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Einstein did not believe that 'God plays dice'. He laid the
foundations for today's thinking that the universe is governed by the immutable
laws of physics -- there is no room for chance. But these
foundations may be built on sand. The new science of chaos is forcing scientists
to rethink even the most fundamental ideas about the way in which the universe
behaves. Chaos theory has already shown that systems obeying precise laws can
nevertheless act in a random manner. Perhaps God does play dice, within a cosmic
game of complete law and order. Does God Play Dice?
explains the astonishing new theories of systems that obey simple laws but which
are neither constant nor predictable. Ian Stewart reveals a strange universe.
A universe in which nothing may be as it seems, where familiar geometrical shapes
such as circles and ellipses give way to infinitely complex structures known as
'fractals'. He explains how the fluttering of a butterfly's wing can change the
weather and how the gravitational attraction of a creature in a distant galaxy
can change the fate of the solar system. In terms that
anyone can understand Does God Play Dice? tells the story of this entirely
new science and the implications chaos has for notions of predictability and the
verification of scientific theories. Chaos is a whole
new world of ideas and possibilities, a new kind of mathematics, a fundamental
insight into nature itself, and it brings us closer to an understanding of literally
everything. Ian Stewart is Reader in Mathematics
at the University of Warwick, where the subjects he has taught include the history
of mathematics, mathematics as culture, set and group theory, topology, applied
sources of pure mathematics, and catastrophe theory. He has held visiting posts
as a fellow and professor at Tubingen, Auckland, Storrs, Carbondale, and Houston
universities, and has lectured widely in Britain, Europe and North America. Besides
his numerous scholarly publications his writings include Oh! Catastrophe!,
The Fractal Dimension and The Groups of Wrath (all first published
in French), The Problems of Mathematics, science fiction stories (among
them Message from Earth and The Microbotic Revolution) and articles
in Scientific American, Nature, Pour la science, New
Scientist, Times Literary Supplement and The Guardian. He is
European editor of the Mathematical Intelligencer, and has also worked
in radio and television. |
