John Casti - Böcker

By 1949, the idea of duplicating human thought processes in a computer was starting to surface, as the outgrowth of code-breaking work done by Alan Turing and others in Britain during the Second World War. This ingenious work of speculative scientific fiction reconstructs what might have been said during the animated conversation flowing around Snow's rooms that fateful in Cambridge.The quintet's debate anticipates all of the basic questions which have surrounded artificial intelligence in the fifty years since. Can a machine think or merely process information? Is the brain simply a symbol-processing machine, as Turing suggests, and if so, what is the nature of meaning? Can there be, as Wittgenstein proposes, no thought without language, and no language without the social interaction of human beings?

How did life on Earth get started? Can we duplicate human thought in a computing machine? How do children acquire language? Ten years ago, in PARADIGMS LOST, John L. Casti looked at the state of play with these and a handful of other eternal questions, outlining the competing answers on offer and describing the scientists who advocated them. In PARADIGMS REGAINED Casti recounts the huge leaps science has made since then, and how new theories and candidate answers have emerged for almost all the big questions. As we enter the twenty-first century, PARADIGMS REGAINED provides an excellent summary of what we understand about key scientific issues.

"Casti Tours offers the most spectacular vistas of modern applied mathematics" a NatureMathematical modeling is about rulesa the rules of reality. Reality Rules explores the syntax and semantics of the language in which these rules are written, the language of mathematics. Characterized by the clarity and vision typical of the author's previous books, Reality Rules is a window onto the competing dialects of this languagea in the form of mathematical models of real-world phenomenaa that researchers use today to frame their views of reality. Moving from the irreducible basics of modeling to the upper reaches of scientific and philosophical speculation, Volumes 1 and 2, The Fundamentals and The Frontier, are ideal complements, equally matched in difficulty, yet unique in their coverage of issues central to the contemporary modeling of complex systems. Engagingly written and handsomely illustrated, Reality Rules is a fascinating journey into the conceptual underpinnings of reality itself, one that examines the major themes in dynamical system theory and modeling and the issues related to mathematical models in the broader contexts of science and philosophy. Far-reaching and far-sighted, Reality Rules is destined to shape the insight and work of students, researchers, and scholars in mathematics, science, and the social sciences for generations to come. Of related interest . . . ALTERNATE REALITIES Mathematical Models of Nature and Man John L. Casti A thoroughly modern account of the theory and practice of mathematical modeling with a treatment focusing on system-theoretic concepts such as complexity, self-organization, adaptation, bifurcation, resilience, surprise and uncertainty, and the mathematical structures needed to employ these in a formal system. An Instructor's Manual presenting detailed solutions to all the problems in the book is available from the Wiley editorial department.

"Casti Tours offers the most spectacular vistas of modern appliedmathematics."-- Nature Mathematical modeling is about rules--the rules of reality. RealityRules explores the syntax and semantics of the language in whichthese rules are written, the language of mathematics. Characterizedby the clarity and vision typical of the author's previous books,Reality Rules is a window onto the competing dialects of thislanguage--in the form of mathematical models of real-worldphenomena--that researchers use today to frame their views ofreality. Moving from the irreducible basics of modeling to the upper reachesof scientific and philosophical speculation, Volumes 1 and 2, TheFundamentals and The Frontier, are ideal complements, equallymatched in difficulty, yet unique in their coverage of issuescentral to the contemporary modeling of complex systems. Engagingly written and handsomely illustrated, Reality Rules is afascinating journey into the conceptual underpinnings of realityitself, one that examines the major themes in dynamical systemtheory and modeling and the issues related to mathematical modelsin the broader contexts of science and philosophy. Far-reaching andfar-sighted, Reality Rules is destined to shape the insight andwork of students, researchers, and scholars in mathematics,science, and the social sciences for generations to come. Of related interest . . . ALTERNATE REALITIES Mathematical Models of Nature and Man John L. Casti A thoroughly modern account of the theory and practice ofmathematical modeling with a treatment focusing on system-theoreticconcepts such as complexity, self-organization, adaptation,bifurcation, resilience, surprise and uncertainty, and themathematical structures needed to employ these in a formalsystem. 1989 0-471-61842-X 493pp.

This Set contains: Reality Rules, Picturing the World in Mathematics, Volume 1, The Fundamentals by John Casti; Reality Rules, Picturing the World in Mathematics, Volume 2, The Frontier by John Casti

Kurt Gödel was an intellectual giant. His Incompleteness Theorem turned not only mathematics but also the whole world of science and philosophy on its head. Shattering hopes that logic would, in the end, allow us a complete understanding of the universe, Gödel's theorem also raised many provocative questions: What are the limits of rational thought? Can we ever fully understand the machines we build? Or the inner workings of our own minds? How should mathematicians proceed in the absence of complete certainty about their results? Equally legendary were Gödel's eccentricities, his close friendship with Albert Einstein, and his paranoid fear of germs that eventually led to his death from self-starvation. Now, in the first book for a general audience on this strange and brilliant thinker, John Casti and Werner DePauli bring the legend to life.

fifteen countries in Scandinavia, Europe, Asia, Australia, and U.S.A. All of them came to Stockholm primarily because they recognize the growing im­ portance of networks as complex systems, and their home institutions do not offer any systematic lectures on this topic. The Networks Course was originally initiated jointly by the Summer University of Southern Stockholm Foundation and the County Council of Stockholm, the Swedish Aviation Administration, the Swedish National Road Administration, the Swedish Post, the Swedish State Railways, and Telia AB. They have all served as joint sponsors and hosts for the Course. In the year 1993 the Course also was sponsored by the Swedish Transport and Communications Research Board. All these organizations have supported the publication of a series of key lectures from the Course, to be released as a single volume entitled Networks in Action. It is the ambition of the Foundation to create continuity in its activities for the future. The board has proposed to its principals to take a decision in this direction. It is my expectation that this will be the case for the Networks Course from 1995. This book will then serve as a basic reference for use in an era when the topic of Communication-Networks will be included on a permanent basis in the Summer University's agenda.