Decoding the Universe: How the New Science of Information Is Explaining Everythingin the Cosmos, fromOu r Brains to Black Holes

by Charles Seife

Overview

The author of Zero explains the scientific revolution that is transforming the way we understand our world

Previously the domain of philosophers and linguists, information theory has now moved beyond the province of code breakers to become the crucial science of our time. In Decoding the Universe, Charles Seife draws on his gift for making cutting-edge science accessible to explain how this new tool is deciphering everything from the purpose of our DNA to the parallel universes of our Byzantine cosmos. The result is an exhilarating adventure that deftly combines cryptology, physics, biology, and mathematics to cast light on the new understanding of the laws that govern life and the universe.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780143038399
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	01/30/2007
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	304
Product dimensions:	4.94(w) x 7.62(h) x 0.55(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Charles Seife is the author of five previous books, including Proofiness and Zero, which won the PEN/Martha Albrand Award for first nonfiction and was a New York Times notable book. He has written for a wide variety of publications, including The New York Times, Wired, New Scientist, Science, Scientific American, and The Economist. He is a professor of journalism at New York University and lives in New York City.

 

 

Table of Contents

Introduction     1
Redundancy     5
Demons     21
Information     56
Life     88
Faster than Light     119
Paradox     153
Quantum Information     180
Conflict     217
Cosmos     241
The Logarithm     267
Entropy and Information     269
Select Bibliography     275
Acknowledgments     285
Index     287

Editorial Reviews

Once the sole province of linguists and philosophers, information theory has become a central generative science. Charles Seife's Decoding the Universe describes how theorists came to understand that information is not simply a mental construct but also a fundamental element of the physical world. With engaging clarity, Seife explains the implications of this discovery for advanced physics and, indeed, the nature of time and space.

In a book that's all but impossible to put down, science journalist Seife (Alpha & Omega) explains how the concepts of information theory have begun to unlock many of the mysteries of the universe, from quantum mechanics to black holes and the likely end of the universe. Seife presents a compelling case that information is the one constant that ties all of science, indeed all of the universe, together. His skill with language permits him to do what many have tried and few have accomplished-making complicated concepts of quantum mechanics accessible to the average reader. Seife demonstrates how quantum oddities so alien to classical physics actually are consistent with the same physical laws that govern the world we see. For example, the fact that entangled particles half a universe away can instantaneously communicate with one another (what Einstein called "spooky action" at a distance), apparently violating the law that nothing can exceed the speed of light, can be understood through information theory. Seife takes all of this to a most bizarre, but logical, conclusion reached by many cosmologists: the universe as we know it is but one of an infinite number of universes, all brought into being through information transfer. (Feb. 6) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

"Civilization is doomed," science journalist Seife (Alpha & Omega) begins, in large part blaming a bad case of information overload. This is not just the kind of information on a printed page or transmitted over the Internet, though-it is also a physical reality that can be studied, expressed, and applied mathematically and the subject of this book. Information theory is a late 20th-century breakthrough in science, with origins in cryptography and Boolean logic, that is rapidly being extended to explore phenomena in both the natural and the physical sciences, up to cosmology and its ultimate calculation of the inevitable demise of intelligent life in the universe. Seife devotes much of the content to reviewing the history of modern thermodynamics, relativity theory, and quantum physics but with a new twist that shows how understanding the nature of information can solve problems and paradoxes. Seife, who holds advanced degrees in probability theory and artificial intelligence, packs a lot of intellectual depth into accessible language, and he keeps the narrative conversational. Recommended for academic and larger public libraries. Also, librarians who justifiably consider themselves to be information experts can benefit from the perspectives and possibilities of this book.-Gregg Sapp, Science Lib., SUNY at Albany Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

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