Impossibility The Limits of Science and the Science of Limits

by Barrow, John D.

• ISBN13: 9780195130829
• ISBN10: 0195130820
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1999-10-28
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

In Impossibility , John D. Barrow--one of our most elegant and accomplished science writers--argues convincingly that there are limits to human discovery, that there are things that are ultimately unknowable, undoable, or unreachable. Barrow first examines the limits of the human mind: our brain evolved to meet the demands of our immediate environment, and much that lies outside this small circle may also lie outside our understanding. He investigates practical impossibilities, such as those imposed by complexity, uncomputability, or the finiteness of time, space, and resources. Is the universe finite or infinite? Can information be transmitted faster than the speed of light? The book also examines deeper theoretical restrictions on our ability to know, including Godel's theorem, which proved that there were things that could not be proved. Finally, having explored the limits imposed on us from without, Barrow considers whether there are limits we should impose upon ourselves. Weaving together this intriguing tapestry, Barrow illuminates some of the most profound questions of science, from the possibility of time travel to the very structure of the universe.

Author Biography

John Barrow is Professor of Astronomy at the University of Sussex. Among his many popular books on science are Pi in the Sky, Theories of Everything, and The Origin of the Universe. He lives in Sussex, England.

Table of Contents

The art of the impossible	1	(26)
The power of negative thinking	1	(2)
Of faces and games	3	(4)
Those for whom all things are possible	7	(5)
Paradox	12	(1)
Visual paradox	13	(6)
Linguistic paradox	19	(2)
Limits to certainty	21	(3)
A cosmic speed limit	24	(2)
Summary	26	(1)
The hope of progress	27	(30)
Over the rainbow	27	(4)
The voyage to Polynesia via Telegraph Avenue	31	(6)
Progress and prejudice	37	(4)
The big idea of unlimited knowledge	41	(4)
Negativism	45	(3)
Some nineteenth-century ideas of the impossible	48	(7)
Summary	55	(2)
Back to the future	57	(28)
What do we mean by the limits of science?	47	(11)
Possible futures	58	(7)
Higgledy-piggledyology	65	(3)
Selective and absolute limits	68	(2)
Will we be builders or surgeons?	70	(2)
The futures market	72	(11)
How many discoveries are there still to be made?	83	(1)
Summary	84	(1)
Being human	85	(33)
What are minds for?	85	(6)
Counting on words	91	(4)
Modern art and the death of a culture	95	(1)
Complexity matching: climbing Mount Improbable	96	(4)
Intractability	100	(7)
The frontier spirit	107	(2)
The end of diversity	109	(2)
Does science always bring about its own demise?	111	(2)
Death and the death of science	113	(1)
The psychology of limits	114	(2)
Summary	116	(2)
Technological limits	118	(37)
Is the Universe economically viable?	118	(2)
Why we are where we are	120	(2)
Some consequences of size	122	(3)
The forces of Nature	125	(3)
Manipulating the Universe	128	(10)
Criticality: the riddle of the sands	138	(4)
Demons: counting the cost	142	(5)
Two types of future	147	(3)
Is technological progress inevitable (or always desirable)?---a fable	150	(3)
Summary	153	(2)
Cosmological limits	155	(35)
The last horizon	155	(9)
Inflation---still crazy after all these years	164	(5)
Chaotic inflation	169	(1)
Is the Universe open or closed?	170	(1)
Eternal inflation	171	(3)
The natural selection of universes	174	(2)
Topology	176	(2)
Did the Universe have a beginning?	178	(4)
Naked singularities: the final frontier	182	(2)
Dimensions	184	(1)
Symmetry-breaking	185	(3)
Summary	188	(2)
Deep limits	190	(28)
Patterns in reality	190	(5)
Paradoxes	195	(2)
Consistency	197	(2)
Time travel: is the Universe safe for historians?	199	(8)
Completeness	207	(4)
Impossible constructions	211	(4)
Metaphorical impossibilities	215	(1)
Summary	216	(2)
Impossibility and us	218	(30)
Godel's theorem and physics	218	(3)
Does Godel stymie physics?	221	(9)
Godel, logic, and the human mind	230	(2)
The problem of free will	232	(4)
The reaction game	236	(2)
Mathematics that comes alive	238	(1)
A stranger sort of impossibility	239	(3)
The Arrow Impossibility Theorem	242	(4)
Summary	246	(2)
Impossibility: taking stock	248	(5)
Telling what is from what isn't	248	(5)
Notes	253	(22)
Index	275