In Thrall to Uncertainty a History of How Quantum Theory Has Permeated Western Culture Refreshes Jim Baggott

PHYSICS In thrall to uncertainty A history of how quantum theory has permeated Western culture refreshes Jim Baggott.

uantum theory is the most accu The Quantum Moment: punch — “wild and mysterious, packed rate and precise description of the How Planck, Bohr, with creative force” — and why it seems to Qmolecular, atomic, sub-atomic and Einstein, and Heisenberg be rediscovered in every generation. The sub-nuclear realms ever devised. It is also Taught Us to Love authors’ tale is structured along approxi utterly exasperating. To anyone tutored Uncertainty mately linear historical lines, from Max ROBERT P. CREASE in the language and the logic of classical AND ALFRED SCHARFF Planck’s discovery in 1900 that light can be physics, it is mathematically challenging, GOLDHABER described in terms of discrete ‘bundles’ of maddeningly bizarre and breathtakingly W. W. Norton: 2014. energy (quanta) to Bell’s theorem, which beautiful. As charismatic US physicist Rich opened the door from the 1960s onwards ard Feynman warned: “Nobody understands to some extraordinary experimental tests of quantum mechanics.” O2 arena. And UK-based dramatist Tom the nature of our physical reality. Each chap Given its recondite nature, quantum Stoppard’s 1988 play Hapgood blends the ter explores how some of the core ideas and weirdness has entered popular culture in duality of the double agent with a quantum principles that sprang from these historical remarkable ways. What might otherwise duality in which matter and light are both moments have been absorbed into (inevita have been the preserve of dry academic waves and particles. Both of these works are bly mostly US) popular culture. This makes texts and stuffy scientific conferences has cited in The Quantum Moment, in which for an entertaining read, even for those become common currency. Who hasn’t philosopher Robert Crease and physicist already familiar with the story. heard of Heisenberg’s uncertainty princi Alfred Goldhaber explore quantum theory’s As Crease and Goldhaber explain, much ple or Schrödinger’s cat? Quantum ideas of enduring cultural impact. of the impact on modern culture derives space, time and matter inspired British art Based on a class that the authors have from what quantum theory has to say about ist Anthony Gormley’s vast, enigmatic steel taught for six years at Stony Brook Univer the nature of reality. Arguably, centuries of sculpture Quantum Cloud near London’s sity, New York, the book asks why quan observation, experimentation and strenu tum theory carries such a metaphorical ous intellectual endeavour were founded NEW IN The Accidental Universe: The World You Thought You Knew PAPERBACK Alan Lightman (Vintage, 2014) Physicist and literary wizard Alan Lightman reflects on how our cosmos, potentially Highlights of this one among uncountable others, has fortuitously created the perfect conditions for life. season’s releases He considers intricate symmetries in nature and the unfathomable vastness of space. This journey through seven overlapping ‘universes’ — frameworks for exploring recent research — culminates in a vision of humanity hooked on technology, gradually detaching itself from reality.

