Астрология и рождение науки. Схема небес

Li͡udi - sushchestva, ot prirody sklonnye vo vsem iskatʹ patterny, povtori͡ai͡ushchiesi͡a zakonomernosti. A astrologii͡a - ėto velichaĭshai͡a vo Vselennoĭ igra v poisk i sopostavlenie zakonomernosteĭ. V ėtoĭ svezheĭ i i͡arkoĭ rabote spet͡sialist po analizu dannykh Aleksandr Bokser issleduet istorii͡u astrologii, a takzhe ee estestvenno-nauchnye i matematicheskie osnovy. Astrologii͡a, utverzhdaet on, byla samoĭ ambit͡sioznoĭ zadacheĭ prikladnoĭ matematiki drevnego mira, grandioznym predprii͡atiem po analizu dannykh, v kotoroe vnesli svoĭ vklad mnogie blesti͡ashchie umy, ot Ptolemei͡a do alʹ-Kindi i Keplera. Segodni͡a goroskopy schitai͡utsi͡a lzhenaukoĭ, no kogda-to oni byli samym peredovym nauchnym instrumentom nasheĭ t͡sivilizat͡sii. A. Bokser proveri͡aet ikh dostovernostʹ, ispolʹzui͡a sovremennye statisticheskie metody, i nagli͡adno demonstriruet, chto rabota sovremennykh data-analitikov po svoeĭ suti udivitelʹno pokhozha na rabotu astrologov bylykh vremen. Kritichnai͡a, nauchno skrupuleznai͡a i uvlekatelʹno napisannai͡a, ėta kniga pomeshchaet astrologii͡u v novyĭ kontekst, rassmatrivai͡a ee kak gigantskiĭ tekhnologicheskiĭ proekt, okhvat yvai͡ushchiĭ kontinenty i stoletii͡a i vo mnogom predvoskhitivshiĭ nash segodni͡ashniĭ mir, upravli͡aemyĭ bolʹshimi dannym.

Humans are creatures naturally inclined to look for patterns, repetitive patterns in everything. And astrology is the greatest game in the universe in search and comparison of patterns. In this fresh and vivid work, data analyst Alexander Boxer explores the history of astrology, as well as its natural science and mathematical foundations. Astrology, he argues, was the most ambitious task of applied mathematics in the ancient world, a grandiose data analysis enterprise to which many brilliant minds, from Ptolemy to al-Kindi and Kepler, contributed. Today horoscopes are considered pseudoscience, but once they were the most advanced scientific tool of our civilization. A. Boxer verifies their reliability using modern statistical methods, and clearly demonstrates that the work of modern data analysts is inherently surprisingly similar to the work of astrologers of bygone times. Critical, scientifically scrupulous and fascinatingly written, this book puts astrology in a new context, considering it as a giant technological project that spanned continents and centuries and in many ways anticipated our current world, driven by big data.