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Rating: 
Summary: Careless Science
Review: As a technologist (and registered Professional Engineer) whose 20-year career has required the use of real science,(even though I'm not too sure what REAL science is, Bill Nye the science guy told me what it is and I believe him because Bill is my hero) I was extremely disappointed by this book. I had just finished reading Michael Talbot's _Holographic Universe_, which made no pretense at being scientific, but presented an incredibly intriguing "model" of reality -- and I was looking for some follow-up reading to provide some scientific "meat." A casual flip through _Science_and_Human_Transformation_ entices the technical reader with charts, graphs, diagrams of experimental apparatus, and appendices on Fourier Transforms and antenna theory. But the letdown began with the first page, with a vague sentence fragment identified as "equation 1." Something like: "function<->structure<->biochemistry" On the next page, Tiller asks "what is the glaring omission from equation 1?" "Electromagnetic radiation, of course!" Well, I laughed so hard I had to put the book down for a few moments. Sadly, the book never recovers from this silly beginning. The appendices on Fourier Transforms and antenna theory are wasted print. Except that Tiller mentions the subjects within the main body of the text, in my opinion these are thrown in purely for appearance sake, as if to trick a technologist into reading the book. But alas! Let me detail a specific example. As a materials scientist, Tiller has undoubtedly made bona-fide use of the concept of the "inverse space" domain, where "real space" is transformed by Fourier into a "universe" measured in "wave numbers" and having units of reciprocal length -- much as I routinely use the Laplace Transform and work in the mathematical "s-plane" (where everything is measured in reciprocal time) for my transient models of the thermal properties of semiconductor packages. Thus (immediately after the silly start already panned) Tiller's book jumps into a discussion of how we can overlay this "inverse space matrix" onto the real one; the significant difference between the two being a difference of scale of twenty orders of magnitude. Whence does this scale difference arise? From the fact that the physical universe is comprised at the atomic scale of matrices of atoms and molecules separated from each other by roughly 1E-10 meters. Still don't see it? Here we are, living at the scale of meters, and we're made up of building blocks ten orders of magnitude smaller. So if you create an inverse space matrix from atomic dimensions, you'll have units of 1E+10 reciprocal meters. Voila! Twenty orders of magnitude of difference. If our bodies and universe coexist within those two matrices, is it any wonder that (as suggested in the _Holographic Universe_ model) that the entire span of the universe is accessible within the very confines of our own bodies and minds? Only when you take a step back and go, "wait a minute! Just how big is a reciprocal meter, anyway?" And you then realize that the entire concept, though somehow initially appealing, is an "apples and oranges comparison." You simply can't compare the size of 1E-10 meters to 1E+10 reciprocal meters! Worse yet, this premise is founded on an arbitrary measurement system that happens to use the meter as its basic scale (which just happens to be approximately the size of our bodies). Let's start over: what if we'd decided that the Angstrom unit was to be the fundamental unit of scale? (That would make sense, actually, being precisely 1E-10 meters, and a rather natural unit of scale for atomic lattices.) But if we did, then the "inverse space matrix" based on atomic lattices would be the same "scale" as the physical atomic matrix (because the reciprocal of 1 Angstrom is 1 reciprocal Angstrom). Further, as you went to bigger and bigger distances in the physical universe (10, 10000000, 1E10 Angstroms - where you get to us), you'd be going to ever smaller inverse distances (1E-1, 1E-6, 1E-10 reciprocal Angstroms) and you'd have to conclude that the inverse space matrix of the entire universe resides within the confines of a single atom (and odds are it's not one of yours :-) ). Well, obviously I've got serious issues with Tiller's fundamentals, so I'm unlikely to be swayed by the rest of his meanderings. And it doesn't help any when he discusses his experiments with self-sharpening razor blades in Plexiglas pyramids. At first, he thinks he gets positive results, so he conducts (one of his few) more rigorously controlled follow-up experiments and is then disappointed to find nothing. His final conclusion is not that maybe his initial positive results were wishful thinking, but rather that significant "metaphysical" results always disappear when you look too closely. As a scientist, that's supposed to convince me of something here? Duh .... And as for the other "experiments" he describes in his book, I'm afraid they left me cold. For instance, he could have used the space taken up by the appendix on Fourier Transforms instead for a more thorough log of his lab experiments on psychokinetics. As it is, almost all of his experiments include a disclaimer to the effect of "but I haven't yet done double-blind studies" (so the results may be artifactual). Usually, real "science" doesn't take place (and results aren't published) until after double blind studies are finished. Remember "cold fusion?" Tiller's book is not likely to encourage another real scientist anywhere to follow his lead -- certainly not to admit it!
