For proceedings of NATO Advanced Study Institue on Cosmology held at the Isaac Newton Institute for Mathematical Sciences, 26 July - 6 August 1999, ed R. Crittenden; (astro-ph/9912373)

Abstract. This brief introduction to the NATO ASI offers comments on current controversies, on the limits and prospects of cosmology in the coming decade, and on how the "sociology" of our subject may change in the decades beyond that.

Table of Contents

PREAMBLE

THE COSMOLOGICAL NUMBERS

HOW CONFIDENT CAN WE BE OF OUR MODELS?

COMPLEXITIES OF STRUCTURE, AND DARK MATTER

Prehistory of Ideas on Structure Formation

The Role of Simulations

Observing High Redshifts

Dark Matter: What, and How Much?

STEPS BEYOND THE SIMPLEST UNIVERSE: OPEN MODELS, , etc

The case for < 1

Open Universe, or Vacuum Energy?

The History of

INFLATION AND THE VERY EARLY UNIVERSE

THE AGENDA 10 YEARS FROM NOW: A BIFURCATED COMMUNITY?

The Next Five Years

Ten Years Ahead?

Environmental Cosmology: Long Range Prospects

Probing the Planck Era and "Beyond"