What We Cannot Know: Explorations at the Edge of Knowledge

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Britain s most famous mathematician takes us to the edge of knowledge to show us what we cannot know.Is the universe infinite Do we know what happened before the Big Bang Where is human consciousness located in the brain And are there undiscovered particles out there, beyond the Higgs boson In the modern world, science is king weekly headlines proclaim the latest scientific breakthroughs and numerous mathematical problems, once indecipherable, have now been solved But are there limits to what we can discover about our physical universe In this very personal journey to the edges of knowledge, Marcus du Sautoy investigates how leading experts in fields from quantum physics and cosmology, to sensory perception and neuroscience, have articulated the current lie of the land In doing so, he travels to the very boundaries of understanding, questioning contradictory stories and consulting cutting edge data.Is it possible that we will one day know everything Or are there fields of research that will always lie beyond the bounds of human comprehension And if so, how do we cope with living in a universe where there are things that will forever transcend our understanding In What We Cannot Know, Marcus du Sautoy leads us on a thought provoking expedition to the furthest reaches of modern science Prepare to be taken to the edge of knowledge to find out if there s anything we truly cannot know. New Read [ What We Cannot Know: Explorations at the Edge of Knowledge ] By [ Marcus du Sautoy ] – kino-fada.fr Stories For the Widening GapsI was educated in the school of anti reductionism That is, I was taught that knowledge of how the fundamental particles of the universe work would not help me understand what I might choose for dinner I did take university courses in physics and chemistry, but the deterministic implications of science, those which suggested the fictional character of things like purpose and choice and free will, were never allowed to surface fully It turns out that my views may si Stories For the Widening GapsI was educated in the school of anti reductionism That is, I was taught that knowledge of how the fundamental particles of the universe work would not help me understand what I might choose for dinner I did take university courses in physics and chemistry, but the deterministic implications of science, those which suggested the fictional character of things like purpose and choice and free will, were never allowed to surface fully It turns out that my views may simply be the resul...If you re into stuff like this, you can read the full review.Wave Function Collapse What We Cannot Know Explorations at the Edge of Knowledge by Marcus du Sautoy So the unknowability of position and momentum isn t really a genuine unknowable Rather, it is a failure of translation from mathematics to natural language In What We Cannot Know Explorations at the Edge of Knowledge by Marcus du Sautoy Until it the photon of light reaches the detector plate, like the electron, it is seemin If you re into stuff like this, you can read the full review.Wave Function Collapse What We Cannot Know Explorations at the Edge of Knowledge by Marcus du Sautoy So the unknowability of position and momentum isn t really a genuine unknowable Rather, it is a failure of translatio...This is a fascinating book about the theoretical limits of our knowledge, our ability to make predictions, and to understand the universe Marcus du Sautoy is a professor of mathematics at Oxford University A central theme of the book, is to show how mathematics works as a powerful tool in helping us understand nature, and the limits to our understanding of how it works.The book begins with a discussion of throwing a 6 sided die With perfect knowledge of the position, velocity, and rotation of This is a fascinating book about the theoretical limits of our knowledge, our ability to make predictions, and to understand the universe Marcus du Sautoy is a professor of mathematics at Oxford University A central theme of the book, is to show how mathematics works as a powerful tool in helping us understand nature, and the limits to our understanding of how it works.The book begins with a discussion of throwing a 6 sided die With perfect knowledge of the position, velocity, and rotation of the die, is the outcome predictable Actually, the answer depends on the friction of the table onto which the die is thrown For certain ranges of friction, chaos prevents predictability.cSo the book relates the story of King Oscar II of Norway and Sweden, who celebrated his 60th birthday by offering a gold medal prize to whomever solved a math puzzle Is the solar system stable Poincare worked on this puzzle, and submitted a paper analyzing the orbits of two planets and a speck o...Brilliant, highly accessible, extremely readable and riveting exploration of the limits of human knowledge The author is a Professor of Mathematics at the University of Oxford, and he is highly renown for his excellent, contagious, enthusiastic divulgation to the wider public of the beauty of the mathematical world.His exploration of the boundaries of human knowledge is multi faceted, e...Maybe you thought this was a book about science Well, actually, this is a love story, really At least every 10 pages du Sautoy confesses his unbridled love to mathematics, the perfect universal language of our cosmos That is not surprising, because Marcus du Sautoy is professor of mathematics at Oxford, and obsessed by the mathematical virus since he was a kid.He uses that weapon of mathematics to look at the sciences, starting from the question of whether there is anything that we will Maybe you thought this was a book about science Well, actually, this is a love story, really At least every 10 pages du Sautoy confesses his unbridled love to mathematics, the perfect universal language of our cosmos That is not surprising, because Marcus du Sautoy is professor of mathematics at Oxford, and obsessed by the mathematical virus since he was a kid.He uses that weapon of mathematics to look at the sciences, starting from the question of whether there is anything that we will never know Indeed quite a challenge, such a difficult question And the whole, rather predictable, list passes the question whether the laws of nature are truly uni...A very good,interesting and deep in concepts and reflections book.In words of the author What I want to try to explore is wether there are problems that we can prove will remain beyond knowledge despite any new insights.In the knowledge subject are famous the words of Donal Rumsfeld There are known knowns.There are known unknowns.There are unknown unknowns.The author first explore what is known and then especulate about the unknowns.The book is divided in seven edges of known and unknown.Th A very good,interesting and deep in concepts and reflections book.In words of the author What I want to try to explore is wether there are problems that we can prove will remain beyond know...I find this book really hard to rate Despite always being told by her teachers and parents that science was not for girls and that I would always be bad at it because I was a girl which turned out to be a self fulfilling prophesy , I have always had a deep seated fascination with science in general and astrophysics in particular Ever since realising as a child that the universe was either infinite and how could that be or finite and then, what was beyond it I have had this aching desi I find this book really hard to rate Despite always being told by her teachers and parents that science was not for girls and that I would always be bad at it because I was a girl which turned out to be a self fulfilling prophesy , I...If you ve missed your share of popular science books on physics, cosmology, mathematics, and neuroscience during the last two decades, then this book can be a not so bad starting point The author has a very down to earth style, and manages to be engaging at the same time His objective is clear are there aspects of live, universe, and everything that are in principle unknowable Are there hard limits to science The question is simple to ask, yet finding out definitive answers is not so easy If you ve missed your share of popular science books on physics, cosmol...A 2 star rating would better reflect my own personal enjoyment of this book I ve rated it 3 stars partly because there were sections that I enjoyed, and partly in an attempt to include an element of objectivity to the review Normally if I give a non fiction book 2 stars, it s because of easily identifiable errors or because the author has been overly tendentious I can t say either of those things in this case However, my own reaction can be summed up in the old relationship breakup clich I A 2 star rating would better reflect my own personal enjoyment of this book I ve rated it 3 stars partly because there were sections that I enjoyed, and partly i...A Mind Blowing Book.The scope of this book brings together the current thinking in many disciplines from physics, philosophy, mathematics, cosmology, neurobiology etc, in a structured, well researched and authoritative narrative which seeks to explain the boundaries of human knowledge.

What We Cannot Know: Explorations at the Edge of Knowledge
  • English
  • 15 June 2018
  • Hardcover
  • 440 pages
  • 0007576668
  • Marcus du Sautoy
  • What We Cannot Know: Explorations at the Edge of Knowledge