Wonderpages

About the Book

In Wonderpages we embark on a journey of exploration into the wonderous world we live in. The journey will be divided into four stages of discovery.

We will seek answers to the following questions:

I wonder: "Where are we?"
I wonder: "Where did we come from?"
I wonder: "What are we?"
I wonder: "Where are we going?"

During our first quest we will search out the best information, theories and understanding that science has to offer today in order to discover where we are in the universe. It will take us back in time almost to the beginning of the universe. And then, out into space as far as the Hubble space telescope has been able to see.

On the second voyage we will journey back in time to find where we came from and how we developed into the human organism.We will see that the way has been laced with creative growth, ferocious competition, and great uncertainty.

Our third exploration, to find what we are, will take us inside own own body - all the way into the amazing, microscopic world of the cell. We will see how cooperation ultimately created Homo sapiens - thinking man. An amazing creature who is able to ask questions - questions that involve unlimited space, infinite complexity, eons of time and a multitude of possibilities.

In conclusion, during our last stage we will look into the future. Using all of the background information we have collected and digested we will attempt to create some meaningful pattern and to predict where the process might be going. Then we will try to foresee the direction and consequences of our present course. Finally, using our creative powers, we will envision possible alternatives and decide the way we should be going to insure the survival and improvement of our generation and the future generations to come.

About the Author

John D. Raulerson, Jr. was born in 1921 in Bartow, Florida. He resides there today with his wife of 50 years, Anne Widerquist Raulerson.

His extensive education began with a degree in Chemical Engineering from Georgia Tech during WWII. It has continued for many years with graduate studies in Experimental Psychology, Religion, and Education. At age 50, he received a master's degree in Systems Engineering from the University of South Florida.

Over the 55 years of his professional career the author was active in a wide variety of work. During World War II he was in charge of maintenance for a squadron of P-51 aircraft. Following that he was a founding partner of an engineering firm that developed the first mass-produced, pretensioned, prestressed concrete structural system for building construction. This system us widely used today.

Later, he moved into the fabrication of heavy structural steel and was active in supplying many of the launch structures used by the Air Force and NASA at the Kennedy Space Center.

He also did extensive work in developing procedures and processes to increase the efficiency and recovery in phosphate mining and beneficiation operations. Most of the later years of his career were as project manager for the design and construction of chemical and metallurgical plants.

After a lifetime as a practicing engineer it was natural for the author to be influenced by engineering methods in writing Wonderpages. Traditionally the engineer takes the findings of science and applies them in the world for the benefit of mankind.

The results of the application of this methodology are incorporated in Wonderpages - a study based on use of the latest scientific research to find modern answers to the ancient questions: Where are we? Where did we come from? What are we? And finally, where are we going?

The author is the co-author with Martin Wong, Ph.D of a book "The Systematic Design of Instruction". In writing this book the authors employed the same methodology that was used for Wonderpages. The authors researched the literature on how human learning occurs and then applied the findings to design the conditions for efficient learning of different types.