New Releases by Roger Penrose

Roger Penrose''s original and provocative ideas about the large-scale physics of the Universe, the small-scale world of quantum physics and the physics of the mind have been the subject of controversy and discussion. These ideas were set forth in his best-selling books The Emperor''s New Mind and Shadows of the Mind. In this book, he summarises and brings up to date his current thinking in these complex areas. He presents a masterful summary of those areas of physics in which he feels there are major unsolved problems. Through this, he introduces radically new concepts which he believes will be fruitful in understanding the workings of the brain and the nature of the human mind. These ideas are then challenged by three distinguished experts from different backgrounds - Abner Shimony and Nancy Cartwright as Philosophers of Science and Stephen Hawking as a Theoretical Physicist and Cosmologist. Finally, Roger Penrose responds to their thought-provoking criticisms. This volume provides an accessible, illuminating and stimulating introduction to Roger Penrose''s vision of theoretical physics for the 21st Century. His enthusiasm, insight and good humour shine through this brilliant account of the problems of modern physics.

Presents the author''s thesis that consciousness, in its manifestation in the human quality of understanding, is doing something that mere computation cannot; and attempts to understand how such non-computational action might arise within scientifically comprehensive physical laws.

Les lois de la matière et celles de l''esprit seront-elles un jour unifiées ? L''ordinateur est-il a porte ouverte sur ce nouveau monde de la conscience et de la connaissance ? Face à ces questions nées du progrès des sciences et à la vision réductionniste de certains défenseurs de l''intelligence artificielle, un grand physicien et mathématicien ose proclamer que le roi est nu : il soutient que la physique est encore loin de pouvoir apporter le moindre élément de réponse et que le problème se situe tout autant du côté de la théorie quantique, dont nul n''ignore qu''elle est incomplète, que du côté de la relativité générale. Il a l''élégance de le faire en honnête homme, en humaniste et en savant : situant son lecteur dans une perspective historique, il cite Euclide et Lobatchevski, Gödel, Hamilton et Newton ; instruit des enjeux actuels de la recherche, il parle de Turing, de Mandelbrot, de Weyl, de Hawking ; fasciné par la pensée créatrice et l''intuition géniale, il se fait l''écho de Platon et de Poincaré ; à la recherche de la vérité de l''intelligence, il décortique notre cerveau. Son propos est limpide et abondamment illustré. Dans le débat éternel de l''homme face à son génie et à ses propres créatures, il ne donne pas à son lecteur l''impression d''être intelligent dès la première phrase, il lui permet tout simplement de le devenir un peu plus.

This volume introduces and systematically develops the calculus of 2-spinors. This is the first detailed exposition of this technique which leads not only to a deeper understanding of the structure of space-time, but also provides shortcuts to some very tedious calculations. Many results are given here for the first time.

Acquaints the specialist in relativity theory with some global techniques for the treatment of space-times and will provide the pure mathematician with a way into the subject of general relativity.