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, Λ, etc
• The case for Ω < 1
• Open Universe, or Vacuum Energy?
• The History of Λ
• 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"