308 | NATURE | VOL 513 | 18 SEPTEMBER 2014 © 2014 Macmillan Publishers Limited. All rights reserved AUTUMN BOOKS COMMENT on scientists’ expectation that the material elsewhere called “experimental philosophy”. (who should probably know better) have world is composed of some kind of funda It is this work that has prompted the current been more than willing to indulge their mental atoms of ‘stuff’. Quantum theory, interest in quantum cryptography, quantum inner metaphysician in research papers and however, has rewarded these endeavours computing and the teleportation of photons. popularizations on the mistaken principle with phantom particles that, like waves, I have only one quibble with The Quan- that, as the Canadian philosopher Marshall can be both here and there; a theoretical tum Moment. Crease and Goldhaber sup McLuhan once put it, “mud sometimes structure that tells us only what might hap port their narrative with ‘interludes’ after gives the illusion of depth”. pen (not what will); and quantum systems each chapter, designed to provide techni Thus we smile at the comical pronounce seemingly connected over great distances, cal details, including some equations. The ments on physics by US actress Shirley giving rise to extended, non-local effects, or exposition here is a little drier than in the MacLaine, until the authors point out that what Albert Einstein called “spooky action main chapters, but does not need to be. The she could be paraphrasing similar pro at a distance”. material also necessarily repeats much of nouncements made 55 years earlier by the Einstein famously rejected the element what has already been covered, which can British physicist James Jeans. I have else of chance that lies at the heart of quantum become a little tedious. The authors suggest where argued that contemporary theoreti theory, declaring that God does not play that readers might prefer to skip these inter cal physics has become rather self-indulgent dice. He argued that quantum theory is not ludes; for linear readers like me, that does and self-referential, a malaise that I have complete. Those scientists who, like Ein not really work. called fairy-tale physics. Deep questions stein, are less inclined to accept that we have Those versed in quantum theory’s about the nature of reality tend to provoke reached an ultimate limit of what is know practical applications might be tempted this kind of response, and it surely finds its able remain firmly in denial. So, in the past to dismiss its many manifestations in origin in the quantum moment. ■ 40 years or so, the efforts of agents provo popular culture as what the authors call cateurs such as John Bell and Tony Leggett “fruitloopery”. And certainly, there is a Jim Baggott is the author of The Quantum have encouraged an orgy of sophisticated lot of nonsense out there. But, as Crease Story and Farewell to Reality. He is based in laser-based experiments to test the foun and Goldhaber make abundantly clear at Reading, UK. dations of quantum physics — what I have several points, many esteemed physicists e-mail: [email protected]

LINGUISTICS the manual’s dismissal of the passive voice. Linguistic research, he later writes, has The write stuff shown that the pas sive actually “allows Steven Pinker’s provocative treatise on language use and the writer to direct the abuse would benefit from more data, finds Paul Raeburn. reader’s gaze, like a cin ematographer choos The Sense of Style: ing the best camera o conversation about the science Fowler’s Modern English Usage. We need a The Thinking angle”. What research, Person’s Guide to of language can get very far with new guide “infused by the spirit of scientific Writing in the 21st exactly? Pinker does out a mention of Steven Pinker, the skepticism”, he writes, using grammar and Century not tell us. His views NHarvard University cognitive scientist who research on “the mental dynamics of reading” STEVEN PINKER are informed by has not yet made linguistics as popular as to replace edicts with evidence. Pinker gave us Allen Lane: 2014. psycholinguistics; that football — but is working on it. In The Sense the science in The Language Instinct (William is his day job. But he of Style, he wants to give us the cognitive Morrow, 1994); in The Sense of Style he sets promises us science, so I expected to see data. science, linguistics and psychology behind out to offer its practical application. However, in this instance, and in many others, classic debates over proper English, from He covers much of the same ground as the data are not there. passive voice to split infinitives. the classic guides, including frequently mis Similarly, Pinker’s view on infinitives is Plenty of others have given us stuffy decrees used words (“fulsome” and “noisome”) and to split them “if you need to”, a conclusion intended to end the interminable wrangling, the serial comma. His problem with Strunk backed by dictionaries and style manuals — but Pinker is different. He is unhappy with & White, however, is that the authors lack not research. And when he quotes with admi the classic style manuals — including revered tools for analysing language, and so end up ration the opening line of Richard Dawkins’ texts such as Strunk & White (William Strunk “vainly appealing to the writer’s ‘ear’”. That’s Unweaving the Rainbow (Houghton Mifflin, and E. B. White’s The Elements of Style) or on page two. By page three, he is challenging 1998) — “We are going to die, and that

Love and Math: The Heart of Hidden Reality Life at the Speed of Light Edward Frenkel (Basic Books, 2014) J. Craig Venter (Abacus, 2014) With infinite passion, media-feted professor Biologist J. Craig Venter shares his life’s work of Edward Frenkel shares his rise to mathematical catalysing progress in biological engineering, greatness against a tide of Russian anti-Semitism. sequencing the human genome and ultimately Appeasing maths-haters, he uses a borscht recipe creating the first “synthetic cell” (Mycoplasma to explain quantum duality. (See Marcus du mycoides JCVI-syn1.0). (See Nathaniel Comfort’s Sautoy’s review: Nature 502, 36; 2013.) review: Nature 502, 436–437; 2013.)

