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A Beginner's Guide to Constructing the Universe: The Mathematical Archetypes of Nature, Art, and ...

Michael S. Schneider

Start date: March 1, 2010

Finish date: April 30, 2010

Discussion: Book Club 2010 & Prior

Discussion leader: David Rubenstein

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Book Club 2010 & Prior

March Book Club "A Short History of nearly Everything"
By William · 14 posts · 147 views

last updated Aug 06, 2014 12:20PM

November 2010 - Death from the Skies!: These Are the Ways the World Will End / The Varieties of Scientific Experience: A Personal View of the Search for God
By S. · 62 posts · 80 views

last updated Apr 19, 2012 04:58PM

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What Members Thought

Nov 27, 2009 David Rubenstein rated it it was ok

Shelves: nonfiction, crackpot-science

I have just finished reading this book, and I like some parts of it. After getting over my initial disappointment, I realized that I had expectations from its title, and the title simply is misleading. The book is really about geometric patterns in our culture and in ancient and other modern cultures. Where do these patterns come from, and how do they manifest in art, in symbology, in philosophy. Many of the geometric patterns--maybe all of them--come from nature, and that is where the author ti I have just finished reading this book, and I like some parts of it. After getting over my initial disappointment, I realized that I had expectations from its title, and the title simply is misleading. The book is really about geometric patterns in our culture and in ancient and other modern cultures. Where do these patterns come from, and how do they manifest in art, in symbology, in philosophy. Many of the geometric patterns--maybe all of them--come from nature, and that is where the author ties in to nature.

The problem with the book, is that the author himself does not really understand what his book is really about. It's not about science. While the book asks science-related questions, (why do we see a spiral shape in shells, galaxies, hurricanes, and watery whirlpools), there are no science answers. And when the book does reflect on an interesting science question, like how does light penetrate through glass, the author says "E=mc2" as if the formula offers an explanation. The author seems truly ignorant of science, but I think he states Einstein's formula as a symbolic triad that pervades many cultures, rather than as a scientific explanation.

The author has tried to organize the material in 10 chapters devoted, each in turn, to the numbers 1-10. But in so doing, he makes a mistake; in each chapter he tries to come up with all the examples he can think of, where that number appears in everyday life. Some of the examples are absolutely banal. For example, in Chapter 8 he mentions that in an octagon, there are 8 corner angles each covering 135 degrees, so the total angle adds up to 1080 degrees, which is the same as the radius of the moon, expressed in miles. Like this explains anything?

Don't look to this book for a better understanding of nature or science. Instead, (once you get past the New Age banalities) look at this book to understand a little better, the subtle forms in which geometric patterns manifest themselves in cultures, in art, philosophy, and spiritualism, and where people copied them out of nature. ...more

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Mar 21, 2010 Jennifer rated it liked it

I love the premise of this one but for some reason found it difficult to read - I kept reading the same paragraphs over and over and still wasn't sure what I had read. That disappointed me because of the stellar reviews. That said, it did give me alot to think about and a totally different way to view math, which in my world is always a welcome thing! ...more

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Dec 03, 2013 Don rated it really liked it

Shelves: non-fiction

This is one of the more interesting books I've read. It's hard to categorize; I learned some really interesting things about numbers (1 through 10), from many seemingly unrelated perspectives - philosophy, science, religion, and of course, mathematics. Take a look if you're interested in expanding your perspective on Nature a little bit. ...more

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