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Peppered with wit and controversial topics, this is a refreshing new look at the co-evolution of mind and culture. Bestselling authors Ian Stewart and Jack Cohen (The Collapse of Chaos, 1994) eloquently argue that our minds evolved within an inextricable link with culture and language. They go beyond conventional views of the function and purpose of the mind to look at the ways that the mind is the response of an evolving brain that is constantly adjusting to a complex environment. Along the way they develop new and intriguing insights into the nature of evolution, science, and humanity that will challenge conventional views on consciousness. The esteemed authors tantalize the reader with these bold new outlooks while putting a revolutionary spin on such classic philosophical problems as the nature of free will and the essence of humanity. This clearly written and enjoyable book will inspire any educated reader to critically evaluate the existing notions of the nature of the human mind.
Peppered with wit and controversial topics, this is a refreshing new look at the co-evolution of mind and culture. Bestselling authors Ian Stewart and Jack Cohen (The Collapse of Chaos, 1994) eloquently argue that our minds evolved within an inextricable link with culture and language. They go beyond conventional views of the function and purpose of the mind to look at the ways that the mind is the response of an evolving brain that is constantly adjusting to a complex environment. Along the way they develop new and intriguing insights into the nature of evolution, science, and humanity that will challenge conventional views on consciousness. The esteemed authors tantalize the reader with these bold new outlooks while putting a revolutionary spin on such classic philosophical problems as the nature of free will and the essence of humanity. This clearly written and enjoyable book will inspire any educated reader to critically evaluate the existing notions of the nature of the human mind.
With the spectacular developments in technology accompanying and
aiding scientific research over the past few decades, postgraduate
students are often encouraged to focus more on generating data than
to utilize their most sophisticated piece of equipment: their
mind.
Stop Working & Start Thinking, Second Edition aims to encourage
young researchers to think more clearly about their experiments,
from experimental design to data interpretation. This new edition
builds on the success of the first edition, with new material
throughout and a new chapter on measurement interpretation,
including an examination of cryptic assumptions.
This book is essential reading for postgraduates who wish to put
the mastery back into their M.Sc. and the philosophy back into
their PhDs.
These notes of 1857-58 throw light on Marx's views concerning the
epochs of society and their evolutionary stages. Important for
understanding the approach of historical materialism, and as
background for further development of the Marxist study of history.
The latest instalment in the "Sunday Times"-bestselling Science of
Discworld series.
Roundworld is in trouble again, and this time it looks fatal.
Having created it in the first place, the wizards of Unseen
University feel vaguely responsible for its safety. They know the
creatures who lived there escaped the impending Big Freeze by
inventing the space elevator -- they even intervened to rid the
planet of a plague of elves, who attempted to divert humanity onto
a different time track. But now it's all gone wrong -- Victorian
England has stagnated and the pace of progress would embarrass a
limping snail. Unless something drastic is done, there won't be
time for anyone to invent spaceflight and the human race will be
turned into ice-pops.
Why, though, did history come adrift? Was it Sir Arthur
Nightingale's dismal book about natural selection? Or was it the
devastating response by an obscure country vicar called Charles
Darwin, whose bestselling Theology of Species made it impossible to
refute the divine design of living creatures? Either way, it's no
easy task to change history, as the wizards discover to their cost.
Can the God of Evolution come to humanity's aid and ensure Darwin
writes a very different book? And who stopped him writing it in the
first place?
The sequel to the bestselling Science of Discworld.
The acclaimed Science of Discworld centred around an original
Pratchett story about the Wizards of Discworld. In it they
accidentally witnessed the creation and evolution of our universe,
a plot which was interleaved with a Cohen & Stewart non-fiction
narrative about Big Science. In "The Science of Discworld II" our
authors join forces again to see just what happens when the wizards
meddle with history in a battle against the elves for the future of
humanity on Earth. London is replaced by a dozy Neanderthal
village. The Renaissance is given a push. The role of fat women in
art is developed. And one very famous playwright gets born and
writes The Play. Weaving together a fast-paced Discworld novelette
with cutting-edge scientific commentary on the evolution and
development of the human mind, culture, language, art, and science,
"The Globe" presents a fascinating and brilliantly original view of
the world we live in. The scene of the final epic battle is the
first production of "A Midsummer's Night Dream" at the Globe
Theatre.""