makes us the lucky ones” — he offers a EVOLUTION detailed explanation of why it works that is, again, short on science. Pinker is a good writer and a deeply humanistic one, and there are many Tribes like us bright moments here. His lists explain ing right and wrong usage with a range of examples (enervate means to sap, not Tim Lenton is intrigued by E. O. Wilson’s sweeping energize) are a useful desk reference. perspective on humanity’s past — and possible futures. Among numerous good tips is one on, as Pinker has it, “the compulsion to name things with different words when they hat of that ultimate existential conflicted human are mentioned multiple times”. “Herons question, the meaning of life? nature. Here he parts are herons,” he writes, not “long-legged Aristotle saw it as the achieve company with most waders, azure airborne aviators, or sap Wment of happiness. UK comedy troupe evolutionary theorists, phire sentinels of the sky”. Monty Python suggested that it involves revisiting an already At times, however, Pinker’s own writing reading “a good book every now and then”. acrimonious debate verges on the incomprehensible. Consider In The Meaning of Human Existence, biolo (aired in Nature) over his critique of this sentence: “Toni Mor gist E. O. Wilson offers a good book that the origin of euso rison’s genius enables her to create novels adds to such prescriptions, but readers seek cial traits. Wilson that arise from and express the injustices ing a sense of purpose will be disappointed. The Meaning of originally supported African Americans have endured.” Some What Wilson is after is really a deeper under Human Existence evolutionary biolo might say ‘her’ is an error, because an standing of human existence. EDWARD O. WILSON gist W. D. Hamilton’s Liveright: 2014. adjective (‘Toni Morrison’s’) cannot be Still, there can be few better guides theory of inclusive the antecedent of a pronoun. But Pinker through our species’ past journey and fitness, in which the explains it this way: “Toni Morrison’s is potential for the future. Wilson provides the costs of altruism can be rationalized if they not an adjective, like red or beautiful; it’s literary equivalent of a greatest-hits album, are outweighed by the product of the ben a noun phrase in genitive case. (How do giving us a pithy synthesis of his formidable efits to recipients and the recipients’ relat we know? Because you can’t use genitives body of work from Sociobiology (Harvard edness to the altruist. But in 2010, he and in clear adjectival contexts like That child University Press, 1975) to The Social Con- some colleagues rejected it (M. A. Nowak seems Lisa’s or Hand me the red and John’s quest of Earth (Liveright, 2012), with a lib et al. Nature 466, 1057–1062; 2010). In its sweater.)” After reading that several times, eral dose of Consilience (Little, Brown, 1998). place, they argued for a mixture of individual I think I know what he means. But it is The result is a provocative and beautifully and group-level selection. tough to get through. written collection of essays, although one Back from the firmly prodded ants’ nest Pinker also reveals himself at the outset that struggles to be more than the sum of of evolutionary theorists came a predictably to be not a prescriptivist, like Strunk and its parts. forceful defence (see, for example, P. Abbot White, but a descriptivist, who sees lan In the opening section, Wilson intro et al. Nature 471, E1–E4; 2011), but Wilson guage as “a wiki that pools the contribu duces his central premise that humans, like remains unmoved by this stinging riposte. tions of millions of writers and speakers”. his beloved ants, are eusocial animals. Some The frustration for the neutral reader is that I agree: we make the language. But if individuals reduce their own lifetime repro both sides agree that the gene is the funda that is the case, science probably can’t do ductive potential so that they can raise the mental unit of selection, so the squabble is any better than Strunk & White at dictat offspring of others (think of grandmothers over different flavours of standard evolu ing style. The only legitimate data come after menopause). Key to the origin of euso tionary theory. Neither side seems to see from the people. So maybe it is too soon ciality is the creation of a nest, from which the Pythonesque irony of fighting over how to jettison the classic style manuals: I some of the population undertake risky for to understand cooperation. Still, nothing suspect much of Pinker’s sense of style aging while the remainder stay safe at home. could better demonstrate the tribal nature comes less from his science than from his Wilson argues that our unique intelligence of humanity, which provides a focus for the own wonderful writer’s ear. ■ began to evolve when our ancestors tamed rest of the book. fire to cook, settled around the campsite and Wilson’s enthusiasm for a mixture of Paul Raeburn is the author of four sent a fraction of the group off to risk life and individual and group-level selection goes books and the chief media critic for the limb hunting down energy-rich meat. further, as he struggles to resist an “over- Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Thus began a tension between acting simplistic” portrayal that “individual selec Knight Science Journalism Tracker. for ourselves and acting for our group, tion promoted sin, while group selection e-mail: [email protected] which Wilson argues is at the heart of our promoted virtue”. The inconsistency in this

