Everything and More: A Compact History of Infinity

Download Everything and More: A Compact History of Infinity PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN 13 : 0393241998
Total Pages : 384 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (932 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Everything and More: A Compact History of Infinity by : David Foster Wallace

Download or read book Everything and More: A Compact History of Infinity written by David Foster Wallace and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2010-10-04 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "A gripping guide to the modern taming of the infinite."—The New York Times. With a new introduction by Neal Stephenson. Is infinity a valid mathematical property or a meaningless abstraction? David Foster Wallace brings his intellectual ambition and characteristic bravura style to the story of how mathematicians have struggled to understand the infinite, from the ancient Greeks to the nineteenth-century mathematical genius Georg Cantor's counterintuitive discovery that there was more than one kind of infinity. Smart, challenging, and thoroughly rewarding, Wallace's tour de force brings immediate and high-profile recognition to the bizarre and fascinating world of higher mathematics.

Everything and More: A Compact History of Infinity

Download Everything and More: A Compact History of Infinity PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN 13 : 0393339289
Total Pages : 352 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (933 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Everything and More: A Compact History of Infinity by : David Foster Wallace

Download or read book Everything and More: A Compact History of Infinity written by David Foster Wallace and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2010-09-21 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The period from the 5th to the 7th century AD was characterised by far-reaching structural changes that affected the entire west of the Roman Empire. This process used to be regarded by scholars aspart of the dissolution of Roman order, but in current discussions it is nowexamined more critically. The contributions to this volume of conference papers combine approaches from history and literature studies in order to review the changing forms and fields of the establishment of collective identities, and to analyse them in their mutual relationships.

A Brief History of Infinity

Download A Brief History of Infinity PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Robinson
ISBN 13 : 1472107640
Total Pages : 160 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (721 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis A Brief History of Infinity by : Brian Clegg

Download or read book A Brief History of Infinity written by Brian Clegg and published by Robinson. This book was released on 2013-02-07 with total page 160 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'Space is big. Really big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the street to the chemist, but that's just peanuts to space.' Douglas Adams, Hitch-hiker's Guide to the Galaxy We human beings have trouble with infinity - yet infinity is a surprisingly human subject. Philosophers and mathematicians have gone mad contemplating its nature and complexity - yet it is a concept routinely used by schoolchildren. Exploring the infinite is a journey into paradox. Here is a quantity that turns arithmetic on its head, making it feasible that 1 = 0. Here is a concept that enables us to cram as many extra guests as we like into an already full hotel. Most bizarrely of all, it is quite easy to show that there must be something bigger than infinity - when it surely should be the biggest thing that could possibly be. Brian Clegg takes us on a fascinating tour of that borderland between the extremely large and the ultimate that takes us from Archimedes, counting the grains of sand that would fill the universe, to the latest theories on the physical reality of the infinite. Full of unexpected delights, whether St Augustine contemplating the nature of creation, Newton and Leibniz battling over ownership of calculus, or Cantor struggling to publicise his vision of the transfinite, infinity's fascination is in the way it brings together the everyday and the extraordinary, prosaic daily life and the esoteric. Whether your interest in infinity is mathematical, philosophical, spiritual or just plain curious, this accessible book offers a stimulating and entertaining read.

The Pale King

Download The Pale King PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Little, Brown
ISBN 13 : 0316175293
Total Pages : 636 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (161 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Pale King by : David Foster Wallace

Download or read book The Pale King written by David Foster Wallace and published by Little, Brown. This book was released on 2011-04-15 with total page 636 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The "breathtakingly brilliant" novel by the author of Infinite Jest (New York Times) is a deeply compelling and satisfying story, as hilarious and fearless and original as anything Wallace ever wrote. The agents at the IRS Regional Examination Center in Peoria, Illinois, appear ordinary enough to newly arrived trainee David Foster Wallace. But as he immerses himself in a routine so tedious and repetitive that new employees receive boredom-survival training, he learns of the extraordinary variety of personalities drawn to this strange calling. And he has arrived at a moment when forces within the IRS are plotting to eliminate even what little humanity and dignity the work still has. The Pale King remained unfinished at the time of David Foster Wallace's death, but it is a deeply compelling and satisfying novel, hilarious and fearless and as original as anything Wallace ever undertook. It grapples directly with ultimate questions -- questions of life's meaning and of the value of work and society -- through characters imagined with the interior force and generosity that were Wallace's unique gifts. Along the way it suggests a new idea of heroism and commands infinite respect for one of the most daring writers of our time. "The Pale King is by turns funny, shrewd, suspenseful, piercing, smart, terrifying, and rousing." --Laura Miller, Salon

Signifying Rappers

Download Signifying Rappers PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Back Bay Books
ISBN 13 : 0316401110
Total Pages : 175 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (164 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Signifying Rappers by : David Foster Wallace

