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A review by catspajamas09
The Disordered Cosmos: A Journey Into Dark Matter, Spacetime, and Dreams Deferred by Chanda Prescod-Weinstein
3.0
In The Disordered Cosmos, Prescod-Weinstein traverses an expansive range of topics and ideas. For example:
- Western science is not inherently good. On the contrary, its objectives have been shaped by white cisheteropatriarchical and colonialist forces
- Scientists (as much as everyone) should reject passivity to injustice. Doing so requires thinking beyond science and actively engaging in politics
- Science, black feminism, and queerness can be analogized on the basis of "the observer effect," by which one's frame of reference has a measurable influence on reality
These are great ideas with varying degrees of originality. Unfortunately, I was frustrated by the feeling that depth was traded for breadth. Many of the issues raised, as well as their ontological framing, are supported primarily by autobiographical evidence, which makes the book feel halfway in-between theory and memoir. To that end, I think the theory would be unconvincing to folks who are not already radicalized in science and the autobiographical elements are somewhat underdeveloped. Still an important contribution that aims to advance many crucial ideas and shed light on stories that are sorely lacking.
- Western science is not inherently good. On the contrary, its objectives have been shaped by white cisheteropatriarchical and colonialist forces
- Scientists (as much as everyone) should reject passivity to injustice. Doing so requires thinking beyond science and actively engaging in politics
- Science, black feminism, and queerness can be analogized on the basis of "the observer effect," by which one's frame of reference has a measurable influence on reality
These are great ideas with varying degrees of originality. Unfortunately, I was frustrated by the feeling that depth was traded for breadth. Many of the issues raised, as well as their ontological framing, are supported primarily by autobiographical evidence, which makes the book feel halfway in-between theory and memoir. To that end, I think the theory would be unconvincing to folks who are not already radicalized in science and the autobiographical elements are somewhat underdeveloped. Still an important contribution that aims to advance many crucial ideas and shed light on stories that are sorely lacking.