The Compatibility Gene Brave Genius Daniel M. Davis (Penguin, 2014) Sean B. Carroll (Broadway, 2014) At the heart of our immunological-response Against the tumult of the Second World War, systems lie ‘compatibility genes’, which biologist Sean Carroll tells the interwoven stories determine each body’s capacity to fight diseases of philosopher Albert Camus and geneticist or accept medication. Immunologist Daniel Jaques Monod, friends who worked for the Davis explores these genes’ roles in successful French resistance and won Nobel prizes. (See Jan skin grafts, ill-fated pregnancies and more. Witkowski’s review: Nature 501, 487–488; 2013.)

is soon exposed when he argues that religion we are not alone in the Universe, offering a for scientific progress but a long one for the has been crucial in reinforcing group-level very anthropomorphic “portrait of E.T.”. humanities, arts and social sciences. Sur tribalism, but is a collective sin that human Wilson’s imaginary aliens are, I think, prisingly optimistic that brain-activity map ity needs to grow out of. One wonders what really his prescription for humanity’s ping is going to solve the riddle of human the publishers were thinking when they put future. They have chosen not to supplement consciousness sooner rather than later, on the dust jacket the promise of Wilson their intelligence or engineer their genet Wilson feels that we will be left clutching addressing “our greatest moral dilemma ics, because their technological creations the sensation of free will, which he thinks is since God stayed the hand of Abraham”, have long surpassed them physically and just an adaptation necessary for our sanity. given that inside, he decries belief in God intellectually. They are not so foolish as to If the resulting nihilism does not lead us to with Dawkinsian fervour. attempt interstellar travel — were it possible despair, the way forward will be to unify the Yet Wilson’s route to species self-knowl — because they have worked out that invad sciences and humanities to reach a higher edge is rather omniscient, because it involves ing an independently evolved world would state of human “meaning”. Anyone fancy comparing ourselves to other known or be a biological train wreck. Instead, they the ride? ■ imagined life forms, be they ants or aliens. have made peace with their home planet As we decimate biodiversity, leaving our and achieved a long-term sustainable state. Tim Lenton is professor of Earth system selves lost in an Age of Loneliness — the Back in the here and now on Earth, Wil science at the University of Exeter, UK, ‘Eremocene’ — Wilson looks skyward for son argues that we should relish our evolu and co-author with Andrew Watson of salvation. He is excited about exoplanets and tionary legacy of internal conflict and the Revolutions That Made the Earth. brimming with existential confidence that creativity it sparks. He sees a short future e-mail: [email protected]

The Joy of Pain Dosed: The Medication Generation Grows Up Richard H. Smith (Oxford Univ. Press, 2014) Kaitlin Bell Barnett (Beacon, 2014) Psychologist Richard Smith explores the roots of Journalist Kaitlin Bell Barnett, herself medicated Schadenfreude (joy in others’ pain) in society, from in youth, tells the stories of five people who from reality television thriving on public humiliation childhood have been treated with psychotropic to cases of envy-incited crimes, including Nazi drugs for conditions such as depression and persecution of Jewish people. (See Dan Jones’ attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, addressing review: Nature 500, 147; 2013.) their sense of lost freedom and identity.

