THE BIT AND THE PENDULUM

An enjoyably quick-paced interdisciplinary survey of the outer limits of scientific thought.

Much as the machines of earlier eras drove the growth of cosmological theory—Newton conceived of the universe as a cosmic clock, and the steam engine inspired the science of thermodynamics—the computer has, in the information age, developed into a powerful metaphor for understanding the universe. In a straightforward, often whimsical exposition of new revelations in computer science, theoretical physics, molecular biology, and the developing science of consciousness, Dallas Morning News science editor Siegfried reaches a startling conclusion: All natural phenomena, from organisms that develop according to intricately programmed DNA coding down to the radically small "superstrings" that physicists believe may be the building blocks of matter, consist of information processing, even if the "information" is physical rather than digital. Many computer functions, Siegfried asserts, including the binary coding with which computers calculate and the manner in which computers produce outputs from inputs according to pre-programmed mathematical rules, find analogues in nature. Siegfried hurtles from cell analysis to Boolean logic to quantum mechanics to the theory of black holes to make his point. Indeed, he contends, the computer has become such a powerful symbol for the universe that scientists are in danger of mistaking the metaphor for nature itself: Like the condemned man in the Poe story evoked by the title, scientists are in the dark, constantly groping for models with which to understand their mysterious environment. The computer has become as all-encompassing a model as Newton’s clock, Siegfried concludes, but it may be no better able to explain everything in nature.

A stimulating and eminently accessible introduction to the frontiers of scientific theory.