By the author of The Cambridge Quintet, John L. Casti's new book
continues the tradition of combining science fact with just the
right dose of fiction. Part novel, part science ? wholly
informative and entertaining. In the fall of 1933 the newly founded
Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey, welcomed its
first faculty member, Albert Einstein. With this superstar on the
roster, the Institute was able to attract many more of the greatest
scholars, scientists, and poets from around the world. It was to be
an intellectual haven, a place where the most brilliant minds on
the planet, sheltered from the outside world's cares and
calamities, could study and collaborate and devote their time to
the pure and exclusive pursuit of knowledge. For many of them, it
was the "one, true, platonic heaven." Over the years, key figures
at the Institute began to question the limits to what science could
tell us about the world, pondering the universal secrets it might
unlock. Could science be the ultimate source of truth; or are there
intrinsic limits, built into the very fabric of the universe, to
what we can learn? In the late 1940's and early 1950's, this
important question was being asked and pondered upon by some of the
Institute's deepest thinkers. Enter the dramatis personae to
illuminate the science and the philosophy of the time. Mathematical
logician Kurt Godel was the unacknowledged Grant Exalted Ruler of
this platonic estate ? but he was a ruler without a scepter as he
awaited the inexplicably indefinite postponement of his promotion
to full, tenured professor. Also in residence was his colleague,
the Hungarian-American polymath, John van Neumann, developer of
game theory, the axiomatic foundations of quantum mechanics, and
the digital computer ? stymied by the Institute's refusal to
sanction his bold proposal to actually build a computer. One of
Godel's closest friends figures large in this story: Albert
Einstein, by common consensus the greatest physicist the 20th
century had ever known. And, of course, the director the Institute,
J. Robert Oppenheimer, the father of the atomic bomb, must by
necessity be key to any story that focuses in on this time and
place. Author Casti elegantly sets the stage and then masterfully
directs this impressive cast of characters?with able assists by
many "minor-character" icons like T. S. Eliot, Wolfgang Pauli,
Freeman Dyson, and David Bohm, to tell a story of science, history,
and ideas. As we watch events unfold (some of which are documented
fact while others are creatively imagined fiction), we are witness
to the discussions and deliberations of this august group? privy to
wide-ranging conversations on thinking machines, quantum logic,
biology as physics, weather forecasting, the structure of economic
systems, the distinction between mathematics and natural science,
the structure of the universe, and the powers of the human mind ?
all centered around the question of the limits to scientific
knowledge. Imaginatively conceived and artfully executed, The One
True Platonic Heaven is an accessible and intriguing presentation
of some of the deepest scientific and philosophical ideas of the
20th century. Table of Contents Front Matter Prologue Chapter One:
A Walk Down Mercer Street Chapter Two: Teatime at the IAS Chapter
Three: Goodtime Johnny Chapter Four: Goedel at the Blackboard
Chapter Five: The Boardroom Chapter Six: Late-Night Thoughts of the
Greatest Physicist Chapter Seven: An Evening at Olden Manor Chapter
Eight: The Verdicts Epilogue
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