Overview

How did life on Earth get started Can we duplicate human thought in a computing machine How do children acquire language Ten years ago, in PARADIGMS LOST, John L. Casti looked at the state of play with these and a handful of other eternal questions, outlining the competing answers on offer and describing the scientists who advocated them. In PARADIGMS REGAINED Casti recounts the huge leaps science has made since then, and how new theories and candidate answers have emerged for almost all the big questions. As we enter the twenty-first century, PARADIGMS REGAINED provides an excellent summary of what we understand about key scientific issues.

Full Product Details

9780349111339

Table of Contents

Reviews

'A classic, cleverly updated to reconsider eternal questions in the light of current knowledge.' SUNDAY TIMES 'A brilliant guide to the state of science.' SCOTSMAN 'Casti writes in a well-practised and easy style.' TIMES HIGHER EDUCATIONAL SUPPLEMENT 'In Paradigms Regained, John Casti re-examines the six big questions he looked at in his 1989 book, Paradigms Lost: Did life begin naturally and on Earth? Is human behaviour genetically determined? Is there a language organ in the human brain? Can computers think? Can we talk to ET? Is there a Real World? In Paradigms Lost, he presents the evidence for yes and no answers to each question as though in a trial by jury, with witnesses arguing for the prosecution and defence, then a summary of the evidence and a verdict. Paradigms Regained takes the same questions to an appeals court, summarises the evidence from the trial and introduces new evidence from the intervening decade. Casti's goal is to show how science works, how the single most characteristic feature of science is that its conclusions are tentative . So in three cases he now reaches a ruling of appeal upheld , overturning his previous verdicts. In fact, the only one truly overturned is his conclusion of not proven to the question about the genetic determination of human behaviour: he thinks the evidence for yes has become much stronger. In the cases of the origin of life and the existence of a Real World, he has kept the same one-word answers but now favours different mechanisms. Together, the two books are good illustrations of how science looks at the questions that most interest non-scientists and of how scientific knowledge builds and changes. They make excellent maps to the borders between science and philosophy, science and religion, and science and pseudoscience.' - Mary Ellen Curtin, AMAZON.CO.UK REVIEW

Perhaps one of the reasons popular science books are, well, popular is that we actually know so little. We think we can track the development of the universe back to unimaginably small fractions of a second after the Big Bang, but why did it happen? Why is there something rather than nothing? Particle physicists explain many details of matter, but what is everything actually made of? We simply do not know. Nor do we know how life began or what consciousness is or whether computers will ever think. We do, however, appear to be edging towards a clearer picture on such things, and for many people following this progress provides endless fascination. This book is about the so called big questions. The author is himself a scientist, working at the famous Santa Fe Institute, and his past books have demonstrated his ability to explain complex issues to interested laymen. It is something of a sequel to Paradigms Lost, published in 1989, and revisits some of the same issues in the light of our developing knowledge. Major puzzles are investigated in c individual chapters. There is no attempt to present magic solutions, indeed the reader is, to some extent, left to form their own judgement of the evidence. If you view the study of the mysteries of modern science as a journey rather than a destination, then this is a journey that boggles the mind. The book provides a compelling review in the company of a writer who projects his enthusiasm for science powerfully, and who has an ability to make the most complex issues seem a little more understandable. (Kirkus UK)

Author Information

John L. Casti is a member of the faculty of the Santa Fe Institute and a professor at the Technical University of Vienna. He divides his time between Santa Fe, New Mexico and Vienna.

Tab Content 6

Countries Available