Paradigms Lost

by John L. Casti

Book Overview

The origins of life ... Extraterrestrials ... Our genetic destiny ... The roots of language and learning ... Quantum physics and the shape of the universe ... Artificial intelligence .. In a masterful... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0380711656
• ISBN13: 9780380711659
• Release Date: November 1990
• Publisher: Harper Perennial
• Length: 565 Pages
• Weight: 0.97 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 5.2" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

An involved scientific book written for laymen

Paradigms Lost: Images of Man in the Mirror of Science This incredible book presents a masterful, easy-to-grasp overview of science's answers to the great questions as we understand them today. The heart of this book consists of six chapters, each devoted to a case study of one of the major mysteries of modern science: the origin of life on our planet Earth, the real sources of human behavior and social patterns, how we acquire language, the fundamental nature of our thinking processes, the possible existence of intelligent life elsewhere in the universe, the impact of our own scrutiny on what we observe as real. This book gives a complete and readable account of the competing positions in the important debate in progress on each one of these issues. But the grand unifying theme of these chapters is to ask what, if anything, is unique about us human beings. Each chapter is structurd in the form of a jury trial. The conventional scientific wisdom on each topic is presented by the Prosecution. The alternative views on the question are then presented by the Defense. After the summary arguments, author Casti steps in to act as a juror, casting his ballot for one side or the other and offering an explanation of how he voted. The author intends that his readers also serve on the jury by deciding for themselves on these questions. This book is really aimed at showing that it is possible to share the knowledge of the experts by means of a clear distillation of their deepest and most important arguments. Finally, the book demonstrats that the reader can participate in science's exciting quest for ever more refined knowledge of where the species Homo sapiens stands within the cosmic order as we perceive it today. While this book takes a very differnet tack to other books on this subject, I think it made it easier to understand scientific processes and in regular laymen's language & thinking processes. Some of the above was taken from the cover in lieu of any other review. This book takes us to the edge, where science becomes philosophical and philosophy is becoming science!

Superb discussion of modern theories

Casti is one of the best science writers out there considering he isn't nearly as well known as some of them, but he deserves to be. Also, his books are consistently at a respectable level of technical detail and sophistication which is rare in science writing intended for the layman. In this book, although the discussions range from current cosmological theory to evolutionary biology to quantum physics, I was most interested in his discussion of Chomsky and current linguistic theory, which is my interest, so I will confine myself to that. In this chapter, Casti gives the best introduction for the general reader that I've seen on Chomsky's ideas on innate language acquisition and transformational grammar. In the process, he also compares them with competing views such as Sampson's and Piaget's, and he even discusses E.O. Wilson's sociobiological views a bit, which Chomsky himself commented on. After reading this chapter, you would probably be able to read the chapter on generative and transformational grammar in a good introductory theoretical linguistics text, such as John Lyons's classic Introduction to Theoretical Linguistics, or Donna Jo Napoli's recent book, entitled simply Linguistics, which is also excellent. So overall, another great book from Casti that stands head and shoulders above the competition and with a great introduction to modern linguistic theory.

A Brilliant Book!

Without a doubt, this is one of the most insightful books I have ever come across in my life.A mathematician takes a critical and penetrating look at the most baffling problems facing humanity and science. These are; The Origin of Life, Language Acquisition, Sociobiology and Genetic Determinism, Artificial Intelligence, The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, and the Mysteries of Quantum Physics.But the book is more than only a deep exposition of these topics.Casti weaves an extremely lively and entertaining tale about a host of characters and discoveries involved in these exciting areas of thought and research.One of the things I noticed in this book is the marvelous sense of humour that Casti has.Nowhere else in serious science writing or even in popular accounts, have I seen such intelligent dashes of humour written in such fine language.In fact that's one of the outstanding triumphs of this book.The language in the book is sophisticated, yet very accessible. The bibiliography at the end is almost as lavishly detailed as the book itself. In my opinion, Casti has emerged as a unique writer in the world because of this book. I strongly suspect that it is because of his unique experiences; he combines the artistic and culturally sophisticated style which he developed in Europe with the informal, hilarious and pragmatic cheek found among Americans which he must have experienced during his time in the United States. All in all, it is remarkable how one man (Casti) can collect and coherently discuss such a prodigious amount of information, especially about topics not directly related to his field of study.This will be a book I am definitely going to remember all my life.I will recommend it strongly to anyone even remotely interested in science, research and the future of humanity. An example of scientific writing at its best.

Dazziling

This book is splendidly written. It surveys some of the big scientific controversies of our day. He tackels evolution, genetics, language, artificial intelligence, and the search for extraterestrial intelligence and two philiosophical questions that impenge on science. What is good is that he provides lots of footnotes to other works that those who, if they are really interested, can consult. The footnotes helped me locate lots of other good books for my library. John Casti is one of the great writers of modern popular science non-fiction.

deep, human-centric, overview of current science

Casti poses the question, "What does current science, in particular, important unanswered questions in current science, tell us about humanity's place in the universe?" Thankfully, Casti is an amazingly knowledgeable and fair guide, with the emphasis always firmly on clear explication of that science, not any particular interpretation of its pertinence to the human condition. Casti is a scientist, not a dogmatist.The breadth and depth of this book are exceptional. Casti injects a little of himself here and there, as well, and comes across as a jovial fellow... his erudition speaks for itself.One of my favorites!