From Certainty to Uncertainty: The Story of Science and Ideas in the Twentieth Century

247 Pages·2002·3.781 MB·English

by  F. David Peat

Also by F. David Peat
Blackfoot Physics: A Journey into the Native American Universe
Seven Life Lessons of Chaos: Timeless Wisdom from the Science of Change (with
John Briggs)
The Blackwinged Night: Creativity in Nature and Mind
Science, Order, and Creativity (with David Bohm)
Infinite Potential: The Life and Times of David Bohm
In Search of Nikola Tesla
Who’s Afraid of Schrödinger’s Cat? An A-to-Z Guide to All the New Science Ideas
You Need to Keep Up with the New Thinking (with Ian Marshall and Danah
Zohar)
Glimpsing Reality: Ideas in Physics and the Link to Biology (edited, with Paul
Buckley)
The Philosopher’s Stone: Chaos, Synchronicity, and the Hidden Order of the World
Quantum Implications: Essays in Honour of David Bohm (edited, with Basil Hiley)
Einstein’s Moon: Bell’s Theorem and the Curious Quest for Quantum Reality
Superstrings and the Search for the Theory of Everything
Turbulent Mirror: An Illustrated Guide to Chaos Theory and the Science of
Wholeness (with John Briggs)
Cold Fusion: The Making of a Scientific Controversy
Artificial Intelligence: How Machines Think
Synchronicity: The Bridge Between Matter and Mind
Looking Glass Universe: The Emerging Science of Wholeness (with John Briggs)
The Armchair Guide to Murder and Detection
The Nuclear Book
The Story of Science and Ideas
in the Twentieth Century
F. DAVID PEAT
JOSEPH HENRY PRESS
WASHINGTON, D.C.
Joseph Henry Press • 2101 Constitution Avenue, N.W. • Washington, D.C. 20418
The Joseph Henry Press, an imprint of the National Academy Press, was created
with the goal of making books on science, technology, and health more widely
available to professionals and the public. Joseph Henry was one of the founders
of the National Academy of Sciences and a leader in early American science.
Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this
volume are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the
National Academy of Sciences or its affiliated institutions.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Peat, F. David, 1938-
From certainty to uncertainty : the story of science and ideas in the
twentieth century / F. David Peat.
p. cm.
Includes index.
ISBN 0-309-07641-2 (hard)
1. Physics—Philosophy. 2. Certainty. 3. Chaotic behavior in
systems. 4. Physics—History—20th century. I. Title: Story of science
and ideas in the twentieth century. II. Title.
QC6 .P33 2002
530′.09′04—dc21
2002001482
Cover art: Diego Rodriguez Velazquez, Las Meninas (detail), copyright Erich
Lessing/Art Resource, NY (left side); Michele de la Menardiere, Homage to Las
Meninas (right side).
Copyright 2002 by F. David Peat. All rights reserved.
Printed in the United States of America.
For Alessandro

CONTENTS
(cid:1)
Preface ix
1 Quantum Uncertainty 1
2 On Incompleteness 27
3 From Object to Process 52
4 Language 71
5 The End of Representation 90
6 From Clockwork to Chaos 115
7 Re-envisioning the Planet 154
8 Pausing the Cosmos 187
Postscript 215
Appendix: Gödel’s Theorem 217
Index 223
vii

PREFACE
(cid:1)
Que sais-je? (What do I know?) Montaigne
T
he first year of a new century
always appears auspicious. The year 1900 was no exception. Americans
welcomed it in with the three Ps: Peace, Prosperity, and Progress. It was
the culmination of many outstanding achievements and looked for-
ward, with great confidence, to a century of continued progress. The
twentieth century would be an age of knowledge and certainty. Ironi-
cally it ended in uncertainty, ambiguity, and doubt. This book is the
story of that change and of a major transformation in human think-
ing. It also argues that, while our new millennium may no longer offer
certainty, it does hold a new potential for growth, change, discovery,
and creativity in all walks of life.
On April 27, 1900, Lord Kelvin, the eminent physicist and presi-
dent of Britain’s Royal Society, addressed the Royal Institution, point-
ing out “the beauty and clearness of the dynamical theory.” Finally
Newton’s physics had been extended to embrace all of physics, includ-
ing both heat and light. In essence, everything that could be known
was, in principle at least, already known. The president could look
ahead to a new century with total conviction. Newton’s theory of
ix