Complexity: The Emerging Science at the Edge of Order and Chaos Penguin Science: Amazon.co.uk: M.Mitchell Waldrop: Books

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In a rarified world of scientific research, a revolution has been brewing. Its activists are not anarchists, but rather Nobel Laureates in physics and economics and pony-tailed graduates, mathematicians and computer scientists from all over the world. They have formed an iconoclastic think-tank and their radical idea is to create a new science: complexity. They want to know how a primordial soup of simple molecules managed to turn itself into the first living cell - and what the origin of life some four billion years ago can tell us about the process of technological innovation today. This book is their story - the story of how they have tried to forge what they like to call "the science of the 21st century".

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4.0 out of 5 stars The Making of the Santa Fe Institute, 20 Dec 2000

By	Primoz Peterlin - See all my reviews

I bought this book back in 1994, when it was released as a paperback in the UK. I liked it tremendously, and although I let a dozen friends or so borrow it from me to read, I was keeping its track very meticulously in order to get it back every time. Complexity is one of those books that easily gets lost if you are not careful, you know.

In short, the book is a chronicle of at the time seemingly unrelated ideas that finally led to forming of the Santa Fe Institute in 1984, and the people who created them: the economist Brian Arthur and his lock-in theory of "increasing returns" (better known to engineers as "positive feedback"); Stuart Kaufmann and his "autocatalytic" models for evolving biological systems; John Holland and his genetic algorithms and genetic programming; Christopher Langton and his "artificial life"; Doyne Farmer with all his experience with chaos theory; and of course the "founding fathers" of the Santa Fe Institute: George Cowan, Kenneth Arrow, and two Nobel-prize winners, Murray Gell-Mann and Philip Anderson.

With a PhD in Physics, MA in Journalism and over ten years of service as a senior science writer for one of the world's most prestigious science journals - Science - M. Mitchell Waldrop seems like a role-model science writer. Complexity is his second book, being predecessed by Man Made Minds, a survey of artificial intelligence. This book, however, bears much greater resemblance in style with James Gleick's bestseller Chaos than with his own previous work.

Some "historical distance" allows us also a somewhat more critical view on the complexity theory itself. Contrary to the popular expectations of the time, complexity was since forced to follow the same path that chaos, fractals or catastrophe theory - to name a few - traveled before it, and admit that is not The Great Universal Theory of Everything. On the other hand, while the hype is gone, we have to admit that complexity - or "nonlinear science", if you want - is still very actively worked on.

So is this book for you? Yes, if you want vivid explanation of one of the most important ideas that shaped the end of the 20th century, and colorful portraits of the people behind it. If nothing else, it will wet your mouth. If Complexity will succeed in winning your interest, you may want to proceed with other popular reading on this topic - almost everyone of the people mentioned before has himself published at least one book. For learning more hard science, however, you should reach for other science monographs and papers.

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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An unexpected gem, 7 Jun 2007

By	Dr. Emily S. Ryall "emryall" (Bristol) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Complexity: The Emerging Science at the Edge of Order and Chaos (Paperback)

Don't ask me why I picked up this book - it just happened to be in the library next to some Philosophy of Science books that I was looking at. I had no idea what complexitity theory was but after reading it I am enthralled by its appeal to shed some light on the workings of our world. If it were a tv show it would be a documentary as it is pretty much an account of the inception and development of the Santa Fe institute in the US. And it is this documentary style of writing that makes something that could be incredibly dry absolutely riviting. It is an insight into the lives and minds of those scientists, economists and computer programmers who were at the forefront of a scientific revolution in the 1970s to the early 1990s. This revolution occured exactly because a couple of like-minded and driven guys saw that academics working in completely separate fields were studying different phenonena but understanding their underlying mechanisms in the same way and using similar metaphors to explain their findings. This is one of the few times where separate disciplines were contained in the same department and therefore they had (have) a much better chance in coming up with the elusive unifying theory that overcomes the limitations of simple reductionism and yet is more stable than pure chaos - hence the sub title 'edge of chaos'.
It is one of those books that is readable yet highly enlightening and historically interesting. I just regret the fact I've now finished it...

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A good easy read, 17 Feb 2004

By	Maryam Shaeri "Mary" (London) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Complexity: The Emerging Science at the Edge of Order and Chaos (Paperback)

A comfortable bed time reading that gentally introduces the new phase of science to you through its 'real events' stories. Reading this book opens up a window to possible paths that science could take in the near future. It gives you a break from all the analyitical books. It gives you the opportunity to get familiar with the terminologies in this new field of science. By reading this book you wouldn't have to put any effort into learning the concepts. They're described in such 'easy to understand', and 'interesting' ways. Enjoy it!

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars An engaging journey through the key ideas and moments
The principal tenets of complexity theory could be stated - to be trite - as follows: the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Read more

Published on 29 May 2007 by David Everitt

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent overview of Complexity Theories
I bought this book in August 2002. Although edited in 1992, the book is still an excellent introduction to the subject of Complexity Theory. Read more

Published on 11 Sep 2002 by The Flying Dutchman

5.0 out of 5 stars simply wonderful
Very anecdotal, which might put off some people, but which adds a nice personal touch to the book. It helps that Waldrop is a trained physicist - he makes sure that he explains... Read more

Published on 25 Aug 2000 by N. Afaf

4.0 out of 5 stars How the Santa Fe Institute began
This is a history of the Santa Fe institute, covering all the leading players and concentrating not only on the theories, but also the different personalities that must have made... Read more

Published on 10 Nov 1998

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	68% buy the item featured on this page: Complexity: The Emerging Science at the Edge of Order and Chaos (Penguin Science) 4.6 out of 5 stars (7)
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Complexity: The Emerging Science at the Edge of Order and Chaos (Penguin Science) (Paperback)

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