Rating: 
Summary: Hope for science and engineering
Review: Dr. Tiller's excellent book, SCIENCE AND HUMAN TRANSFORMATION, boldly goes where few books dare to enter. Tiller presents a fascinating model of our universe as being multi-dimensional with a spiritual component. This book will likely be enjoyed most by readers who have experienced psychic or psycho-kinetic events in their lives, and are seeking a rational explanation for what might be going on. Those who have not yet had such experiences may not be convinced that such things exist -- even after reading Tiller's fascinating account of how he created a gas-discharge device in the 1970's while he was a professor at Stanford University which demonstrated that "anyone could produce a positive (psychokinetic) result". SCIENCE AND HUMAN TRANSFORMATION is a joy to read for anyone who loves to play with new ideas and theories. It contains a wealth of schematic diagrams, charts, equations and references to support the theories Tiller presents. This book will most appeal to readers who love books they can ponder for some time, as it is packed with such ideas as: sensory arrays, etheric light cones, nodal networks and holograms. The main point of SCIENCE AND HUMAN TRANSFORMATION is that the component of mind and consciousness has long been excluded from scientific study, and even omitted from Theories Of Everything (TOEs). Obviously, if we're going to have a theory of everything it had better include consciousness! Tiller knows this quite well, and artfully constructs a bridge for future scientists with open minds to cross over to a place where unseen things (such as human energy fields) have huge effects. If we want to know what has eluded us for so long, we need to go to the very places which are currently least well understood. SCIENCE AND HUMAN TRANSFORMATION provides a sturdy bridge for us to reach those previously unknown places.
Rating:
Summary: How to See the Unseeable & Know the Unknowable
Review: Dr. Tiller's excellent book, SCIENCE AND HUMAN TRANSFORMATION, boldly goes where few books dare to enter. Tiller presents a fascinating model of our universe as being multi-dimensional with a spiritual component. This book will likely be enjoyed most by readers who have experienced psychic or psycho-kinetic events in their lives, and are seeking a rational explanation for what might be going on. Those who have not yet had such experiences may not be convinced that such things exist -- even after reading Tiller's fascinating account of how he created a gas-discharge device in the 1970's while he was a professor at Stanford University which demonstrated that "anyone could produce a positive (psychokinetic) result". SCIENCE AND HUMAN TRANSFORMATION is a joy to read for anyone who loves to play with new ideas and theories. It contains a wealth of schematic diagrams, charts, equations and references to support the theories Tiller presents. This book will most appeal to readers who love books they can ponder for some time, as it is packed with such ideas as: sensory arrays, etheric light cones, nodal networks and holograms. The main point of SCIENCE AND HUMAN TRANSFORMATION is that the component of mind and consciousness has long been excluded from scientific study, and even omitted from Theories Of Everything (TOEs). Obviously, if we're going to have a theory of everything it had better include consciousness! Tiller knows this quite well, and artfully constructs a bridge for future scientists with open minds to cross over to a place where unseen things (such as human energy fields) have huge effects. If we want to know what has eluded us for so long, we need to go to the very places which are currently least well understood. SCIENCE AND HUMAN TRANSFORMATION provides a sturdy bridge for us to reach those previously unknown places.