CLIMATE POLICY A societal sea change Nico Stehr ponders Naomi Klein’s call for strategic mass action on climate change.

his year, New Zealand became the mining projects in var reducing fossil-fuel use, have broadly been first country to acknowledge climate ious parts of the world. long understood. The governance of climate change when granting residence on She includes her own change, not merely mitigation and adapta Thumanitarian grounds — in this case, to eye-witness reportage tion, is a tortuous problem and is hardly a family from the low-lying Pacific island from the front line, well developed theoretically, but it remains nation of Tuvalu. That the environmental such as Canada’s oil a key area of interdisciplinary research and and human realities of climate change are sands and the 2010 real-world policy. We are just at the begin tangled up in such legal, economic and polit Deepwater Horizon ning of this difficult intellectual and practi ical complexities is the focus of social activist oil spill in the Gulf of cal journey. Klein recognizes the Sisyphean Naomi Klein’s This Changes Everything. This Changes Mexico. tasks ahead and proposes economic, legal Klein’s journey to this realization began Everything: Klein acknowledges and social measures that would enable bet in 2009 when, in the middle of the inter Capitalism vs the that extraction and use ter governance, such as the reform of trade national economic meltdown, she first rec Climate of fossil fuels is hardly law and the prevention of fossil-fuel extrac NAOMI KLEIN ognized the magnitude of climate change. Simon and Schuster/ analogous to social or tion through the recognition of indigenous As she states: “I denied climate change for Allen Lane: 2014. political oppression peoples’ rights to oil- and coal-rich land. longer than I care to admit.” Five years on, such as slave owner The special appeal of Klein’s position she has synthesized her thinking about the ship or gender discrimination, but argues is her insight that any successful effort to dual financial and environmental disasters, that historical movements against such prac curb emissions or adapt to climate change arguing that the “market fundamentalism” tices show how societal pressure can build, demands popular, pragmatic and sensible favoured by the United States and the United pushing governments to act. Mass action transformative goals that go well beyond Kingdom — involving privatization of public focused on climate change could have a mere fencing in. In contrast to climate sci services, deregulation of corporate activities transformative effect on societies, she posits, entists and observers such as James Hansen and reduced public spending — has “system empowering the poor to demand rights and and James Lovelock, she is not an advocate atically sabotaged our collective response services. of “inconvenient democracy” — that is, the to climate change”. Klein now advocates a In arguing that the “fundamentalist” claim that certain forms of democratic gov mediating social force between climate sci changes to the structure of capitalism have ernance need to be overcome before climate ence, politics and individual responsiveness stymied such a transformation, Klein over change can be tackled effectively. and responsibility — in essence, “mass social states the case, however. Although privati Whether This Changes Everything has movements” aiming to reduce fossil-fuel zation and deregulation triumphed in the identified the potential catalyst that will bring use and push for adaptation measures and 1980s in the United States and the United about an alternative future remains uncer behavioural change. Kingdom, they did not in significant parts tain. Still-to-be-born large social movements Klein’s book — a combination of polemic, of the rest of the world, as she claims. And around the world could act as a countervail manifesto and analysis — covers much famil whether the US economic order exemplifies ing force to ‘business as usual’ and, as Klein iar territory. We get the history of global- a secular trend towards global dominance puts it, “simultaneously clear some alterna warming discussions, the phenomenon of remains an open issue. The conditions tive pathways” to safer futures for human climate denialism and today’s economic for change could be more favourable than kind. Klein has explored early manifestations order, including the clash of interests between Klein thinks, especially when it comes to of such resistance among smaller, often ad trade regimes and climate policy. As Klein the removal of ideological roadblocks to hoc local social groups around the world. But notes, the “liberation of world markets, a improving the ethics of markets on the basis her message is still delivered with a strong process powered by the liberation of unprec of moral rather than mere monetary motives North American accent. ■ edented amounts of fossil fuels”, is now of production and consumption. helping to accelerate the melting of Arctic Of course, many other impediments to Nico Stehr is Karl Mannheim Professor of ice. She also discusses responses to the cli governing climate change remain. Klein is Cultural Studies at Zeppelin University in mate emergency, including geoengineering too optimistic in claiming that the immedi Friedrichshafen, Germany. schemes, as well as resistance to large-scale ately relevant solutions, such as adaptation or e-mail: [email protected]

