Infinite In All Directions
Language: English
Published by HarperCollins Publishers Inc, 2004
- Softcover
- Used
Seller: World of Books Inc, Montgomery, IL, U.S.A.World of Books Inc
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Condition: Used - Fair
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Add to basketItem description from seller
Infinite in All Directions, with a new introduction by the author, is a classic and a rare treat of polished prose-a combination of scientific knowledge and a mediation on the human condition through the windows of science and religion. Freeman Dyson is a distinguished scientist, lecturer, and writer, arms control expert, a theoretical physicist and one of the most formidably provocative minds in America. In celebrating the diversity of our world and ourselves, Dyson explores a rich range of subjects from the origins of life and the prospects of immortality to nuclear weapons and the frontiers of space. Part One of two, entitled "Life In The Universe," is a meditation on life as a scientific phenomenon and about our efforts to understand the nature of life and its place in the universe; Part Two "People and Machines" is about ethics and politics and about the local problems introduced by our species into the existence of life on this planet. Dyson, a lover of diversity, looks at both scientific and human problems in this generous rewriting of his famous Gifford Lectures, a series that has produced several classic books, including William James' The Varieties of Religious Experience and Alfred North Whitehead's Process and Reality. As Time magazine wrote, "To observe a mind uncommonly endowed with dexterity and knowledge hop from subject to subject is exhilarating.".…
Seller Inventory # CIN0060728892A
- Title
- Infinite In All Directions
- Author
- Freeman J Dyson
- Publisher
- HarperCollins Publishers Inc
- Publication year
- 2004
- Condition
- Fair
- Binding
- Paperback
- Language
- English
- ISBN 10
- 0060728892
- ISBN 13
- 9780060728892
Infinite in All Directions is a popularized science at its best. In Dyson's view, science and religion are two windows through which we can look out at the world around us.
The book is a revised version of a series of the Gifford Lectures under the title "In Praise of Diversity" given at Aberdeen, Scotland. They allowed Dyson the license to express everything in the universe, which he divided into two parts in polished prose: focusing on the diversity of the natural world as the first, and the diversity of human reactions as the second half.
Chapter 1 is a brief explanation of Dyson's attitudes toward religion and science. Chapter 2 is a one–hour tour of the universe that emphasizes the diversity of viewpoints from which the universe can be encountered as well as the diversity of objects which it contains. Chapter 3 is concerned with the history of science and describes two contrasting styles in science: one welcoming diversity and the other deploring it. He uses the cities of Manchester and Athens as symbols of these two ways of approaching science. Chapter 4, concerned with the origin of life, describes the ideas of six illustrious scientists who have struggled to understand the nature of life from various points of view. Chapter 5 continues the discussion of the nature and evolution of life. The question of why life characteristically tends toward extremes of diversity remains central in all attempts to understand life's place in the universe. Chapter 6 is an exercise in eschatology, trying to define possible futures for life and for the universe, from here to infinity. In this chapter, Dyson crosses the border between science and science fiction and he frames his speculations in a slightly theological context.
"Synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
About the Author
Freeman Dyson spent most of his life as a professor of physics at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. He was born in England and worked as a civilian scientist for the Royal Air Force in World War 2. He graduated from Cambridge University in 1945 with a BA degree in mathematics. He went on to Cornell University as a graduate student in 1947 and worked with Hans Bethe and Richard Feynman and went on to be appointed as a professor. His most useful contribution to science was the unification of the three versions of quantum electrodynamics invented by Feynman, Schwinger and Tomonaga. Dyson is a fellow of the American Physical Society, a member of the US National Academy of Sciences, and a fellow of the Royal Society of London. In 2000 he was awarded the Templeton Prize for progress in Religion. In addition to his scientific work, Professor Dyson has found time for raising five daughters, a son and a step-daughter.
"About the title" may belong to another edition of this title.
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