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- catalog abstract "As a staff writer for Scientific American, John Horgan has a window on contemporary science unsurpassed in all the world. Who else routinely interviews the likes of Lynn Margulis, Roger Penrose, Francis Crick, Richard Dawkins, Freeman Dyson, Murray Gell-Mann, Stephen Jay Gould, Stephen Hawking, Thomas Kuhn, Chris Langton, Karl Popper, Steven Weinberg, and E.O. Wilson, with the freedom to probe their innermost thoughts? This is the secret fear that Horgan pursues throughout this remarkable book: Have the big questions all been answered? Has all the knowledge worth pursuing become known? Will there be a final "theory of everything" that signals the end? Is the age of great discoveries behind us? Is science today reduced to mere puzzle solving and adding details to existing theories? Scientists have always set themselves apart from other scholars in the belief that they do not construct the truth, they discover it. Their work is not interpretation but simple revelation of what exists in the empirical universe. But science itself keeps imposing limits on its own power. Special relativity prohibits the transmission of matter or information at speeds faster than that of light; quantum mechanics dictates uncertainty; and chaos theory confirms the impossibility of complete prediction. Meanwhile, the very idea of scientific rationality is under fire from Neo-Luddites, animal-rights activists, religious fundamentalists, and New Agers alike. As Horgan makes clear, perhaps the greatest threat to science may come from losing its special place in the hierarchy of disciplines, being reduced to something more akin to literary criticism as more and more theoreticians engage in the theory twiddling he calls "ironic science." Still, while Horgan offers his critique, grounded in the thinking of the world's leading researchers, he offers homage, too. If science is ending, he maintains, it is only because it has done its work so well.".
- catalog contributor b9412133.
- catalog created "c1996.".
- catalog date "1996".
- catalog date "c1996.".
- catalog dateCopyrighted "c1996.".
- catalog description "As a staff writer for Scientific American, John Horgan has a window on contemporary science unsurpassed in all the world. Who else routinely interviews the likes of Lynn Margulis, Roger Penrose, Francis Crick, Richard Dawkins, Freeman Dyson, Murray Gell-Mann, Stephen Jay Gould, Stephen Hawking, Thomas Kuhn, Chris Langton, Karl Popper, Steven Weinberg, and E.O. Wilson, with the freedom to probe their innermost thoughts? This is the secret fear that Horgan pursues throughout this remarkable book: Have the big questions all been answered? Has all the knowledge worth pursuing become known? Will there be a final "theory of everything" that signals the end? Is the age of great discoveries behind us? Is science today reduced to mere puzzle solving and adding details to existing theories? Scientists have always set themselves apart from other scholars in the belief that they do not construct the truth, they discover it. Their work is not interpretation but simple revelation of what exists in the empirical universe. But science itself keeps imposing limits on its own power. Special relativity prohibits the transmission of matter or information at speeds faster than that of light; quantum mechanics dictates uncertainty; and chaos theory confirms the impossibility of complete prediction. Meanwhile, the very idea of scientific rationality is under fire from Neo-Luddites, animal-rights activists, religious fundamentalists, and New Agers alike. As Horgan makes clear, perhaps the greatest threat to science may come from losing its special place in the hierarchy of disciplines, being reduced to something more akin to literary criticism as more and more theoreticians engage in the theory twiddling he calls "ironic science." Still, while Horgan offers his critique, grounded in the thinking of the world's leading researchers, he offers homage, too. If science is ending, he maintains, it is only because it has done its work so well.".
- catalog description "Includes bibliographical references (p. 295-298) and index.".
- catalog description "Introduction: searching for the answer -- The end of progress -- The end of philosophy -- The end of physics -- The end of cosmology -- The end of envolutionary biology -- The end of social science -- The end of neuroscience -- The end of chaoplexity -- The end of limitology -- Scientific theology, or the end of machine science -- Epilogue: the terror of God.".
- catalog extent "x, 308 p. ;".
- catalog hasFormat "End of science.".
- catalog identifier "0201626799".
- catalog isFormatOf "End of science.".
- catalog isPartOf "Helix book.".
- catalog isPartOf "Helix books".
- catalog issued "1996".
- catalog issued "c1996.".
- catalog language "eng".
- catalog publisher "Reading, Mass. : Addison-Wesley Pub.,".
- catalog relation "End of science.".
- catalog subject "501 20".
- catalog subject "Q175 .H794 1996".
- catalog subject "Science History.".
- catalog subject "Science Philosophy.".
- catalog tableOfContents "Introduction: searching for the answer -- The end of progress -- The end of philosophy -- The end of physics -- The end of cosmology -- The end of envolutionary biology -- The end of social science -- The end of neuroscience -- The end of chaoplexity -- The end of limitology -- Scientific theology, or the end of machine science -- Epilogue: the terror of God.".
- catalog title "The end of science : facing the limits of knowledge in the twilight of the scientific age / John Horgan.".
- catalog type "History. fast".
- catalog type "text".