Rating:
Summary: Tiller vs. Stout
Review: Having read the controversy between Dr. Tiller and Mr. Stout, I have to say that Mr. Stout's notion of science (what he calls "real science")is narrow and reductionist. I applaud Dr. Tiller and his co-author for stepping out of the old reductionist confines of "real science" to open our eyes to its human potential. There are many valuable avenues opened up by the book, areas where there could be great transformative potential. The one that I am most familiar with is the relationship between what Dr. Tiller talks about and the Chinese practice of Feng Shui. As someone who grew up observing the positive effects of Feng Shui on the lives of those who believed and practiced it, Dr. Tiller's book was an eye-opener as it provides the beginnings of a scientific basis for Feng Shui. For those of us who are interested in the human potential of science, this is a must read. It is not for those, like Mr. Stout, whose paradigm of science is so narrowly reductionist that anything more expansive is immediately viewed as a threat and an opportunity to go on the attack. Finally, lest Stout and others like him should disparage people based on their lack of credentials, I have a Ph.D and was trained at one of the top universities in this country. I have also taught at the elite university where Dr. Tiller spent many years of his distinguished career as a leading scientist.
Rating:
Summary: Author's rebuttal to Roger Stout's Review
Review: I suspect that Roger Stout set out to try to trash this book without first going through the effort of seriously reading it. This can be readily seen from the word equation that he misquotes. He obviously didn't read the surrounding text with any care to see what kind of a pedagogical bridge I was building via that set of word equations. The point about direct space and reciprocal space that seems to have eluded Stout is that, together, they aoutomatically provide for both the particle aspect and the wave aspect of substance, the two fundamemental but entangled features dealt with by quantum mechanics. The novel approach that I have taken in this book allows one to distinquish these two complementary aspects simultaneously. Furthermore, it is surprising to me that a supposed professional engineer would make the mistake of trying to compare the distance scale of reciprocal space since this is a frequency scale. They do not have the same units of measurement and, therefore, cannot be directly compared, as undergraduate engineers in all universities are taught. If Stout had not been so intent on his "lashing" goal, he might have realized that the very small in direct space corresponds with the very high frequency region in reciprocal space. Likewise, the very large in direct space corresponds with the very small frequency region of reciprocal space. Since high frequency for photons corresponds with high particle energy, he shold have at least seen how the particle size scale in the angstrom and below range match qualitatively with the energetics of fundamental particles. As an illustrative example, if a time domain pattern has a 10 nanosecond interval, then its frequency domain counterpart along the inverse time coordinate would be comprised of a set of waves localized around 0.628 gigahertz for the first band. Likewise, if one has a direct spaces spherical object of 1 angstrom diameter, the first band counterpart in reciprocal space would be comprised of waves in the 6.28 x 10 ^8 cm ^( -1) range. Changing the scale of direct space units that one wishes to use just produces a corresponding scale change of the reciprcal space units one must use. Stout states how much he liked Talbot's book, "The Holographic Universe", yet he seems to have missed the crucial point that the entire basis of holography is wave diffraction. Further, the resultant wave intensity diffracted from any kind of direct space geometrical object can be shown to arise from the modulus of the Fourier Transform for that geometrical shape. He should have learned this in his electrical engineering classes. It is sad that Stout was so intent on trashing this book rather than reading it with an ip mind-he might have learned something useful for his life! As a final comment by the author to this open forum , this book was not in any way casually written, and I know that is is challenging for some readers. However, one should keep in mind tht it was based on 35 years of personal experimentation and thought by an acknowledged world-class expert in several areas of academic science. This same author taught for over 30 years at one of the most prestigious universities in the world, Stanford University, and was selected to be Chairman to study these new areas of human experience. During his industrial and academic career, he has published over 300 peer-reviewed scientific papers in various international journals plus 3 three technical books, all of which have meaningfully aided the evolution of the materials science and materials engineering fields. Can Stout, the trasher, claim as much! In today's world, unfortunately, it seems very easy to trash the works of others. It is much more difficult to constructively build upon them. Roger Stout would be well served by paying more attention to his intenttions than to his misquided logic.
Rating:
Summary: Hope for science and engineering
Review: One needs a deep intuitive mind to appreciate this book. It's an excellent book that holds a beacon of light to the future of science in America which has become so warped with lack of intuition. Currently, we are following an old paradigm of dark ages "materialistic science and theories" - it's very hard for someone who is still stuck in dark ages to appreciate the value
of intuition which comes through understanding and experience of subtle energies. In anycase, people might argue over the value of this book, as a biomedical engineer and a scientist, I must say that Prof. Tiller has made full use of this Stanford position to bring to the world the best, instead of playing politics with funding agencies and approval of his peers for his self-preservation or ego gratification. An excellent book only for those with an OPEN HEART and MIND (BOTH!)
