Download or read book Life Is Simple written by Johnjoe McFadden and published by Basic Books. This book was released on 2021-09-28 with total page 358 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "In short, Life Is Simple is enthralling."--Michael Blastland, Prospect A biologist argues that simplicity is the guiding principle of the universe Centuries ago, the principle of Ockham’s razor changed our world by showing simpler answers to be preferable and more often true. In Life Is Simple, scientist Johnjoe McFadden traces centuries of discoveries, taking us from a geocentric cosmos to quantum mechanics and DNA, arguing that simplicity has revealed profound answers to the greatest mysteries. This is no coincidence. From the laws that keep a ball in motion to those that govern evolution, simplicity, he claims, has shaped the universe itself. And in McFadden’s view, life could only have emerged by embracing maximal simplicity, making the fundamental law of the universe a cosmic form of natural selection that favors survival of the simplest. Recasting both the history of science and our universe’s origins, McFadden transforms our understanding of ourselves and our world.

Download or read book The Roots of Consciousness written by Jeffrey Mishlove and published by Random House (NY). This book was released on 1975 with total page 404 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Computational Beauty of Nature written by Gary William Flake and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2000-01-27 with total page 524 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Gary William Flake develops in depth the simple idea that recurrent rules can produce rich and complicated behaviors. In this book Gary William Flake develops in depth the simple idea that recurrent rules can produce rich and complicated behaviors. Distinguishing "agents" (e.g., molecules, cells, animals, and species) from their interactions (e.g., chemical reactions, immune system responses, sexual reproduction, and evolution), Flake argues that it is the computational properties of interactions that account for much of what we think of as "beautiful" and "interesting." From this basic thesis, Flake explores what he considers to be today's four most interesting computational topics: fractals, chaos, complex systems, and adaptation. Each of the book's parts can be read independently, enabling even the casual reader to understand and work with the basic equations and programs. Yet the parts are bound together by the theme of the computer as a laboratory and a metaphor for understanding the universe. The inspired reader will experiment further with the ideas presented to create fractal landscapes, chaotic systems, artificial life forms, genetic algorithms, and artificial neural networks.

Download or read book Denial written by Ajit Varki and published by Twelve. This book was released on 2013-06-04 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The history of science abounds with momentous theories that disrupted conventional wisdom and yet were eventually proven true. Ajit Varki and Danny Brower's "Mind over Reality" theory is poised to be one such idea-a concept that runs counter to commonly-held notions about human evolution but that may hold the key to understanding why humans evolved as we did, leaving all other related species far behind. At a chance meeting in 2005, Brower, a geneticist, posed an unusual idea to Varki that he believed could explain the origins of human uniqueness among the world's species: Why is there no humanlike elephant or humanlike dolphin, despite millions of years of evolutionary opportunity? Why is it that humans alone can understand the minds of others? Haunted by their encounter, Varki tried years later to contact Brower only to discover that he had died unexpectedly. Inspired by an incomplete manuscript Brower left behind, Denial presents a radical new theory on the origins of our species. It was not, the authors argue, a biological leap that set humanity apart from other species, but a psychological one: namely, the uniquely human ability to deny reality in the face of inarguable evidence-including the willful ignorance of our own inevitable deaths. The awareness of our own mortality could have caused anxieties that resulted in our avoiding the risks of competing to procreate-an evolutionary dead-end. Humans therefore needed to evolve a mechanism for overcoming this hurdle: the denial of reality. As a consequence of this evolutionary quirk we now deny any aspects of reality that are not to our liking-we smoke cigarettes, eat unhealthy foods, and avoid exercise, knowing these habits are a prescription for an early death. And so what has worked to establish our species could be our undoing if we continue to deny the consequences of unrealistic approaches to everything from personal health to financial risk-taking to climate change. On the other hand reality-denial affords us many valuable attributes, such as optimism, confidence, and courage in the face of long odds. Presented in homage to Brower's original thinking, Denial offers a powerful warning about the dangers inherent in our remarkable ability to ignore reality-a gift that will either lead to our downfall, or continue to be our greatest asset.

Download or read book The Origin of Everything written by David Rowland and published by . This book was released on 2018-04-20 with total page 211 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How was the universe created? How were inert chemicals transformed into living things? How did some of these living beings acquire consiousness? Science's answers to these questions are incomplete and misleading.Physics cannot answer the question as to why there is physics. Chemistry cannot create biology. Biology cannot create consciousness.Science has mistaken consciousness for an effect, when in truth it is a cause. Consciousness is the fundamental principle of existence.We live in a consciousness based reality. Consciousness is at the root of existence, gravity, light, quantum mechanics, life, DNA, and evolution.