Download or read book Signifying Rappers written by David Foster Wallace and published by Back Bay Books. This book was released on 2013-07-23 with total page 175 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: David Foster Wallace and Mark Costello's exuberant exploration of rap music and culture. Living together in Cambridge in 1989, David Foster Wallace and longtime friend Mark Costello discovered that they shared "an uncomfortable, somewhat furtive, and distinctively white enthusiasm for a certain music called rap/hip-hop." The book they wrote together, set against the legendary Boston music scene, mapped the bipolarities of rap and pop, rebellion and acceptance, glitz and gangsterdom. Signifying Rappers issued a fan's challenge to the giants of rock writing, Greil Marcus, Robert Palmer, and Lester Bangs: Could the new street beats of 1989 set us free, as rock had always promised? Back in print at last, Signifying Rappers is a rare record of a city and a summer by two great thinkers, writers, and friends. With a new foreword by Mark Costello on his experience writing with David Foster Wallace, this rerelease cannot be missed.

Fate, Time, and Language

Download Fate, Time, and Language PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Columbia University Press
ISBN 13 : 0231151578
Total Pages : 264 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (311 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Fate, Time, and Language by : David Foster Wallace

Download or read book Fate, Time, and Language written by David Foster Wallace and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2011 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1962, the philosopher Richard Taylor used six commonly accepted presuppositions to imply that human beings have no control over the future. David Foster Wallace not only took issue with Taylor's methods, but also noted a semantic trick at the heart of Taylor's argument. Fate, Time, and Language presents Wallace's critique of Taylor's work. Wallace's thesis reveals his great skepticism of abstract thinking made to function as a negation of something more genuine and real. He was especially suspicious of the cerebral aestheticism of modernism and the clever gimmickry of postmodernism, which abandoned "the very old traditional human verities that have to do with spirituality and emotion and community." As Wallace rises to meet the challenge to free will presented by Taylor, we witness the developing perspective of this major novelist and his struggle to establish logical ground for his convictions. This volume, edited by Steven M. Cahn and Maureen Eckert, reproduces Taylor's original article and other works on fatalism cited by Wallace. James Ryerson's introduction connects Wallace's early philosophical work to the themes and explorations of his later fiction, and Jay Garfield supplies a critical biographical epilogue.

Infinity and the Mind

Download Infinity and the Mind PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Princeton University Press
ISBN 13 : 0691191255
Total Pages : pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (911 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Infinity and the Mind by : Rudy Rucker

Download or read book Infinity and the Mind written by Rudy Rucker and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2019-07-23 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A dynamic exploration of infinity In Infinity and the Mind, Rudy Rucker leads an excursion to that stretch of the universe he calls the “Mindscape,” where he explores infinity in all its forms: potential and actual, mathematical and physical, theological and mundane. Using cartoons, puzzles, and quotations to enliven his text, Rucker acquaints us with staggeringly advanced levels of infinity, delves into the depths beneath daily awareness, and explains Kurt Gödel’s belief in the possibility of robot consciousness. In the realm of infinity, mathematics, science, and logic merge with the fantastic. By closely examining the paradoxes that arise, we gain profound insights into the human mind, its powers, and its limitations. This Princeton Science Library edition includes a new preface by the author.

Something to Do with Paying Attention

Download Something to Do with Paying Attention PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
ISBN 13 : 1946022276
Total Pages : 152 pages
Book Rating : 4.9/5 (46 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Something to Do with Paying Attention by : David Foster Wallace

Download or read book Something to Do with Paying Attention written by David Foster Wallace and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2022-04-05 with total page 152 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A posthumously published novella with a title supplied by the publisher.

The Broom of the System

Download The Broom of the System PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Penguin
ISBN 13 : 0143129449
Total Pages : 482 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (431 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Broom of the System by : David Foster Wallace

Download or read book The Broom of the System written by David Foster Wallace and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2016-10-18 with total page 482 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Part of the Penguin Orange Collection, a limited-run series of twelve influential and beloved American classics in a bold series design offering a modern take on the iconic Penguin paperback Winner of the 2016 AIGA + Design Observer 50 Books | 50 Covers competition For the seventieth anniversary of Penguin Classics, the Penguin Orange Collection celebrates the heritage of Penguin’s iconic book design with twelve influential American literary classics representing the breadth and diversity of the Penguin Classics library. These collectible editions are dressed in the iconic orange and white tri-band cover design, first created in 1935, while french flaps, high-quality paper, and striking cover illustrations provide the cutting-edge design treatment that is the signature of Penguin Classics Deluxe Editions today. The Broom of the System The “dazzling, exhilarating” (San Francisco Chronicle) debut novel from one of the most groundbreaking writers of his generation, The Broom of the System is an outlandishly funny and fiercely intelligent exploration of the paradoxes of language, storytelling, and reality.

