This fascinating popular science journey explores key concepts in information theory in terms of Conway's "Game of Life" program. The author explains the application of natural law to a random system and demonstrates the necessity of limits. Other topics include the limits of knowledge, paradox of complexity, Maxwell's demon, Big Bang theory, and much more. 1985 edition.
This sharply intelligent, consistently provocative book takes the reader on an astonishing, thought-provoking voyage into the realm of delightful uncertainty--a world of paradox in which logical argument leads to contradiction and common ...
The same month Danish physicist Holger Bech Nielsen, a pioneer of string theory, outlined the idea in a physics paper, “Random Dynamics and Relations Between the Number of Fermion Generations and the Fine Structure Constants,” in the ...
Claudia Sanders was a former employee at the Sanders Café in Corbin, Kentucky. In 1948 she became Sanders' second wife. Interstate 75 diverted the tourist traffic from the Sanders motel/restaurant operation, forcing them to sell.
Matson, John (2012). “The Not So Hot Hand. ... “Can Benford's Law Be Used in Forensic Accounting?” Balance Sheet, Jun. 1993, 7–8. ______(1996). “A Taxpayer Compliance Application of Benford's Law.” Journal of the American Taxation ...
A few keystrokes can summon almost any information in seconds. Why should we bother learning facts at all? Bestselling author William Poundstone confronts that timely question in Head in the Cloud.
Prisoner's Dilemma
That leaves 30 cents, and we need to make that from 4 coins that have to be nickels and/or dimes. Easy: 2 nickels and 2 dimes are 4 coins worth 30 cents. No other combination of nickels and dimes would work. That gives a solution: 45 ...
In this compelling life of Carl Sagan, award-winning science writer William Poundstone details the transformation of a bookish young astronomer obsessed with life on other worlds into science's first authentic media superstar.
With brief detours into archaeology, philology, and overdue library books, William Poundstone explains how we can use it to predict pretty much anything. What is the chance that there are multiple universes? How long will Hamilton run?
The Labyrinths of Reason: Paradox, Puzzles and the Frailty of Knowledge