The Grand Contraption: The World as Myth, Number, and Chance

Description

The Grand Contraption tells the story of humanity's attempts through 4,000 years of written history to make sense of the world in its cosmic totality, to understand its physical nature, and to know its real and imagined inhabitants. No other book has provided as coherent, compelling, and learned a narrative on this subject of subjects. David Park takes us on an incredible journey that illuminates the multitude of elaborate "contraptions" by which humans in the Western world have imagined the earth they inhabit--and what lies beyond. Intertwining history, religion, philosophy, literature, and the physical sciences, this eminently readable book is, ultimately, about the "grand contraption" we've constructed through the ages in an effort to understand and identify with the universe. According to Park, people long ago conceived of our world as a great rock slab inhabited by gods, devils, and people and crowned by stars. Thinkers imagined ether to fill the empty space, and in the comforting certainty of celestial movement they discerned numbers, and in numbers, order. Separate sections of the book tell the fascinating stories of measuring and mapping the Earth and Heavens, and later, the scientific exploration of the universe. The journey reveals many common threads stretching from ancient Mesopotamians and Greeks to peoples of today. For example, humans have tended to imagine Earth and Sky as living creatures. Not true, say science-savvy moderns. But truth isn't always the point. The point, says Park, is that Earth is indeed the fragile bubble we surmise, and we must treat it with the reverence it deserves. Cover Page Half-title Page Title Page Copyright Page Contents List of Illustrations Preface One: Voices from the Sands 1.1 The Biblical Universe 1.2 Tales from Sumer and Egypt 1.3 Two More Worlds 1.4 Deluge 1.5 The Twisted Axle Two: Managing the World 2.1 Dramatis Personae 2.2 The Lower Tier 2.3 The Shape of the World 2.4 Fortune-Telling 2.5 The Stars Move Westward 2.6 Guiding Hands Three: Guesswork 3.1 A Mass of Rock 3.2 Ionians 3.3 Earth, Sun, Moon, and Law 3.4 A World Made of Numbers 3.5 Change and Eternity 3.6 Theories of Matter 3.7 Atoms and the Pursuit of Happiness Four: Earth and Heaven 4.1 Law and Nature 4.2 Measuring Months and Years 4.3 Plato’s Fantasy 4.4 Aristotle’s Optimism Five: Beginnings and Endings 5.1 Time and Space 5.2 Creation 5.3 The Universe Recycled 5.4 The End of Everything Six: Philosophy Continued 6.1 The Stars in Motion 6.2 Stars, Earth, and Numbers 6.3 Omens and Demons 6.4 Remembrance of Things Past 6.5 Motes of Dust 6.6 The Great Design Interlude: The World Map I.1 Earth and Cosmos I.2 Explorers and Traders I.3 The Christian Earth I.4 Travelers’ Tales I.5 The Age of Exploration Seven: Toward a New Astronomy 7.1 The Sun Stands Still 7.2 The Mathematical Plan 7.3 The World Observed 7.4 A World Invented 7.5 Isaac Newton Eight: What Is the World Made Of? 8.1 Atoms Reborn 8.2 Transformations 8.3 A Theory of Matter 8.4 Atoms and Numbers 8.5 Ether and the Nature of Light Nine: The Universe Measured 9.1 Surveyors at Work 9.2 The Age of the Earth 9.3 The Long Descent of Man Ten: The Exploding Universe 10.1 The Cosmos in Motion 10.2 The Big Bang 10.3 What’s Out There? Eleven: The View from Here 11.1 Is There Anyone Else? 11.2 The Best of All Possible Worlds? 11.3 Will It Ever End? 11.4 Reflections References and Further Reading Bibliography Index