Download or read book Actual Consciousness written by Ted Honderich and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2014-07-10 with total page 433 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What is it for you to be conscious? There is no agreement whatever in philosophy or science: it has remained a hard problem, a mystery. Is this partly or mainly owed to the existing theories not even having the same subject, not answering the same question? In Actual Consciousness, Ted Honderich sets out to supersede dualisms, objective physicalisms, abstract functionalism, externalisms, and other positions in the debate. He argues that the theory of Actualism, right or wrong, is unprecedented, in nine ways. (1) It begins from gathered data and proceeds to an adequate initial clarification of consciousness in the primary ordinary sense. This consciousness is summed up as something's being actual. (2) Like basic science, Actualism proceeds from this metaphorical or figurative beginning to what is wholly literal and explicit—constructed answers to the questions of what is actual and what it is for it to be actual. (3) In so doing, the theory respects the differences of consciousness within perception, consciousness that is thinking in a generic sense, and consciousness that is generic wanting. (4) What is actual with your perceptual consciousness is a subjective physical world out there, very likely a room, differently real from the objective physical world, that other division of the physical world. (5) What it is for the myriad subjective physical worlds to be actual is for them to be subjectively physical, which is exhaustively characterized. (6) What is actual with cognitive and affective consciousness is affirmed or valued representations. The representations being actual, which is essential to their nature, is their being differently subjectively physical from the subjective physical worlds. (7) Actualism, naturally enough when you think of it, but unlike any other existing general theory of consciousness, is thus externalist with perceptual consciousness but internalist with respect to cognitive and affective consciousness. (8) It satisfies rigorous criteria got from examination of the failures of the existing theories. In particular, it explains the role of subjectivity in thinking about consciousness, including a special subjectivity that is individuality. (9) Philosophers and scientists have regularly said that thinking about consciousness requires just giving up the old stuff and starting again. Actualism does this. Science is served by this main line philosophy, which is concentration on the logic of ordinary intelligence—clarity, consistency and validity, completeness, generality.

Download or read book Brief Peeks Beyond written by Bernardo Kastrup and published by John Hunt Publishing. This book was released on 2015-05-29 with total page 251 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is a multi-faceted exploration and critique of the human condition as it is presently manifested. It addresses science and philosophy, explores the underlying nature of reality, the state of our society and culture, the influence of the mainstream media, the nature of free will and a number of other topics. Each of these examinations contributes an angle to an emerging idea gestalt that challenges present mainstream views and behaviors and offers a sane alternative. The book is organized as a series of short and self-contained essays, most of which can be read in under one hour.

Download or read book The Answers Lie Within Us written by Alistair Sinclair and published by Routledge. This book was released on 1998 with total page 166 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Breaking new ground by suggesting a radical alternative to religion, this book offers a scientific and humanist alternative to religion which appeals to people's critical faculties rather than emotions or intuitions. It suggests that religion, in its usual sense, can be replaced by something better, that the human spirit or subjectivity can be the subject of scientific study and that lack of purpose or design in the universe is not a handicap but a positive opportunity for intelligent beings to make of the universe and its contents what they reasonably can.

Download or read book Memoir of Sir William Hamilton Bart written by John Veitch and published by Edinburgh ; London : W. Blackwood and sons. This book was released on 1869 with total page 526 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Fragility of Consciousness written by Frederick G. Lawrence and published by University of Toronto Press. This book was released on 2017-01-01 with total page 453 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Fragility of Consciousness is the first published collection of Frederick G. Lawrence's essays and contains several of his best known writings as well as unpublished work.

Download or read book Experience and Content written by W. Martin Davies and published by . This book was released on 1996 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Attempts a 'continuum' account of experience and content taking account of a range of issues in the philosophy of science, ontology, epistemology and the philosophy of mind and perception.

Download or read book Religion Explained written by Pascal Boyer and published by Basic Books. This book was released on 2007-03-21 with total page 406 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Many of our questions about religion, says the internationally renowned anthropologist Pascal Boyer, were once mysteries, but they no longer are: we are beginning to know how to answer questions such as "Why do people have religion?" and "Why is religion the way it is?" Using findings from anthropology, cognitive science, linguistics, and evolutionary biology, Boyer shows how one of the most fascinating aspects of human consciousness is increasingly admissible to coherent, naturalistic explanation. And Man Creates God tells readers, for the first time, what religious feeling is really about, what it consists of, and how it originates. It is a beautifully written, very accessible book by an anthropologist who is highly respected on both sides of the Atlantic. As a scientific explanation for religious feeling, it is sure to arouse controversy.

