1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910453073103321

Autore

Barrow John D. <1952-2020.>

Titolo

Impossibility [[electronic resource] ] : The Limits of Science and the Science of Limits

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Oxford, : Oxford University Press, USA, 1999

ISBN

1-280-83316-5

9786610833160

0-19-152338-0

0-19-535138-X

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (294 p.)

Disciplina

501

Soggetti

Go ̀ˆdel's theorem

Limit (Logic)

Science

Electronic books.

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di contenuto

Contents; Chapter 1: The art of the impossible; Chapter 2: The hope of progress; Chapter 3: Back to the future; Chapter 4: Being human; Chapter 5: Technological limits; Chapter 6: Cosmological limits; Chapter 7: Deep limits; Chapter 8: Impossibility and us; Chapter 9: Impossibility: taking stock; Notes; Index

Sommario/riassunto

In Impossibility, John D. Barrow--one of our most elegant and accomplished science writers--argues convincingly that there are limits to human discovery, that there are things that are ultimately unknowable, undoable, or unreachable. Barrow first examines the limits of the human mind: our brain evolved to meet the demands of our immediate environment, and much that lies outside this small circle may also lie outside our understanding. He investigates practical impossibilities, such as those imposed by complexity, uncomputability, or the finiteness of time, space, and resources. Is the universe