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The Island of Knowledge : the Limits of Science and the Search for Meaning.
Why discovering the limits to science may be the most powerful discovery of allHow much can we know about the world? In this book, physicist Marcelo Gleiser traces our search for answers to the most fundamental questions of existence, the origin of the universe, the nature of reality, and the limits...
| Clasificación: | Libro Electrónico |
|---|---|
| Autor principal: | |
| Formato: | Electrónico eBook |
| Idioma: | Inglés |
| Publicado: |
New York :
Basic Books,
2014.
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| Temas: | |
| Acceso en línea: | Texto completo |
Tabla de Contenidos:
- pt. I The Origin of the World and the Nature of the Heavens
- 1. The Will to Believe
- (Wherein we explore the role of belief and extrapolation in religion and in scientific creativity)
- 2. Beyond Space and Time
- (Wherein we explore how different religions have faced the question of the origin of all things)
- 3. To Be, or to Become? That is the Question
- (Wherein we encounter the first philosophers of ancient Greece and delve into their remarkable notions about the meaning of reality)
- 4. Lessons From Plato's Dream
- (Wherein we explore how Plato and Aristotle dealt with the question of the First Cause and with the limits of knowledge)
- 5. The Transformative Power of A New Observational Tool
- (Wherein we describe how three remarkable gentlemen, with access to new observational tools and endowed with remarkable creativity, transformed our worldview)
- 6. Cracking Open the Dome of Heaven.
- (Wherein we explore the genius of Isaac Newton and why his physics became a beacon of the human intellect)
- 7. Science As Nature's Grand Narrative
- (Wherein we argue that science is a human construction powerful in its range and its openness to change)
- 8. The Plasticity Of Space
- (Wherein we explore Einstein's special and general theories of relativity and their implication for our understanding of space and time)
- 9. The Restless Universe
- (Wherein we explore the expansion of the Universe and the appearance of a singularity at the origin of time)
- 10. There Is No Now
- (Wherein we argue that the notion of "now" is a cognitive fabrication)
- 11. Cosmic Blindness
- (Wherein we explore the concept of cosmic horizons and how it limits what we can know of the Universe)
- 12. Splitting Infinities
- (Wherein we begin to explore the notion of the infinite, and how it translates into cosmology)
- 13. Rolling Downhill.
- (Wherein we explain the notion of false vacuum energy, how it relates to the famous Higgs boson, and how it may fuel an accelerated cosmic expansion)
- 14. Counting Universes
- (Wherein the concept of the multiverse is introduced and its physical and metaphysical implications explored)
- 15. Interlude: A Promenade Along the String Landscape
- (Wherein the notion of the string landscape is discussed, together with its anthropic motivation)
- 16. Can We Test The Multiverse Hypothesis?
- (Wherein we explore whether the multiverse is a proper physical theory or mere speculation)
- pt. II From Alchemy to the Quantum: The Elusive Nature of Reality
- 17. Everything Floats In Nothingness
- (Wherein we explore the Greek notion of Atomism)
- 18. Admirable Force And Efficacy Of Art And Nature
- (Wherein we visit the world of alchemy, an exploration of powers hidden in matter through method and spiritual discipline)
- 19. The Elusive Nature Of Heat.
- (Wherein we explore phlogiston and caloric, the strange substances proposed to explain the nature of heat, and how such substances were later discarded as explanations)
- 20. Mysterious Light
- (Wherein we explore how light's mysterious properties spawned the twin scientific revolutions of the early twentieth century)
- 21. Learning To Let Go
- (Wherein we begin our exploration of quantum physics and how it imposes limits on what we can know of the world)
- 22. The Tale Of The Intrepid Anthropologist
- (Wherein an allegory explores the role of the observer in quantum physics and how measurements interfere with what is measured)
- 23. What Waves in the Quantum Realm?
- (Wherein we explore Max Born's bizarre interpretation of quantum mechanics and how it complicates our notion of physical reality)
- 24. Can We Know What Is Real?
- (Wherein we explore the implications of quantum physics for our understanding of reality).
- 25. Who is Afraid of Quantum Ghosts?
- (Wherein we revisit what so bothered Einstein about quantum physics and what it tells us about the world)
- 26. For Whom the Bell Tolls
- (Wherein we discuss Bell's theorem and how its experimental implementation shows how reality is stranger than fiction)
- 27. Consciousness and the Quantum World
- (Wherein we discuss the role consciousness might play in the quantum realm)
- 28. Back to the Beginning
- (Wherein we attempt to make sense of what the quantum enigma is telling us)
- pt. III Mind and Meaning
- 29. On the Laws of Humans and the Laws of Nature
- (Wherein we discuss whether mathematics is an invention or a discovery and why it matters)
- 30. Incompleteness
- (Wherein we briefly visit and explore Godel's and Turing's disconcerting but all-important findings)
- 31. Sinister Dreams of Transhuman Machines: or, the World as Information
- (Wherein we examine whether the world is information, the nature of consciousness, and whether reality is a simulation)
- 32. Awe and Meaning
- (Wherein we reflect upon the urge to know and why it matters).