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Emergence: From Chaos to Order (Helix Books)
 
 
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Emergence: From Chaos to Order (Helix Books) [Paperback]

John H. Holland (Author)
2.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
Price: £12.99 & this item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions
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Emergence: From Chaos to Order (Helix Books) + Emergence: The Connected Lives of Ants, Brains, Cities and Software + Sync: The Emerging Science of Spontaneous Order (Penguin Press Science)
Price For All Three: £26.77

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Product details

  • Paperback: 272 pages
  • Publisher: Basic Books (2 April 1999)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0738201421
  • ISBN-13: 978-0738201429
  • Product Dimensions: 20.9 x 13.6 x 1.7 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 2.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 2,343,504 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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John H. Holland
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Product Description

Product Description

In this important book, John H. Holland dramatically shows us that the emergence of order from disorder has much to teach us about life, mind and organizations. Creative activities in both the arts and the sciences depend upon an ability to model the world. The most creative of those models exhibits emergent properties, so that what comes out is more than what goes in. From the ingenious checkers-playing computer that started beating its creator in game after game, to the emotive creations of the poet, Emergence shows that Hollands theory successfully predicts many complex behaviors in art and science.

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). --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
Inside This Book (Learn More)
First Sentence
A WONDROUS vine emerges when Jack plants the seed for his beanstalk, and it unfolds into a world of giants and magic harps. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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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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