Impossibility: The Limits of Science and the Science of Limits [Paperback]

John D. Barrow (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0195130820 | ISBN-13: 978-0195130829 | Publication Date: October 28, 1999

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 finite or infinite? Can information be transmitted faster than the speed of light? The book also examines deeper theoretical restrictions on our ability to know, including Godel's theorem, which proved that there were things that could not be proved. Finally, having explored the limits imposed on us from without, Barrow considers whether there are limits we should impose upon ourselves. Weaving together this intriguing tapestry, Barrow illuminates some of the most profound questions of science, from the possibility of time travel to the very structure of the universe.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Perhaps it's a harbinger of the end of science that so much attention is being paid to the impossible. In Impossibility, astronomer John D. Barrow outlines a maturation pattern for areas of deep human inquiry that includes an adolescence of exciting discoveries, new formulas, and unusual predictions. As science has matured, our confidence in it has grown. We expect that science has answers, that its predictive powers are mostly accurate. But what happens when the science gets old? Oddly enough, it seems to have started trying to find the end of its own usefulness--its formulas "predict that there are things which they cannot predict, observations which cannot be made, statements whose truth they can neither affirm nor deny."

Barrow's book is a fairly tough read, delving into topics as varied as theology, art, mathematics, and cosmology in its quest to define impossibility. But for those who have noticed that, "Scientists seem no longer content merely to describe what they have done or what Nature is like; they are keen to tell their audience what their discoveries mean for an ever-widening range of deep philosophical questions," Impossibility is an intriguing look at the evolution of our thoughts on knowing everything. Without limits, there would be no science, and though our imaginations may roam freely through the realms of impossibility, we may find in the end that "what cannot be known is more revealing than what can." --Therese Littleton --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

"[An] illuminating, well-written account....One can only wonder how Barrow can possibly make all these [concepts] fit together into a coherent story about the limits to science. Well, contrary to all expectations, he does make them fit, and in only 250 pages! So for about as good an account as youre going to get of where science stops, read this book."--Nature

"Delightful and fascinating....Impossibility is a thoughtful, careful, and insightful book that is presented in a skillfully woven narrative, guiding the reader gently through the thicket of logic, physics, and mathematics.... If you are fascinated by the limits of knowledge, you will be richly rewarded by this book."--Michio Kaku, New Scientist

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (October 28, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0195130820
• ISBN-13: 978-0195130829
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.4 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,148,729 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A torturous text on paradoxes of knowing what is unknowable, September 11, 2003

By 

Govindan Nair (Vienna, VA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Impossibility: The Limits of Science and the Science of Limits (Paperback)

Is science fast coming to an end? Can we arrive at a so-called theory of everything? Are there limits to our abilities to discover the nature of reality?

In trying to tackle such questions, Astronomer John D. Barrow invites readers to an intriguing journey which I understood as twofold. First, it promises to show how the notion of impossibility is far subtler than everyday language suggests and to demonstrate how fundamental are the limitations to science (in the broadest sense of human capability to discover and know things). To support this contention, he serves up a menu of what seems like disjointed readings into the limits of human endeavor as demonstrated in findings in different fields such as astronomy, mathematics, psychology, economics, and others. Each of these readings, which are sub-sections of chapters, is individually interesting and the book overall is not deeply technical, -- and thus remains accessible to the truly curious generalist reader. It covers some familiar basic ideas in different fields, which all depict the notions of limits and impossibility, whether in scientific discovery or in social decision-making. The topics range from the technical bounds to scientific experiments, such the speed of light and difficulties of producing the extremely high temperatures not found on earth which are needed to test our version of the forces of nature, to Arrow's impossibility theorem on the inability to generate a consistent ranking of social preferences based on an aggregation of ranking of individual preferences.

Unfortunately, these sub-sections of chapters, while individually very interesting and clearly written, tend to conflate different ideas of impossibility rather than leading to a straightforward conclusion on the fundamental limitations of human endeavors of creation and discovery.

The secondary thrust of the book is on the nature of reality itself. Barrow argues that the kind of limitations he enumerates defines the universe more powerfully than a list of what we think is possible. In fact, he contends that this ?impossible? nature of the universe is what itself allows the self-reflection consciousness of humans, a rather intriguing, if not entirely novel, proposition.

My judgment on this book is a complex as the range of subjects the author attempts to cover. It is without doubt an intriguing set of propositions loosely connected with some related discussion on the history of scientific thought. I found the discussion of nineteenth century notions of impossibility very informative. However, the book may achieve its appeal by overstating its case (QUOTE the astronomers? desire to understand the structure of the universe is doomed merely to scratch the surface of the cosmological problem UNQUOTE) and resorting to fast and loose comparisons of paradoxes and limits which are well-known to practitioners in a number of different fields. Ultimately, the book gives a sense of having covered too much, and thus providing too little in any given area.

I confess that notwithstanding these reservations, I enjoyed reading this somewhat unusual book. If you do have the stamina to complete this book, you might choose to do so in a non-linear fashion by working through the clear summaries of each chapter first, and then going through the chapters in your order of preference. If you manage to do all this, you are likely to enjoy another book on a different but related topic on the nature of the human mind entitled ?Figments of Reality? by Stewart and Cohen which I have also reviewed on this site.

16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Misson Impossible, March 3, 2002

By 

Mohammad Ali Shaikh (Montreal, Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Impossibility: The Limits of Science and the Science of Limits (Paperback)

Recurring fascination with the question: whether or not the ever-expanding frontiers of science are subject to limits, led me to the study of John Barrow's 'Impossibility'. Barrow asserts that there are definite limits to the development of science due to philosophical, sociological, biological, technological, mathematical and logical factors as well as Laws of Physics, like finite speed of light, cosmic singularity theorems, inflationary cosmology, relative time travel; and 'Anthropic Cosmology', which states that there must be physical constants (viz. the mass of the proton) to allow for the existnece and emergence of living creatures; and Godel's theorem, which has been used to argue that a computer may never be as smart as a human being because the extent of its knowledge base is limited by a fixed set of algorithms, whereas a person may discover unexpected truths.

Without minimising the great merit in Barrow's approach, I feel that finding limits to scientific development is like learning to swim: no matter how much the instructor tells you before hand, you only learn after you have stepped into the water. While it is useful and desirable to have an idea of the limits which may beset scientific inquiry, it is imperative that scientists, at any given time, pursue research on the premise that further progress in science is always achievable.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A fascinating journey through the science of limits, August 27, 2000

By 

Frank Bierbrauer (Cardiff, Wales, UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Impossibility: The Limits of Science and the Science of Limits (Paperback)

This is an interesting book and presents some issues which were unfamiliar to me. I had heard of most of the arguments before but some were completely refreshing especially those concerning Goedel, the Arrow Impossibility theorem and Donald McKay. Like some of the other reviewers I found the book to be a little muddled in terms of making clear points in each chapter but overall it was good. I would have been interested if Barrow had looked at some other ways of looking at the world such as Goethean science, unlike Kant, which notes that it is possible to truly experience what is real, or the approach of intuition which Goedel himself notes "I don't see any reason why we should have less confidence in this kind of perception, ie mathematical intuition ..." or for that matter the logical approach first created by Spencer Brown in his "Laws of Form". There are times when much is assumed which of course is not unexpected since Barrow is a hard scientist who stays well within the expected bounds of science. It is good to see the text interspersed with humorous asides such as those of Douglas Adams and many others. All in all a fascinating journey through the (normal) science of limits.