This book is concerned more with the future and less with the past of science and engineering. Of course future predictions are uncertain and usually based on the past; but the past is also much more uncertain—or even falsely reported—than is usually recognized. Thus we are forced to imagine what the future will probably be. This course has been called "Hamming on Hamming" since it draws heavily on my own past experiences, observations, and wide reading.

There is a great deal of mathematics in the early part because almost surely the future of science and engineering will be more mathematical than the past, and also I need to establish the nature of the foundations of our beliefs and their uncertainties. Only then can I show the weaknesses of our current beliefs and indicate future directions to be considered.

If you find the mathematics difficult, skip those early parts. Later sections will be understandable provided you are willing to forgo the deep insights mathematics gives into the weaknesses of our current beliefs. General results are always stated in words, so the content will still be there but in a slightly diluted form.