Rating:
Summary: Science + Superstition = Nonsence
Review: There are two types of personalities in life, and they are also manifested in scientists. The first type is one who relies on vertical facts. This type of thinking results in established limitations and, often, a dogma of conventionality. The second type is lateral or circumspectual thinking. This person innovates and is not moved by the limitation doctrine characteristic of the straight educational process. Dr. William Tiller in Science and Human Transformation shows himself to be the second type. More and more we are led to apprectiate the cybernetic process with regard to each cell in our body. Each of the 80 billion carries its own DNA and acts like it has its own mind. Each is influenced by its effect on the whole. This complete integration is what the biologic sciences are all about. It has long been known that light has been shown to behave as a wave and a particle and that each is used in the process of light which has led to the controversies. Not only has Tiller offered methods for dealing with the mechanisms simultaneously, but has opened the door for the whole resonance-frequency phenomenon. Maybe Tiller has also unlocked the door to an understanding of the spirit of Love that bothers many who prefer to keep it in mysticism. Maybe, still further, we are on the threshold of a new era in physics dealing with mass and energy that cannot be quantified with the present assays of matter. Materialization and dematerialization are a part of transformation that should not be swept under the table. Tiller has dared to go outside the old box.
Rating:
Summary: Why Read This Book?
Review: This book is truly revolutionary and because it is, it will elicit the disdain of conventional linear thinkers--as it has. You "bounded," conventional scientists out there who laugh at this book and criticize it for not presenting scientific evidence and "proof"--let me ask you, if one is exploring boundaries, how can one present the kind of evidence you are seeking? And it will be praised by those who dare to explore the unknown and make speculative connections. If you are interested in exploring non-linear ways of thinking and if you are interested in the intersection of physics and biology this book is definitely a must read for you. On the other hand, if you are not a scientist but have a strong intellectual bent and can digest dense scientific material you might be able to plow through and enjoy the book. But you will need to have a reason to read it. For example, if you are interested in Feng Shui or the Chinese concept of "ch'i and would like to see if there could be a scientific basis for these ancient Chinese ideas and practices, then you'll probably be rewarded. I strongly recommend this book for those who are open-minded and ready to go on a boundary-challenging, albeit uncertain journey, one that can only be enjoyed if one is willing to do without our familiar intellectual crutches for the duration.
Rating:
Summary: Why Read This Book?
Review: This book is truly revolutionary and because it is, it will elicit the disdain of conventional linear thinkers--as it has. You "bounded," conventional scientists out there who laugh at this book and criticize it for not presenting scientific evidence and "proof"--let me ask you, if one is exploring boundaries, how can one present the kind of evidence you are seeking? And it will be praised by those who dare to explore the unknown and make speculative connections. If you are interested in exploring non-linear ways of thinking and if you are interested in the intersection of physics and biology this book is definitely a must read for you. On the other hand, if you are not a scientist but have a strong intellectual bent and can digest dense scientific material you might be able to plow through and enjoy the book. But you will need to have a reason to read it. For example, if you are interested in Feng Shui or the Chinese concept of "ch'i and would like to see if there could be a scientific basis for these ancient Chinese ideas and practices, then you'll probably be rewarded. I strongly recommend this book for those who are open-minded and ready to go on a boundary-challenging, albeit uncertain journey, one that can only be enjoyed if one is willing to do without our familiar intellectual crutches for the duration.
Rating:
Summary: What will 21st century science be like?
Review: Tiller, former head of the Materials Research Department at Stanford and accomplished researcher in crystalography, presents a summary of his evolving model of subtle energies. This work includes discussions of familiar physics, such as the nature of basic particles, and presents data on less well known studies including the influence of volition on physical processes. Tiller's aim is to present a theory of physical reality which incorporates more than the familiar 4 dimensions, and new variables, including consciousness itself. His theory is a work in progress, similar in its basic premises to the alternative version of quantum theory advanced by David Bohm. Tiller's theory is still undergoing development but his ideas are intriguing and the possible applications he describes are fascinating. The one flaw seems to be a blend of informal theorizing, such as borrowing from the Budhist world view, with a more formal scientific theory, without clearly distingishing between the two. In any event, I highly recommend the book.
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