The Great Mathematical Problems

Download The Great Mathematical Problems PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Profile Books
ISBN 13 : 1847653510
Total Pages : 340 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (476 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Great Mathematical Problems by : Ian Stewart

Download or read book The Great Mathematical Problems written by Ian Stewart and published by Profile Books. This book was released on 2013-03-07 with total page 340 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: There are some mathematical problems whose significance goes beyond the ordinary - like Fermat's Last Theorem or Goldbach's Conjecture - they are the enigmas which define mathematics. The Great Mathematical Problems explains why these problems exist, why they matter, what drives mathematicians to incredible lengths to solve them and where they stand in the context of mathematics and science as a whole. It contains solved problems - like the Poincar Conjecture, cracked by the eccentric genius Grigori Perelman, who refused academic honours and a million-dollar prize for his work, and ones which, like the Riemann Hypothesis, remain baffling after centuries. Stewart is the guide to this mysterious and exciting world, showing how modern mathematicians constantly rise to the challenges set by their predecessors, as the great mathematical problems of the past succumb to the new techniques and ideas of the present.

Half of Infinity

Download Half of Infinity PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781716213502
Total Pages : 96 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (135 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Half of Infinity by : Ellie Evergreen

Download or read book Half of Infinity written by Ellie Evergreen and published by . This book was released on 2021-01-18 with total page 96 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The debut collection from writer Ellie Evergreen, Half of Infinity is a collection of poetry and longer form prose exploring topics such as lost love, alternate timelines, and trauma recovery. Ellie can be visited on Instagram via @thelittlestpickle or online at ellieevergreen.com. (Content warning: harassment, abuse, sexual assault, religious trauma)

Brief Interviews with Hideous Men

Download Brief Interviews with Hideous Men PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Little, Brown
ISBN 13 : 0316086894
Total Pages : 336 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (16 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Brief Interviews with Hideous Men by : David Foster Wallace

Download or read book Brief Interviews with Hideous Men written by David Foster Wallace and published by Little, Brown. This book was released on 2009-09-24 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this thought-provoking and playful short story collection, David Foster Wallace nudges at the boundaries of fiction with inimitable wit and seductive intelligence. Wallace's stories present a world where the bizarre and the banal are interwoven and where hideous men appear in many guises. Among the stories are 'The Depressed Person,' a dazzling and blackly humorous portrayal of a woman's mental state; 'Adult World,' which reveals a woman's agonized consideration of her confusing sexual relationship with her husband; and 'Brief Interviews with Hideous Men,' a dark, hilarious series of imagined interviews with men on the subject of their relations with women. Wallace delights in leftfield observation, mining the absurd, the surprising, and the illuminating from every situation. This collection will enthrall DFW fans, and provides a perfect introduction for new readers.

Mind Tools

Download Mind Tools PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Courier Corporation
ISBN 13 : 0486492281
Total Pages : 337 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (864 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Mind Tools by : Rudy Rucker

Download or read book Mind Tools written by Rudy Rucker and published by Courier Corporation. This book was released on 2013-11-21 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Originally published: Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1987.

Finding Zero

Download Finding Zero PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Macmillan + ORM
ISBN 13 : 1466879106
Total Pages : 199 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (668 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Finding Zero by : Amir D. Aczel

Download or read book Finding Zero written by Amir D. Aczel and published by Macmillan + ORM. This book was released on 2015-01-06 with total page 199 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The invention of numerals is perhaps the greatest abstraction the human mind has ever created. Virtually everything in our lives is digital, numerical, or quantified. The story of how and where we got these numerals, which we so depend on, has for thousands of years been shrouded in mystery. Finding Zero is an adventure filled saga of Amir Aczel's lifelong obsession: to find the original sources of our numerals. Aczel has doggedly crisscrossed the ancient world, scouring dusty, moldy texts, cross examining so-called scholars who offered wildly differing sets of facts, and ultimately penetrating deep into a Cambodian jungle to find a definitive proof. Here, he takes the reader along for the ride. The history begins with the early Babylonian cuneiform numbers, followed by the later Greek and Roman letter numerals. Then Aczel asks the key question: where do the numbers we use today, the so-called Hindu-Arabic numerals, come from? It is this search that leads him to explore uncharted territory, to go on a grand quest into India, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, and ultimately into the wilds of Cambodia. There he is blown away to find the earliest zero—the keystone of our entire system of numbers—on a crumbling, vine-covered wall of a seventh-century temple adorned with eaten-away erotic sculptures. While on this odyssey, Aczel meets a host of fascinating characters: academics in search of truth, jungle trekkers looking for adventure, surprisingly honest politicians, shameless smugglers, and treacherous archaeological thieves—who finally reveal where our numbers come from.

