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A scheme of heaven : astrology and the birth of science / Alexander Boxer.

By: Publisher: London : Profile Books, 2020Description: xi, 319 p. : ill. (colour) ; 24 cmISBN:
  • 9781781259634 (hbk.) :
Subject(s): DDC classification:
  • 133.509 23
Summary: "Humans are pattern-matching creatures, and astrology is our grandest pattern-matching game. In this refreshing work of history and analysis, data scientist Alexander Boxer examines classical texts on astrology to expose its underlying scientific and mathematical framework. Astrology, he argues, was the ancient world's most ambitious applied mathematics problem, a grand data-analysis enterprise sustained by some of history's most brilliant minds from Ptolemy to al- Kindi to Kepler. A "scheme of heaven," or horoscope, is recognized as pseudoscience today, but was once considered a cutting-edge scientific tool. Not only does Boxer trace different applications of horoscopes back to their origins, he also puts them to the test using modern data sets and statistical science, arguing that today's data scientists do work similar to astrologers of yore. At once critical, rigorous, and far-ranging, A Scheme of Heaven recontextualizes astrology as a vast, technological project-spanning continents and centuries-that foreshadowed our data-driven world today"--
List(s) this item appears in: New Acquisitions August-December 2020
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Item type Current library Collection Call number Status Date due Barcode
Loanable Book Library General Collection 133.509 BOX (Browse shelf(Opens below)) Available 000437835

Includes bibliographic notes and index.

"Humans are pattern-matching creatures, and astrology is our grandest pattern-matching game. In this refreshing work of history and analysis, data scientist Alexander Boxer examines classical texts on astrology to expose its underlying scientific and mathematical framework. Astrology, he argues, was the ancient world's most ambitious applied mathematics problem, a grand data-analysis enterprise sustained by some of history's most brilliant minds from Ptolemy to al- Kindi to Kepler. A "scheme of heaven," or horoscope, is recognized as pseudoscience today, but was once considered a cutting-edge scientific tool. Not only does Boxer trace different applications of horoscopes back to their origins, he also puts them to the test using modern data sets and statistical science, arguing that today's data scientists do work similar to astrologers of yore. At once critical, rigorous, and far-ranging, A Scheme of Heaven recontextualizes astrology as a vast, technological project-spanning continents and centuries-that foreshadowed our data-driven world today"--

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