Source: New York Times — Oct 23, 2005
In a new book, Warped Passages, Lisa Randall gives an engaging and remarkably clear account of how the existence of dimensions beyond the familiar three may resolve a host of cosmic quandaries.
Randall argues that without any experimental feedback, string theorists may never reach their goal. She prefers a different strategy, called model…
Source: BookReporter — May 2005 | Curtis Edmonds
Joel Garreau’s provocative new book, Radical Evolution, is divided into different scenarios. One that he calls “Heaven” is largely the vision of Ray Kurzweil, one of the founders of modern assistive technology.
Kurzweil imagines a future where the positive aspects of the new technology are available freely to everyone, allowing each of us…
Source: Wired News — May 3, 2005
James Auger in his controversial new book, Augmented Animals, envisions animals, birds, reptiles and even fish using specially engineered gadgets to help them overcome their evolutionary shortcomings.
He imagines rodents zooming around with night-vision survival goggles, squirrels hoarding nuts using GPS locators and fish armed with metal detectors to avoid the angler’s hook.
Source: New York Times — Mar 20, 2005 | Clive Thompson
Norbert Wiener, the inventor of cybernetics, is profiled in a new book, Dark Hero of the Information Age, by journalists Flo Conway and Jim Siegelman.
Cybernetics is the science of feedback — how information can help self-regulate a system. That includes everything from biological mechanisms (like the human immune system) to artificial ones,…