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Title: COMPLEXITY: THE EMERGING SCIENCE AT THE EDGE OF ORDER AND CHAOS by Mitchell M. Waldrop ISBN: 0-671-87234-6 Publisher: Touchstone Books Pub. Date: 15 January, 1992 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.3 (53 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Not a book on complexity, but .............
Comment: a book about the mathematicians that developed complexity theory. My statement is more a warning than a complaint. Setting their results in a human and cultural context - as Waldrop does - makes an interesting read and a useful introduction to the field. And the field is promising; it looks at mathematical systems from the inside out, rather than the traditional outside in. Just don't buy the book expecting a guide to recreating even the simplest of systems mentioned.
Those who want to play with the mathematics itself will find other books more helpful. See, for example, Flake's book, "The Computational Beauty of Nature", which contains a description of Waldrop's frequently mentioned "boids" in enough detail that a reader can create similar systems. Flake also describes the details of many of the other systems alluded to in Waldrop's book, mercifully at the "how to do it"level, rather than the rigorous "theorem and proof" level. The two books fit well together.
Waldrop's writing style is clean, clear, literate, and unobtrusive. Read the book for what he says, rather than for how he says it. If you enjoy reading a technical book both for the what the author says - and for how he says it - try almost anything by John McPhee, particularly his loose series on the geology of North America.
Rating: 5
Summary: The Unfolding of a New Science.... A Must Read!!
Comment: I had Read "Chaos" and was looking for something more... I found it in "Complexity"! Waldrop, a particle Physicist by day, has done a superb job with a potentially dry subject. The work is intellectually stimulating as he weaves the lives of cutting edge biologists, physicists, economists and computer scientists into the story of the founding of the Sante Fe Institute; a complexity think tank located in New Mexico. Waldrop's style is "emergent" in itself as the building blocks to this new science are revealed... no "unfolded" across the page. One comes away with the sense that this is truly the dawning of a new age of science. Many of my own hunches and intuitions were validated as I read. "Yes, Yes" was my reply as I encountered the paradox of competition vs cooperation... of growth vs stasis. This book inspired me to write..."Chaos and order dance together and from the perspective of love and meaning fulfills l! ife" and also... "Truth is the strange attractor of mankind and can only be understood at a level higher than our current reality". The only negative is the lack of coverage in the spiritual area. Many questions come to mind when the complexity theories on the origin of life are detailed. I got the feeling that they avoided this like the plauge.... However, even with this shortcoming this is still a must read! If you are searching for the truth.. start here! You will never be the same!
Rating: 5
Summary: Wonderful reading for every science enthusiast!
Comment: The cover of the book says " If you liked Chaos, you will love complexity". I just finished reading the booking, that validated the claim. While Chaos is written as story of discovery of a new science, Complexity excels as a saga of men who ventured into previously unchartered domains addressing for the first time issues like:
What is life? What is driving force that caused cells to appear from a primordal soup of all elements, when the probability of so happening is infinitesimal? What causes evolution? Do nice guys finish last? What makes evolution, coevolution, adaptation, extinction work? Why do we organize ourselves into families, cultures, nations?
Why do stock markets crash, boom? What controls the emergence of economies? Why can USSR go from one of strongest nations/economies to the state of divided helplessness in less than a few years?
Why are we here? What is life? Artificial Life? Are we still evolving? What is the cause of increasing complexity?
On mundane level: What is non-linearity? What is Chaos? If this science is all that important, why did we wait this long for recognizing it?
What are the paradigms in which sociology and physics settle into same patterns? How neural networks were born, brought up and mastered?
This novel/book is as much about these questions as it is about the scientists who engaged in unravelling many of these mysteries. It speaks about their failures and successes, their approach, ethic and driving force, their fears, fights and friendships. For most part it reads like a thriller, and by the time you are done, you find yourself searching for another book on Chaos, complexity, life at the edge of chaos, genetic algorithms, artificial intelligence. After just 358 pages, your imagination and knowledge of science leaps from Newton's linear models to the twentyfirst century stuff.
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Title: Chaos: Making a New Science by James Gleick ISBN: 0140092501 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: December, 1988 List Price(USD): $18.95 |
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Title: Hidden Order: How Adaptation Builds Complexity by John H. Holland, Heather Mimnaugh ISBN: 0201442302 Publisher: Perseus Publishing Pub. Date: September, 1996 List Price(USD): $16.00 |
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Title: At Home in the Universe: The Search for Laws of Self-Organization and Complexity by Stuart Kauffman ISBN: 0195111303 Publisher: Oxford Press Pub. Date: October, 1996 List Price(USD): $18.95 |
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Title: Emergence: From Chaos to Order (Helix Books) by John H. Holland ISBN: 0738201421 Publisher: Perseus Book Group Pub. Date: April, 1999 List Price(USD): $18.00 |
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Title: Complexity: Life at the Edge of Chaos by Roger Lewin ISBN: 0226476553 Publisher: University of Chicago Press Pub. Date: July, 2000 List Price(USD): $16.00 |
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