up to the reality implied by the present fundamental theories of quantum physics and computation. He weaves these strands together with the theory of evolution and a lengthy discussion of epistemology to demonstrate that an improved understanding of the real world is to recognize it as a set of parallel universes. This "multiverse" reality has baffled scientists, who find quantum physics necessary but shy away from the implications for reality. Deutsch probes deeply into how we know anything, how science moves forward, and the reinforcing strands of computer information theory and quantum physics. While the conclusions are certainly counter-intuitive, his evidence is serious. However, the final two chapters will need reworking, as they are based on the assumption in 1997 that our universe would ultimately contract again into a "big crunch." Evidence is now persuasive that continued expansion is our fate, so that his "infinite knowledge" scenario in the final moments of the contracting universe will not occur. Nevertheless, Deutsch's analysis is compatible with those who believe that knowledge (information) is the ultimate reality. On the way, he explores the theoretical possibility of time travel (Possibilities: one way trips into the future, and round trips into the past only back to the time at which time travel technology is first deployed). Personally, I find the parallel universe conclusion hard to envision, but as an explanation of quantum physics it is certainly more straightforward than the unsatisfactory and labored interpretation of the "Copenhagen school."

Good Reading IF..........2007-07-22

IF you believe in the Multiverse AND
you believe in Evolution AND
you believe in Turing Machines
THEN
This book is really for you!
ELSE
Just an entertaining book by a Oxford guy who is very smart.
END-IF

Not Memorable.......2007-06-20

I read this book several years ago and find that I remember almost nothing that I would consider I learned from it directly. Much of the material within has been more capably addressed by folks like Michio kaku, Brian Greene and Lisa Randall. The parallel universes theory has more physical support than some reviewers might think, but the WAY it actually affects our world is up to speculation. I would highly suggest an interested reader go for Lisa Randall's Warped Passages instead.

On the quixotic quest for a theory of everything.......2007-04-05

For the last twenty years of his life, Albert Einstein labored away at Princeton's Advanced Institute attempting to unify quantum mechanics with relativity.

And the same reason that he was unsuccessful will be the same reason that the CERN hadron collider in Switzerland will help to disprove the efficacy of string theory...because an objective reality does not exist.

The first problem in relation to the estalishment of a truly empirical science is solopism. As noted by Deutsch in his book, solopism exists where an individual accept the reality of anything not generated within his own mind. Best stated by Descartes as "cognito ergo sum" "I think therefore I am" operates to refute all evidence generated by even the senses even they only secondarily filter into the brain.

In other words, the first act of observation is a belief in the power of observation. This human ability to believe sometimes does and sometimes does not result in various degrees of observer bias. In fact, many great scientific revolutions can be characterized by virtue of the fact that they overturned basic evolutionary psychology assumptions about the way things work such:

The Copernican revolution which reversed the view that the sun revolves around the Earth.

The Darwinian revolution which overturned the view that animals of discrete species have discrete speciesness to them unlike any other species. In its extreme form this view posited that all animals in existence always existed.

The astonishing hypothesis of Francis Crick which observes that all conscious experience is the product of discrete interactions between neurons and ganglia. This notion itself revisted the previous Descartes notion of body/soul duality.

The idea that some understanding has been in relation to quantifying human observer bias by no means can be said to have resulted in its elimination.

Having dealt with observer bias, the cutting edge of science has been blunted by various information limiting discoveries that propogate reductively through the assorted disciplines.

In quantum mechanics for example, we cannot know both a particle's speed and its location.

In relatively, there is no objective now because Einsteinian time warps with the space it exists in a phenomenon that of course is different for locationally different observers.

In life sciences, natural selection has no plan but moves forward choatically based on a myriad of influences from the biosphere as well periodic influences (most dramatically meteorites) from the exosphere.

In cognition, findings by Kurt Godel and Alan Turing in turns have shown that even application of consistent formal systems is necessarily incomplete but still capable of producing something like an independent intelligence. Indeed, an understanding of the uniquely limited nature of human cognition leads us back to our predicate inquiry concerning observer bias. As Harvard's Steven Pinker pointed out in How the Mind Works, we hit reality at an obligue angle.

And like using a ruler to measure the circumference of a bowling ball, we are limited by our very beings in how we access reality by virtue of ourselves and our tools.

So when one reads a book such as this or Ed Wilson's Consilience or anyone's take on a theory of everything, one cannot help but remember Albert Einstein, the theory of everything's ultimate Sir Gawain who quested but never obtained his Holy Grail.

whole > parts.......2007-01-30

This is a highly stimulating book but, depending on one's expectations, it can be frustrating as well (as can be seen in some previous reviews). Most scientific writing is designed to popularize technical insights &/or make them more accessible. Deutsch may somewhat share that goal but, to a much greater extent, he is trying to make a more ambitious case to the scientifically literate public. He isn't trying to popularize known insights, but to weave together a broader and more compelling theoretical framework.