The Dynamics of Disaster What Makes a Hero?: The Surprising Science of Susan W. Kieffer (W. W. Norton, 2014) Selflessness Geologist Susan Kieffer showcases Earth’s most Elizabeth Svoboda (Current, 2014) destructive processes, highlighting geographical Would you risk your life for a stranger’s? Survival discrepancies in disaster preparedness. In 2010, for instinct would suggest not, but science writer example, similar-energy earthquakes caused over Elizabeth Svoboda finds that heroism comes 50,000 deaths in Haiti, yet none in New Zealand. (See naturally to some, and others can learn altruism Roger Bilham’s review: Nature 502, 438–439; 2013.) using methods such as compassion meditation.

312 | NATURE | VOL 513 | 18 SEPTEMBER 2014 © 2014 Macmillan Publishers Limited. All rights reserved INTERNET Technology and its discontents Jaron Lanier surveys four studies probing the vexed nexus of mind and digisphere.

igital technology is remaking the Mind Change: How Digital Technologies Are The Impulse Society: What’s Wrong With cognitive environment in which Leaving Their Mark on Our Brains Getting What We Want? human brains develop and func SUSAN GREENFIELD PAUL ROBERTS Rider: 2014. Bloomsbury: 2014. Dtion. This swift revolution is inevitably sparking much hard thinking. Books by The Organized Mind: Thinking Straight in The Glass Cage: Automation and Us neuroscientists Susan Greenfield and the Age of Information Overload NICHOLAS CARR Daniel Levitin, and writers Nicholas Carr DANIEL J. LEVITIN W. W. Norton: 2014. Dutton: 2014. and Paul Roberts, propose either adapta tion to the changes — self-help strategies how human minds — our inner environ social networks or reading tablets) might to compensate for emerging cognitive mis ments — are, in her view, being recklessly affect brain development. The acquisition alignments — or critiques of the overall altered by digital technologies. Greenfield of speech and reading can affect human transformation. argues that because the human brain is brain architecture, but there has been Greenfield’s Mind Change takes the latter remarkably plastic in youth, it is not unrea little precedent for the kind of sudden, approach. It proposes that global climate sonable to ask how recently introduced, uniform, pervasive change in children’s change can serve as a useful metaphor for ubiquitous digital designs (such as those of cognitive environments posed by these

Smart Cities: Big Data, Civic Hackers, and the The Psychopath Inside Quest for a New Utopia James Fallon (Current, 2014) Anthony M. Townsend (W. W. Norton, 2014) After confusing his own brain scan with a As technology infiltrates urban life, Anthony psychopath’s, neuroscientist James Fallon Townsend observes how cities evolve in the digital trawled his past and genealogy. Assembling sphere, from parking apps in Germany to crowd- evidence from obsessive–compulsive disorder sourced maps of African slums. (See Melanie to violence in his family history, Fallon considers Moses’ review: Nature 502, 299–300; 2013.) how nurture may overcome nature.

