Between Inner Space and Outer Space: Essays on Science, Art, and Philosophy

by John D. Barrow

Book Overview

The origins of life on earth, the workings of the human mind, the mysteries of the Universe itself--profound questions such as these were once the province of philosophy and theology alone. Today they have become the staple--and indeed the hallmark--of the finest writing about science. And few science writers have tackled the big questions as persistently and as insightfully as astronomer John Barrow.
Now, in Between Inner Space and Outer Space,...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0198502540
• ISBN13: 9780198502548
• Release Date: May 1999
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 1.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.0" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

A collection of writings on popular science, philosophy, the universe

This is a collection of 42 short essays (2 to 15 pages) and book reviews on mathematics, complexity and chaos, the universe and cosmology, physics (main quantum), the arts, religion (as it relates to mathematics and science), and the popularization of science. All except one of the writings have been published previously in fora such as The Times Higher Education Supplement, New Scientist, and The Guardian. The main problem with the writings, as with science popularization in general, is superficiality: how can one make a balanced description of topics whose full appreciation would require mathematical and other preliminaries worth several years of study? In book-length treatises, the intelligent lay reader can be brought at least roughly up to speed. In short newspaper pieces, such as most of the writings in this book, one can only give an impressionistic sketch of the topic. An example of this is the (in itself very interesting) finding by Voss and Clarke, described in chapter 24, that many classical and modern music compositions are closely approximated by 1/f noise. Barrow gives as good an explanation of this as can be given under the circumstances. However, in my opinion anything approaching a proper understanding of why this is interesting and how Barrow's implication (that such compositions combine novelty with expectation in an optimal way) holds in a nontrivial way, would require understanding the basics of signals and systems, and Fourier analysis in particular. This said, the book does succeed within these limitations to give value to at least this reader: it inspires, provokes thought, entertains and in its modest way increases understanding of difficult topics. Many of the topics handled in the essays are more or less philosophical in nature and thus of permanent interest. It is unlikely that for example the conceptual and existential limits of science treated in chapter 10 will change in the future. What ages (and has aged a bit in the eight years since the publication of this book) is Barrow's reporting from his own field, cosmology. Here, Barrow has succeeded in relaying the excitement of theories and observations in the making, but of course some questions that remained open at the time of writing have later been resolved with e.g. satellite observations. In my opinion, the best way to enjoy this book is not to read it from cover to cover but rather to take it as a buffet of viewpoints in science. Pick the topics that interest you, read them and feel the taste. The most potential readership of this book consists of people interested in science and philosophy - preferably both of them.

Marked by Originality of Ideas

This book is a collection of John Barrow's 42 essays mostly published between 1980 and 1998, but none of the topics treated has become out-of-date. Each piece of essay makes a chapter, and all the chapters are grouped into 10 parts. A short introduction in each part clearly sets the theme common to all the chapters of that part as well as the specific subjects of the chapters.The title of every chapter is quite attractive to those interested in the fundamental problems of physics and cosmology and in their relations to, or a physicist's view of, other disciplines of mathematics, aesthetics and religion. Barrow's writings are sometimes not easy to follow, but are marked by originality of ideas. For example: In the chapter "Why is the Universe mathematical?" the author first mentions that the sorts of answers depend upon what we think mathematics. Then he puts a puzzle, which is more fundamental in the laws of Nature, symmetry or computation. In the final paragraphs, Barrow states that the science is the search for algorithmic compressions of the world of experience, and comes to the conclusion that mathematics is useful in the description of the physical world because the world is algorithmically compressible. I have difficulty in finding how the earlier paragraphs are related to the last ones. However, the conclusion seems to be simple and persuasive, and would be paraphrased as follows: Mathematics is useful in the description of Nature because she has the characters of orderly complexity.Only if you haven't read other books by Barrow and want to know his ideas, this would be a good buy.