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THE FUZZY FUTURE

FROM SOCIETY AND SCIENCE TO HEAVEN IN A CHIP

Flights of fuzzy fancy, and fantasy, from an expert in the field (Fuzzy Thinking, 1993)—but hardly a guide for the perplexed. In fuzzy logic things are not black and white (true or not true, in binary fashion) but shades of gray (partly true, partly not true). In turn, the concept has spawned a form of systems theory, a branch of mathematics, and applications in design and manufacturing. Kosko (Electrical Engineering/USC), a chief proponent of fuzzy thinking, alludes to these applications (the new Beetle has a fuzzy automatic transmission; fuzzy systems are used to control industrial and manufacturing processes), but his aims are loftier. Thus the book’s three main sections describe how fuzzy thinking can effect dramatic changes in politics, science, and ultimately human biology. Assumptions abound. For example, Kosko’s politics/economics seems grounded in Henry George and the English philosophers from Hume to Mill. He dreams of a fuzzy tax form giving taxpayers the right to parcel at least half their federal taxes to nine or ten categories, and he proposes bounties to achieve breakthroughs in science. He goes on to speculate on the politics of genomes (who owns you), on environmental issues (who owns the sea) and war, in which fuzzy technology of smart weapons is making it easier to attack than to defend. There’s lots of talk of rules and explosions of rules and feedback and AI and intelligent systems, but for the general reader the result is fuzzy in the old-fashioned sense. Finally, Kosko fantasizes that immortality can be gained by a gradual (fuzzy) transformation of thee or me through successive brain surgeries that, piece by piece, replace the brain’s “meat” with chips. Of course, these work ever faster, better, and more creatively than old-fashioned neurons and synapses. That kind of thinking might launch a Kosko cult. For the rest, the book succeeds in capturing the flavor of fuzziness but not enough to convince us it’s time to throw the binary baby out with the bathwater. (Author tour)

Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1999

ISBN: 0-609-60446-5

Page Count: 384

Publisher: Harmony

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1999

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SEVEN BRIEF LESSONS ON PHYSICS

An intriguing meditation on the nature of the universe and our attempts to understand it that should appeal to both...

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Italian theoretical physicist Rovelli (General Relativity: The Most Beautiful of Theories, 2015, etc.) shares his thoughts on the broader scientific and philosophical implications of the great revolution that has taken place over the past century.

These seven lessons, which first appeared as articles in the Sunday supplement of the Italian newspaper Sole 24 Ore, are addressed to readers with little knowledge of physics. In less than 100 pages, the author, who teaches physics in both France and the United States, cogently covers the great accomplishments of the past and the open questions still baffling physicists today. In the first lesson, he focuses on Einstein's theory of general relativity. He describes Einstein's recognition that gravity "is not diffused through space [but] is that space itself" as "a stroke of pure genius." In the second lesson, Rovelli deals with the puzzling features of quantum physics that challenge our picture of reality. In the remaining sections, the author introduces the constant fluctuations of atoms, the granular nature of space, and more. "It is hardly surprising that there are more things in heaven and earth, dear reader, than have been dreamed of in our philosophy—or in our physics,” he writes. Rovelli also discusses the issues raised in loop quantum gravity, a theory that he co-developed. These issues lead to his extraordinary claim that the passage of time is not fundamental but rather derived from the granular nature of space. The author suggests that there have been two separate pathways throughout human history: mythology and the accumulation of knowledge through observation. He believes that scientists today share the same curiosity about nature exhibited by early man.

An intriguing meditation on the nature of the universe and our attempts to understand it that should appeal to both scientists and general readers.

Pub Date: March 1, 2016

ISBN: 978-0-399-18441-3

Page Count: 96

Publisher: Riverhead

Review Posted Online: Dec. 7, 2015

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2015

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A SHORT HISTORY OF NEARLY EVERYTHING

Loads of good explaining, with reminders, time and again, of how much remains unknown, neatly putting the death of science...

Bryson (I'm a Stranger Here Myself, 1999, etc.), a man who knows how to track down an explanation and make it confess, asks the hard questions of science—e.g., how did things get to be the way they are?—and, when possible, provides answers.

As he once went about making English intelligible, Bryson now attempts the same with the great moments of science, both the ideas themselves and their genesis, to resounding success. Piqued by his own ignorance on these matters, he’s egged on even more so by the people who’ve figured out—or think they’ve figured out—such things as what is in the center of the Earth. So he goes exploring, in the library and in company with scientists at work today, to get a grip on a range of topics from subatomic particles to cosmology. The aim is to deliver reports on these subjects in terms anyone can understand, and for the most part, it works. The most difficult is the nonintuitive material—time as part of space, say, or proteins inventing themselves spontaneously, without direction—and the quantum leaps unusual minds have made: as J.B.S. Haldane once put it, “The universe is not only queerer than we suppose; it is queerer than we can suppose.” Mostly, though, Bryson renders clear the evolution of continental drift, atomic structure, singularity, the extinction of the dinosaur, and a mighty host of other subjects in self-contained chapters that can be taken at a bite, rather than read wholesale. He delivers the human-interest angle on the scientists, and he keeps the reader laughing and willing to forge ahead, even over their heads: the human body, for instance, harboring enough energy “to explode with the force of thirty very large hydrogen bombs, assuming you knew how to liberate it and really wished to make a point.”

Loads of good explaining, with reminders, time and again, of how much remains unknown, neatly putting the death of science into perspective.

Pub Date: May 6, 2003

ISBN: 0-7679-0817-1

Page Count: 304

Publisher: Broadway

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2003

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