There is an extensive tradition of 'theories of everything' in physics, but they are still theories of physics. They will concern the integration of relativity and quantum mechanics, or the formulation of a more fundamental theory such as chromodynamics or string (M) theory. But Deutsch is trying to articulate a full-fledged theory of scientific convergence. As a quantum computer scientist, he is well aware about how physics provides new insights into computation, and vice versa. But by adding the topics of biological evolution (Darwin/Dawkins) and epistemology (Popper), and exploring how quantum computation helps illuminate those theories, and vice versa, he is pushing the horizon of scientific understanding.

Any one of his theoretical `strands' can be fairly criticized. He tends, for example, to stipulate the existence of a multiverse, rather than weigh the evidence supporting that interpretation (such as, for example, Julian Barbour does in The End of Time). In computer science, he moves too quickly in asserting (again without a full assessment) that the Turing Principle should be regarded as applying primarily to the creation of virtual reality (rather than just computation). Other than highlighting the computational component, he adds little in the discussion of evolution. And, finally, his discussion of epistemology, which is strong and well integrated with the other strands (e.g., a focus on the evolution of knowledge), is made to substitute for a more complete psychological and sociological understanding of the emergence of knowledge. Thus, overall, Deutsch inadvertently gives ample targets to his critics.

So, if you want an overview of settled knowledge, you should find another source. However, in a deeper sense, Deutsch is practicing his epistemology. As a Popperian, he believes that scientific progress is achieved through a process of conjecture and refutation. Accordingly, he does not try to ground and justify each assertion. He expects that to be accomplished through the larger scientific process of isolating and testing this overall conceptual framework. Rather, he is trying to sketch the broad outlines of an encompassing theory that can reinforce and strengthen each of its theoretical components.

In addition, and this is vital, he fully recognizes the importance of emergence in nature and history. He gives credit to the achievements of reductionist scientific strategies, but also understands and explains how and why such strategies will never suffice. Rather, they must work with a correlative strategy of identifying and comprehending the process of emergence in all its various forms.

Deutsch's convergence theory as it stands is not complete, and may be weak in spots, but it is certainly the most promising theory of scientific convergence of which I am aware. This contribution would seem to be a sufficient basis for highly recommending The Fabric of Reality.

Average customer rating:

Nothing short of amazing!

The Fabric of the Cosmos. Space Time and the Texture of Reality

Manufacturer: Books on Tape
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Audio CD
ASIN: 0736697500

Product Description

From the author of the Pulitzer Prize finalist THE ELEGANT UNIVERSE comes the widely anticipated new book that unearths the strange and startling layers lying beneath the everyday world - and reality as we know it. In his characteristically witty and accessible prose, Greene explores the nature of space - from Newton's static realm, through Einstein's fusion of space and time, to recent breakthroughs suggesting that ours may be one of many island universes moving through the multi-dimensional fabric of space. We are introduced to the volatile world of quantum physics, paradoxical nature of time - which, according to the laws of physics, does not necessarily need to run in any one particular direction - and made to wonder: is there a unified theory of the universe?

Customer Reviews:

Nothing short of amazing!.......2005-06-18

Having to split my time between college and work doesn't give much opportunity to read for luxury and I'm very glad I purchased this book on CD. Green manages to explain everything in a very redundant, but extremely entertaining manner. He will repeat an explanation of a concept two or three times, each time using a different and unique comparison to common, every day events. This way, even a listener who doesn't have a degree in Physics can still feel like they have a confident grasp on the subjects contained in the book.

Most of all, Greene explains concepts, ideas and theories in a way that excites the listener. Probably because when Greene narrates, he is truly excited himself.

Average customer rating:

A Physics book for Science Majors

Physics: the Fabric of Reality
S.K. Kim
Manufacturer: Macmillan
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Customer Reviews:

A Physics book for Science Majors.......2007-05-28

The first time, I bought the book when it was new. It was current, and full of wonderful explanations for modern physics problems. It was easy to understand, and asset to my own physics teaching. My own notes on Special Relativity are fantastic because of Kim's work. So, thank you.

Sadly, I lent the book to a student, and it was never returned. I actually had to buy the book again. So, not only did I find the book a fascinating read, I am one of those chumps that actually bought the book twice!

Kim did an exceptionally good job at clarifying the "weird" and the "spooky" in Physics.

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