The fantastic first book in the Sunday Times bestselling Science of
Discworld series When a wizardly experiment goes adrift, the
wizards of Unseen University find themselves with a pocket universe
on their hands: Roundworld, where neither magic nor common sense
seems to stand a chance against logic. The Universe, of course, is
our own. And Roundworld is Earth. As the wizards watch their
accidental creation grow, we follow the story of our universe from
the primal singularity of the Big Bang to the internet and beyond.
Through this original Terry Pratchett story (with intervening
chapters from Cohen and Stewart) we discover how puny and
insignificant individual lives are against a cosmic backdrop of
creation and disaster. Yet, paradoxically, we see how the richness
of a universe based on rules, has led to a complex world and at
least one species that tried to get a grip of what was going on.
Terry Pratchett is the acclaimed creator of the global bestselling
Discworld series, the first of which, The Colour of Magic, was
published in 1983. Raising Steam is his fortieth Discworld novel.
His books have been widely adapted for stage and screen, and he is
the winner of multiple prizes, including the Carnegie Medal, as
well as being awarded a knighthood for services to literature.
After falling out with his keyboard he now talks to his computer.
Occasionally, these days, it answers back. www.terrypratchett.co.uk
@terryandrob Professor Ian Stewart is the author of many popular
science books. He is the mathematics consultant for New Scientist
and a Professor of Mathematics at the University of Warwick. He was
awarded the Michael Faraday Prize for furthering the public
understanding of science, and in 2001 became a Fellow of the Royal
Society. Dr Jack Cohen is an internationally-known reproductive
biologist, and lives in Newent, Gloucestershire. Jack has a
laboratory in his kitchen, helps couples get pregnant by referring
them to colleagues, invents biologically realistic aliens for
science fiction writers and, in his spare time, throws boomerangs.
Jack, who has more letters to his name than can be repeated here,
writes, lectures, talks and campaigns to promote public awareness
of science, particularly biology. He is mostly retired.
The fourth book in the Science of Discworld series, and this time
around dealing with THE REALLY BIG QUESTIONS, Terry Pratchett's
brilliant new Discworld story Judgement Day is annotated with very
big footnotes (the interleaving chapters) by mathematician Ian
Stewart and biologist Jack Cohen, to bring you a mind-mangling
combination of fiction, cutting-edge science and philosophy.
Marjorie Daw is a librarian, and takes her job - and indeed the
truth of words - very seriously. She doesn't know it, but her world
and ours - Roundworld - is in big trouble. On Discworld, a colossal
row is brewing... The Wizards of Unseen University feel responsible
for Roundworld (as one would for a pet gerbil). After all, they
brought it into existence by bungling an experiment in Quantum
ThaumoDynamics. But legal action is being brought against them by
Omnians, who say that the Wizards' god-like actions make a mockery
of their noble religion. As the finest legal brains in Discworld (a
zombie and a priest) gird their loins to do battle - and when the
Great Big Thing in the High Energy Magic Laboratory is switched on
- Marjorie Daw finds herself thrown across the multiverse and right
in the middle of the whole explosive affair. As God, the Universe
and, frankly, Everything Else is investigated by the trio, you can
expect world-bearing elephants, quantum gravity in the
Escher-verse, evolutionary design, eternal inflation, dark matter,
disbelief systems - and an in-depth study of how to invent a better
mousetrap.
An autobiographical novel of growing up Jewish in the East End of
London and then going to Cambridge University. There are powerful
incidents of anti-Semitism and a secret personal family tragedy,
and the profound effect of this tragedy on the hero's life.
Roundworld, aka Earth, is under siege. Are three wizards and an orangutan Librarian enough to thwart the Elvish threat?
When the wizards of Unseen University first created Roundworld, they were so concerned with discovering the rules of this new universe that they overlooked its inhabitants entirely. Now, they have noticed humanity. And humanity has company. Arriving in Roundworld, the wizards find the situation is even worse than they’d expected. Under the elves’ influence, humans are superstitious, fearful, and fruitlessly trying to work magic in a world ruled by logic. Ridcully, Rincewind, Ponder Stibbons, and the orangutan Librarian must travel through time to get humanity back on track and out of the dark ages.
The Globe goes beyond science to explore the development of the human mind. Terry Pratchett and his acclaimed co-authors Ian Stewart and Jack Cohen combine the tale of the wizards rewriting human history with discussions of the origins and evolution of culture, language, art, and science, offering a fascinating and brilliantly original view of the world we live in.
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