science from the Edge
Explore the edge of science with top books from Kurzweil, Deutsch, and Wolfram. Dive into mind-expanding ideas on singularity, reality, and computation.
Book
The Fabric of Reality
by David Deutsch
A penetrating exploration of the new physics, including time travel, quantum computers, and the multiverse from an award-winning physicist For David Deutsch, a physicist of unusual originality, quantum theory contains our most fundamental knowledge of the physical world. Taken literally, it implies that there are many universes “parallel” to the one we see around us. This multiplicity of universes, according to Deutsch, turns out to be the key to achieving a new worldview based on four main strands: • Quantum physics and its many-universes interpretation • The theory of evolution (Darwin/Dawkins) • The theory of computation (quantum computation) • The theory of knowledge (Karl Popper), explanation and understanding The Fabric of Reality explains and connects many topics at the leading edge of current research and thinking, such as quantum computers (which work by effectively collaborating with their counterparts in other universes), the physics of time travel, the comprehensibility of nature and the physical limits of virtual reality, the significance of human life, and the ultimate fate of the universe. Here—for scientist and layperson alike, for philosopher, science-fiction reader, biologist, and computer expert—is a startlingly complete and rational synthesis of disciplines, and a new, optimistic message about existence.
Book
A New Kind of Science
by Stephen Wolfram
ĂŤndice: 1. The Foundations for a New Kind of Science -- 2. The Crucial Experiment -- 3. The World of Simple Programs -- 4. Systems Based on Numbers -- 5. Two Dimensions and Beyond -- 6. Starting from Randomness -- 7. Mechanisms in Programs and Nature -- 8. Implications for Everyday Systems -- 9. Fundamental Physics -- 10. Processes of Perception and Analysis -- 11. The Notion of Computation -- 12. The Principle of Computational Equivalence.
Book
The Singularity is Near
by Ray Kurzweil
A controversial scientific vision predicts a time in which humans and machines will merge and create a new form of non-biological intelligence, explaining how the occurrence will solve such issues as pollution, hunger, and aging.
Book
Holographic Universe
by Michael Talbot
Examines a new theory of reality, based on holography, that explains the paranormal abilities of the mind, the latest frontiers of physics, and the unsolved riddles of the brain and body.