The End of Science

Brian D. Harper (bharper@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu)
Sat, 22 Jun 1996 19:55:32 -0400 (EDT)

Previously I wrote:

>Rummaging through the local bookstore I stumbled across a new book:
>
> <The End of Science: Facing the Limits of Knowledge in the
> Twilight of the Scientific Age> Helix Books, Addison-Wesley 1996
>
>by the SciAm staff writer John Horgan. On the cover, there is a
>quote from E.O. Wilson: "A hugely entertaining book, certain to
>create controversy". I haven't finished reading it yet but so
>far I wholeheartedly agree with both assessments, entertaining
>and very controversial.
>

It seems that this book is already drumming up some controversy.
I just noticed on sci.bio.evolution an announcement for an
on-line debate between Stuart Kauffman and John Horgan.

Here's the announcement:

===========================================================================
From: rod@wired.com (Roderick Simpson)
Newsgroups: sci.bio.evolution
Subject: The end of science
Date: 18 Jun 1996 17:47:15 GMT
Organization: Wired
Lines: 28
Approved: josh@pogo.cqs.washington.edu
Message-ID: <4q6q33$36f@nntp5.u.washington.edu>
NNTP-Posting-Host: pogo.cqs.washington.edu
Originator: evolution@pogo

You are invited to join in a great debate over the future of science that
begins June 17th, 1996. This debate is on Wired Online's _Brain Tennis_
debate forum on the World Wide Web and will last several weeks. Stuart
Kauffman, professor at the Santa Fe Institute and author of At Home in the
Universe and Origins of Order, battles John Horgan, a senior writer at
Scientific American and the author of The End of Science. Are modern
scientists, as Horgan suggests, merely adding footnotes to the past
discoveries of Newton, Darwin, and Einstein? Or are theories such as chaos
and complexity shedding light on formerly unfathomable mysteries of the
universe?

Just get on the Web and point your browser to:

http://www.wired.com/braintennis/

And please join in the debate yourself in Wired Threads. Go to:

http://www.hotwired.com/cgi-bin/interact/threads?braintennis

Best,

Roderick Simpson
Wired
rod@wired.com

== end of announcement================================================

Looks to be very interesting.

========================
Brian Harper | "People of that kind are academics, scholars,
Associate Professor | and that is the nastiest kind of man I know."
Applied Mechanics | -- Blaise Pascal
Ohio State University |
========================