18 SEPTEMBER 2014 | VOL 513 | NATURE | 313 © 2014 Macmillan Publishers Limited. All rights reserved COMMENT AUTUMN BOOKS technologies. How might they affect the tendencies nor to the seductions of hot sense of identity or organic memory, for technological trends. instance? Although she sometimes seems Carr is one of our most accomplished to push her argument beyond the reach tightrope walkers. However, The Glass of current research, Greenfield asks key Cage does fall prey to a flawed conceit. questions — such as whether the next Automation in the age of cloud comput generation will think less critically than ing is often a fake front. It is real people, their forebears. And she broadly out anonymized and unvalued, who are the lines the kind of research and policy sources of the ‘big data’ that allow cloud agenda needed to address such haunting algorithms to function. Automatic lang unknowns. uage translation is made possible only She occasionally veers into alarmism, through daily sampling of human trans for instance when discussing specula lators’ work. Celebrating how people are tive links between the apparent rise in contributing to technology in new ways autism and the rise in the use of particu could address some of the problems Carr lar digital environments. However, some decries, whether economic or cognitive. of Greenfield’s caution may be justified. For The Impulse Society, Roberts draws The neuroscience and cognitive-science on the work of research psychologists such communities that overlap with digital- as Walter Mischel, who has studied delayed technology developments often rely on gratification. More lament than prescrip the technology industry for support or tion, the book considers the many ways in cooperation, so it is especially impor AUTOMATION IN THE AGE OF which technologies encourage an infantile tant that they are not swayed by that CLOUD COMPUTING IS OFTEN A desire for immediate gratification. What industry’s extreme enthusiasms. For is most striking about Robert’s critique is all its faults, Mind Change is an impor FAKE FRONT. its panoramic sweep. During the financial tant presentation of an uncomfortable crises of the past decade, for instance, an minority position. It should be read by REAL PEOPLE, urge for an instant ‘hit’ cropped up among technologists in particular, as a check on individual borrowers keen on home own self-congratulation. ANONYMIZED AND ership, lenders set on unbelievable deals, By contrast, in The Organized Mind, and shareholders eager for soaring security Levitin takes the self-help approach. DEVALUED, valuations. At every level people were dis Accepting the design of information tech abled by a common infatuation with false nology and today’s information deluge as ARE THE SOURCES OF gold proffered by digital networks. givens, he explores better brain function THE ‘BIG DATA’. Roberts trips a bit towards the end in that context. Our networked age often of his book: he calls for a resurgence of confounds the human mind, he notes, traditional community as an alternative because of the kinds of cognitive quirks inves automation, from apps-for-everything to to the modern trend towards impatience. tigated by psychologists Daniel Kahneman self-driving cars — asks at the start how we The book’s ultimate programme seems sen and his late colleague Amos Tversky — nota should define a human being in such an era. timental and ill-matched to the theatre in bly Kahneman’s idea of two brain systems, Does automation change the sense of how which the troubles arise. one ‘quick and dirty’ and the other slower people act, learn, or find value in their lives Taken together, these four books reveal a and more reasoned. Levitin’s strategy for over and each other? Carr tells contemporary and frontier of human experience. We are rap coming such quirks is a set of tricks. To bypass historical tales of technologists and entrepre idly changing society, and in the course of it poor intuitions about statistics, for instance, neurs dripping with hubris, such as aviation potentially laying our brains open to change. he suggests assessing data using a simple four- wizard Wilbur Wright, and of people strug We must now become both competent and fold diagram. gling with a sense that they are becoming wise in our powers — not simply resist Levitin’s presentation is sensible and denatured by a reliance on automation. ing or embracing new media technologies, actionable, but I suspect that his audience Carr can be understood as part of a liter but becoming instead more self-aware and is the sub-population residing between the ary movement that does not reject technolo discerning in relation to them. ■ extremes of technical ability. This group gies. Rather, it rejects ceding what Carr calls holds much of society’s money and power: “choices about the texture of our daily lives” Jaron Lanier is a computer scientist with our highly technical society is for the most to technologists and their businesses. That Microsoft Research. His latest book is Who part guided by semi-technical people. stance is a tightrope walk: one must move Owns the Future? Carr’s The Glass Cage — a meditation on forward, succumbing neither to Luddite e-mail: [email protected]

The Simpsons and their Mathematical Secrets Shores of Knowledge: New World Discoveries Simon Singh (Bloomsbury, 2014) and the Scientific Imagination US television series The Simpsons is craftily Joyce Appleby (W. W. Norton, 2014) dotted with maths jokes by numerate writers Six centuries of overseas exploration is lucidly who chose comedy over academia. Physicist charted by historian Joyce Appleby. While Simon Singh exposes and explains gags of voyagers exulted over exotic species, the spread varying complexity, although all can chuckle at of disease to indigenous peoples exposed the Homer’s naive belief in an “infinity plus one”. high price of scientific discovery. Emily Banham