Download or read book God s Debris written by Scott Adams and published by Andrews McMeel Publishing. This book was released on 2004-09 with total page 148 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In God's Debris, best-selling author and creator of Dilbert Scott Adams fashioned a thought-provoking exploration of life's great mysteries (everything from quantum physics and God to psychic phenomena and dating) that quickly captured the attention and imaginations of readers everywhere. The intriguing story of a deliveryman who meets the world's smartest person and learns the secret of reality is threaded with a variety of hypnosis techniques that Adams, a certified hypnotist, used to induce a feeling of euphoric enlightenment in readers to mirror the main character's feelings as he discovers the true nature of the universe.Launched to coincide with the hardcover publication of its sequel, The Religion War (see opposite page), this first paperback edition of God's Debris will soon make the leap to a broader audience. As Adams designed it, the book will "make your brain spin around inside your skull" and drive readers toward The Religion War as they seek to confirm or deny the dizzying impressions and chaotic memories of reading God's Debris.The book provides one of the most compelling visions of reality ever experienced on the printed page. Along the way, readers will enjoy the Thought Experiment: Trying to discover what's wrong with the sage's explanation of reality. This is a book, as Adams says, to be shared and savored with smart friends.

Download or read book The Idea of History written by Robin George Collingwood and published by . This book was released on 1993 with total page 566 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Idea of History is the best-known work of the great Oxford philosopher, historian, and archaeologist R.G. Collingwood. It was originally published posthumously in 1946, having been mainly reconstructed from Collingwood's manuscripts, many of which are now lost. This important work examines how the idea of history has evolved from the time of Herodotus to the twentieth century, and offers Collingwood's own view of what history is. For this revised edition, Collingwood's most important lectures on the philosophy of history are published here for the first time. These texts have been prepared by Jan van der Dussen from manuscripts that have only recently become available. The lectures contain Collingwood's first comprehensive statement of his philosophy of history; they are therefore essential for a full understanding of his thought, and in particular for a correct interpretation of The Idea of History itself. Van der Dussen contributes a substantial introduction in which he explains the background to this new edition and surveys the scholarship of the last fifty years.

Download or read book Time and Reality written by Alba Papa-Grimaldi and published by Ashgate Publishing. This book was released on 1998 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Time and Reality sets out to explore the dichotomy of unity (identity) and plurality in human thought and to show in the light of this duality what are the limits of human knowledge as far as understanding 'reality' is concerned.

Download or read book Animal Minds written by Donald R. Griffin and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2013-03-21 with total page 372 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Animal Minds, Donald R. Griffin takes us on a guided tour of the recent explosion of scientific research on animal mentality. Are animals consciously aware of anything, or are they merely living machines, incapable of conscious thoughts or emotional feelings? How can we tell? Such questions have long fascinated Griffin, who has been a pioneer at the forefront of research in animal cognition for decades, and is recognized as one of the leading behavioral ecologists of the twentieth century. With this new edition of his classic book, which he has completely revised and updated, Griffin moves beyond considerations of animal cognition to argue that scientists can and should investigate questions of animal consciousness. Using examples from studies of species ranging from chimpanzees and dolphins to birds and honeybees, he demonstrates how communication among animals can serve as a "window" into what animals think and feel, just as human speech and nonverbal communication tell us most of what we know about the thoughts and feelings of other people. Even when they don't communicate about it, animals respond with sometimes surprising versatility to new situations for which neither their genes nor their previous experiences have prepared them, and Griffin discusses what these behaviors can tell us about animal minds. He also reviews the latest research in cognitive neuroscience, which has revealed startling similarities in the neural mechanisms underlying brain functioning in both humans and other animals. Finally, in four chapters greatly expanded for this edition, Griffin considers the latest scientific research on animal consciousness, pro and con, and explores its profound philosophical and ethical implications.

Download or read book TREATISE ON THE NEUROPHILOSOPHY OF CONSCIOUSNESS written by Dr. Angell O. de la Sierra, Esq. and published by WestBow Press. This book was released on 2012-08 with total page 1079 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: I would like to invite all those studious of the mind/brain interface puzzle to share our insights. What follows represents an ongoing series of reflections on the ontology of consciousness based on some intuitions on life, language acquisition and survival strategies to accommodate the biological, psychic and social imperatives of human life in its ecological niche, thus the BPS model. For the latest publication click on BPS Model. http://www.delaSierra-Sheffer.net/ID-Neurophilo-net/index.htm