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Emergence: From Chaos to Order
 
 
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Emergence: From Chaos to Order [Paperback]

John H. Holland (Author)
2.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
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Emergence: From Chaos to Order + Emergence: The Connected Lives of Ants, Brains, Cities and Software + Sync: The Emerging Science of Spontaneous Order (Penguin Press Science)
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Product details

  • Paperback: 274 pages
  • Publisher: OUP Oxford; New Ed edition (16 Mar 2000)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0192862111
  • ISBN-13: 978-0192862112
  • Product Dimensions: 19 x 13 x 1.6 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 2.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 421,193 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Product Description

Product Description

'He's the man who taught computers how to have sex. And now, for an encore, he's working on a theory to explain the complexity of life and its myriad manifestations on planet earth.' New York Times In this book, one of today's most innovative thinkers, John H. Holland, explains the theory of emergenceDSa simple theory that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Emergence demonstrates that a small number of rules or laws can generate incredibly complex systems. From the checkers-playing computer that learnt to beat its creator again and again, to a fertilized egg that can program the development of a trillion-cell organism, to the ant colonies that build bridges over chasms and navigate leaf-boats on streams, this fascinating and groundbreaking book contains wide-ranging implications for science, business, and the arts. 'John Holland is an exceptionally imaginative person. Often surprising, and always engaging, he takes the reader on a journey from simplicity to complexity' Sir Robert May

About the Author

John H. Holland is Professor of Psychology and Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He is a MacArthur Fellow, a Fellow of the World Economic Forum, and is known world-wide as the 'father of genetic algorithms'. He is the author of the ground-breaking book Hidden Order: How Adaptation Builds Complexity (Helix Books/Addison-Wesley).
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27 of 32 people found the following review helpful
Disappointing 22 Oct 2002
Format:Paperback
I picked up a copy of Emergence hoping to find an illuminating and thought provoking overview of the topic.

The initial chapters eulogize a co-worker research on checkers players in a mollycoddling and frustrating unrigourous fashion. It skims over minimax strategies, and at one point draws analogies between the scoring function used and integrating artificial neurons, a relationship which is so weak it is banal.(Any decision based on considering several factors would fit the bill)
Later the author claims that "Chess models the real world", saying that it has its origins in powers manouvering on early battlefields? Does the author believe that checkers is also a model of early warfare, or that GO! is an attempt to recreate the frustrations of a morning commute?
The overall result is a weak book. It handles only certain aspects of Emergence, and completely omits other important phenomena. I found the brief coverage offered by "Creation" far more insightful and worthwhile.

I am not an expert in the field, and if experts out there wish to correct me I would be interested in their opinions. I am currently of the strong opinion that this book is extremely weak, and will sell purely on the merit of the author's (well-deserved) reputation.
Don't buy it unless you are also a member of the Art Samuel fan club.

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17 of 29 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
This is a good book for people interested in Artificial Intelligence and Software agents (especially reactive agents). The book gives examples of emergent behaviours in the world. An interesting read.
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Amazon.com:  12 reviews
109 of 117 people found the following review helpful
Holland does not have the gift of popularization 19 May 1999
By A Customer - Published on Amazon.com
Format:Paperback
John Holland's "Emergence" just doesn't make it as a science popularization. The ideas Holland presents are fascinating, exciting, and indeed highly relevant for our globalized, interconnected world.

Unfortunately, none of this comes across. Like many scientists (I know... I *am* a scientist), Holland simply has no idea how a nonscientist would grasp the concept of emergence. He overexplains simple examples like the numbers and board games of the first two chapters, then underexplains the deeper ideas of later chapters. The final chapter is pretty good in terms of unifying the book's themes and providing a broader view of how emergence fits into science and human culture. However, the reader has not been adequately prepared for this broadening because the middle chapters were so poorly explained.

I fear that most readers will come away without sensing the truly revolutionary nature of this new branch of science. Holland lacks passion! The book is bland because Holland seems not to be able to present rigorous science in conjunction with thrill and emotion. He should take a lesson from the experts at popularization, such as Sagan and Gribbin, who succeed at presenting factually correct science in a way that engages and excites nonscientists.

31 of 31 people found the following review helpful
Good, but it's no Hidden Order 21 Nov 1998
By martyandbritta@dayton.net - Published on Amazon.com
Format:Hardcover
Having just read Holland's other book "Hidden Order", I was psyched to hear that he had written another book on the science of complex adaptive systems. This book, however, was quite disappointing. While the first few chapters were interesting, the second half of the book was a loss to me. There seemed to be too many divergent themes upon which he was trying to comment. I feel like he ran out of ideas and started just writing down anything that came to mind. The last chapter provided a good summary of the ideas he tried to express concerning emergence, but the book on the whole left more questions than it answered. If you really want to learn something about emergence and related science of complexity, check out his other book "Hidden Order". It's much better and a bit easier to understand in my opinion.
53 of 57 people found the following review helpful
Toss Up 10 Nov 2001
By A Customer - Published on Amazon.com
Format:Paperback
Parts of this book were interesting, but overall it was much ado about not much, and what was done was often overdone (I agree with another reviewer on this point). I see that Amazon has coupled this book with Hidden Order. I can't see why. It would be like buying the same book twice. Anyway, so much of this has been warmed over so many times now that it's frankly a bit dry. I'd like to see a book that really breaks new ground in complexity without overusing buzz words or talking down to me, holding my hand through simple things. Here, the topic is more attractive than the content I'm afraid. Anyone really interested in complexity and emergence will need to go into technical details well beyond this book. Others, like me, will likely find the details that are here to be a bit tedious.
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