Krishna
This is one of the books that are off the beaten track and make you both think and (due to parts of it) be bored.
This is a collection of thought provoking articles culled from the Edge which is a British magazine that seems like the printed version of scientific op-ed pieces.
It is also a Creationist’s or even a deeply religious person’s nightmare. The first essay is about time that still remains in the universe as opposed to the limited time (“limited” is relative, as in 13.6 billion years) the universe has been in place.These are very short essays, and some are thought provoking as in “Everything you hold dear is a cosmic accident. There is no specific purpose in your existence; earth is not the centre of the Universe; the sun is a smallish, insignificant star in the scheme of things” etc. Well, most of it you knew already before picking up this book, but this gives another perspective to look at these.
Another article is about the microbes ruling the world. Makes you think. There are articles about instilling scientific thinking as a general principle of the public awareness and how it would change the world for the better. For instance, there is a piece about controlled experimentation in everyday life, not just in scientific labs.
The article about innate bias in everything including the supposedly neutral agencies like the media (really? The author thought they are supposed to be neutral?) is very interesting.
An article talks of why the term “scientifically proven” is an oxymoron. Fascinating to read why and then you finally tend to agree with the argument! A similar argument about how uncertainty is the real fact of life is interesting.
Again, you are struck by the rationalist tone. If there was a group against a decisive and omnipotent God and not just Creationism, this is it.
The piece about how people underestimate risk and overestimate their ability is nice.
It is not possible to review the pieces individually but most are thought provoking and almost all of them make you think – justifying the title. If you are of the anti Darwin persuasion, these will probably also uniformly make you seethe with anger.
There are interesting essays about the powers of ten, and others, such as the one about memes or about cumulative error, are boring.
Some are plain silly, a couple are difficult to understand, but they all make you pause and think ‘Hm, I never thought of it in this way’ most of the time.
There is one in particular about SHA (Short hand Abstraction) that borders on the bizarre.
A mixed bag, worth, on an average, 4/10
– – Krishna (Feb 2018)