Mapping the Next Millennium: The Discovery of New Geographies

Hall takes 18 different scientific fields,circa 1990, and looks at a cutting edge of each in terms of how graphic depictions, maps, either makes the edge understandable or causes the edge to be cutting. Colored pictures and line drawings help us readers. Each essay is dense with information, is marked by a quiet wit and exceptional writing, and reflects the work of real, living, identified people, usually interviewed by Hall for this book (but he does not flaunt that). Each of these scientists is more important to us than at least 98% of the celebrities whose names most people know. And Hall makes the scientists fun to know. Each chapter, and often more than one thing in the chapter, is worth more news coverage than most of the stuff that passes as news. You will wonder "why did I not know this!?!? --why didn't the news cover it better? --or at all?" The book's sometimes difficult subjects and the care with which Hall gives them makes this a slow read at times. I read an essay each morning with a cup of coffee in hand and sunlight on my shoulder. What an experience! Hall has taken an excellent concept and beautifully executed it. This is one of the best books I have ever read. It is not as dated as it should be, but Hall is masterful at describing the dumb rug jerking our public policy makers do, and that is probably the reason. Hall's publisher, Vintage Books, should prevail on him to do an up-date and change the title from The Next to The New Millennium. It would not take much, although the temptation would be to explore too many new directions. We live in an era of incredible scientific breakthroughs and most of us do not even know it. We need more people like Hall and they need more attention from the rest of us. I cannot believe this exceptional book is out of print.

As one whose contemplative propensities have been directed fairly evenly toward both the "large scale" - e.g. the structure of the universe, the reasons for the creation of galaxies given the "uniformity" suggested by The Big Bang, the behavior of columns and beams within a high-rise building -and the "small"-e.g. what is a "memory" and how does the brain create, archive and retrieve them, how does force "flow" through the beams and columns-AND the relationship between the both-e.g. in what ways do galaxies mirror the behavior of electrons about a nucleic core-Stephen Hall's book kept me up night after night, weeks on end considering the imaging tools, processing capabilities, and conceptual framework we have at present for seeing the world. Indeed, as I logged on to conduct a search for further related material, some of the notions analyzed in the book threw vivid pictures into my mind's eye..impulses travelling along axons then connecting to 10,00 other neurons (analagous to a posted message spreading around the globe almost instantaneously) . I wondered about the fact that a very brief moment in time after having the tools at hand for synthesizing chlorofluorocarbons we developed the tools and conceptual framework for "seeing" the ozone depletion above the South Polar region (this ability to see that we have developed seems to perpetually run two lengths ahead of our need to see what it is our seeing has made...with the advent of the Nuclear Age barely 50 years behind us and the radioactive half-life of uranium 50,000 years in front of us, we seem to have the paradigms at hand for considering the responsibilities dwelling within our ability to conjur up almost any demon or angel, for example). I think it also helps point out the need to take a closer look at our current notion of "evil government vs. virtuous free enterprise". In an age when we seem to attach virtue to viral-like growth of economies, consumption habits and publishing empires, it's wise to consider that corporate capitalism (focused as it is on short-term return) isn't a healthy environment in which to nurture the realities of interconnected ecosystems, the effects of atmospheric emissions on populations 1000 miles downwind, or the lasting damage to future generations caused by chromosonal mutations brought on by pesticide use...etc etc. (Get the idea?!) But I also hate this thing for leaving me even murkier in the decision as to whether to spend the remainder of my life studying astrophysics, neurophysiology or Zen buddhism...

I only finished half of this book and then lost it!! I have tried to no avail to replace it so that I might continue reading it. Hall brings alive a topic (mapping) that one might not at first glance find interesting. He has a tremendous breadth of knowledge regarding astronomy, geology, biology, and imparts it with clear, concise examples. His ability to slice through so many diverse fields and tie everything together with the concept of mapping is truly astounding. I only hope I can locate another copy so that I might finish the book.