The Selected Works of T. S. Spivet

Download The Selected Works of T. S. Spivet PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Penguin
ISBN 13 : 0698148231
Total Pages : 400 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (981 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Selected Works of T. S. Spivet by : Reif Larsen

Download or read book The Selected Works of T. S. Spivet written by Reif Larsen and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2010-04-27 with total page 400 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A brilliant, boundary-leaping debut novel tracing twelve-year-old genius map maker T.S. Spivet's attempts to understand the ways of the world When twelve-year-old genius cartographer T.S. Spivet receives an unexpected phone call from the Smithsonian announcing he has won the prestigious Baird Award, life as normal-if you consider mapping family dinner table conversation normal-is interrupted and a wild cross-country adventure begins, taking T.S. from his family ranch just north of Divide, Montana, to the museum's hallowed halls. T.S. sets out alone, leaving before dawn with a plan to hop a freight train and hobo east. Once aboard, his adventures step into high gear and he meticulously maps, charts, and illustrates his exploits, documenting mythical wormholes in the Midwest, the urban phenomenon of "rims," and the pleasures of McDonald's, among other things. We come to see the world through T.S.'s eyes and in his thorough investigation of the outside world he also reveals himself. As he travels away from the ranch and his family we learn how the journey also brings him closer to home. A secret family history found within his luggage tells the story of T.S.'s ancestors and their long-ago passage west, offering profound insight into the family he left behind and his role within it. As T.S. reads he discovers the sometimes shadowy boundary between fact and fiction and realizes that, for all his analytical rigor, the world around him is a mystery. All that he has learned is tested when he arrives at the capital to claim his prize and is welcomed into science's inner circle. For all its shine, fame seems more highly valued than ideas in this new world and friends are hard to find. T.S.'s trip begins at the Copper Top Ranch and the last known place he stands is Washington, D.C., but his journey's movement is far harder to track: How do you map the delicate lessons learned about family and self? How do you depict how it feels to first venture out on your own? Is there a definitive way to communicate the ebbs and tides of heartbreak, loss, loneliness, love? These are the questions that strike at the core of this very special debut. Now a major motion picture directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet and starring Kyle Catlett and Helena Bonham Carter.

To Infinity and Beyond

Download To Infinity and Beyond PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Princeton University Press
ISBN 13 : 0691178119
Total Pages : 308 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (911 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis To Infinity and Beyond by : Eli Maor

Download or read book To Infinity and Beyond written by Eli Maor and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2017-11-21 with total page 308 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Eli Maor examines the role of infinity in mathematics and geometry and its cultural impact on the arts and sciences. He evokes the profound intellectual impact the infinite has exercised on the human mind, from the "horror infiniti" of the Greeks to the works of M.C. Escher; from the ornamental designs of the Moslems, to the sage Giordano Bruno, whose belief in an infinite universe led to his death at the hands of the Inquisition. But above all, the book describes the mathematician's fascination with infinity, a fascination mingled with puzzlement. "Maor explores the idea of infinity in mathematics and in art and argues that this is the point of contact between the two, best exemplified by the work of the Dutch artist M.C. Escher, six of whose works are shown here in beautiful color plates."--Los Angeles Times "[Eli Maor's] enthusiasm for the topic carries the reader through a rich panorama." Choice "Fascinating and enjoyable.... places the ideas of infinity in a cultural context and shows how they have been espoused and molded by mathematics."-Science.

The Beginning of Infinity

Download The Beginning of Infinity PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Penguin UK
ISBN 13 : 0141969695
Total Pages : 571 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (419 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Beginning of Infinity by : David Deutsch

Download or read book The Beginning of Infinity written by David Deutsch and published by Penguin UK. This book was released on 2011-03-31 with total page 571 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'Science has never had an advocate quite like David Deutsch ... A computational physicist on a par with his touchstones Alan Turing and Richard Feynman, and a philosopher in the line of his greatest hero, Karl Popper. His arguments are so clear that to read him is to experience the thrill of the highest level of discourse available on this planet and to understand it' Peter Forbes, Independent In our search for truth, how far have we advanced? This uniquely human quest for good explanations has driven amazing improvements in everything from scientific understanding and technology to politics, moral values and human welfare. But will progress end, either in catastrophe or completion - or will it continue infinitely? In this profound and seminal book, David Deutsch explores the furthest reaches of our current understanding, taking in the Infinity Hotel, supernovae and the nature of optimism, to instill in all of us a wonder at what we have achieved - and the fact that this is only the beginning of humanity's infinite possibility. 'This is Deutsch at his most ambitious, seeking to understand the implications of our scientific explanations of the world ... I enthusiastically recommend this rich, wide-ranging and elegantly written exposition of the unique insights of one of our most original intellectuals' Michael Berry, Times Higher Education Supplement 'Bold ... profound ... provocative and persuasive' Economist 'David Deutsch may well go down in history as one of the great scientists of our age' Scotsman