Complexity: The Emerging Science at the Edge of Order and Chaos

by M. Mitchell Waldrop

Book Overview

Why did the stock market crash more than 500 points on a single Monday in 1987? Why do ancient species often remain stable in the fossil record for millions of years and then suddenly disappear? In a world where nice guys often finish last, why do humans value trust and cooperation? At first glance these questions don't appear to have anything in common, but in fact every one of these statements refers to a complex system. The science of complexity...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0671872346
• ISBN13: 9780671872342
• Release Date: January 1992
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Length: 384 Pages
• Weight: 0.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.6" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

Wonderful reading for every science enthusiast!

The cover of the book says " If you liked Chaos, you will love complexity". I just finished reading the book, 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.

Wonderful .. WOW .. Deserves second reading.

I recently finished this book and wow is all I can say. Waldrop is a terrific writer and he has done marvelous job in explaining the difficult concepts. His breadth and depth of knowledge about different subjects is amazing. This book is light and reads more like a fiction, but at the same time theories of complexity just unfold naturally among the stories of the people who are creating this science.Complexity as a science is relatively new, and I wonder why. The questions these scientists are trying hard to find answer of are not new. These are simple: How did life start ? Why is ecosystem so complex ? Why are so many other unexplained things in the world ? How does mind work ? How does economy work ? What's the difference between machine and life ?Scientists have yet to to find the real answer. This book just chronicles their quest. I learned a lot reading this book and now look at things differently. One astounding concept that appears in the book is that "Life is nothing but computation. The raw molecules are the hardware and the life is the software." Looks elegant. As for other reviewers' inappropriate comments that this book is regarding "scientists drinking coffee", thats wrong opinion and far from truth. This is not a scientific monograph where all you see is dumb (read: abstruse) mathematical equations which can be understood only by the selcted ones in that particular sub-sub-sub branch of sub-sub-subject and which make no sense even to highly literate, science educated people. This is a novel about the science and the people who work in the science, and sheer depth of ideas discussed and debated just amazes me. Nowhere else could I have captured a glimpse of thought process of brilliant scientists like John Holland, Stuart Kauffman, Brian Arthur, Gell-Mann and George Cowan. As to why "Complexity Science" is needed, I have just this: Traditional conventional Physics, economics and biology CAN NOT explain a lot of things that we see around us. That is why we need this new science. Its agreed that this is new, immature, incomplete but at least this is a new way of looking at things. Things that can not be explained by our esteemed conventional sciences, things like Nasdaq 5000 and its crash, origins of life, how mind works, why Microsoft is making so much money on a such piece of ... To answer questions like these, we need this new science. We have to start afresh, and this is the fresh start, of looking at things from a different perspective, not as parts, but as a whole.I just hope that Wladrop or someone else would write something similar now to tell the people about the progress in this area in last 10-12 years. Buy it. Read it. You won't regret it.

So much about our pluralistic world-the fine line-clarified!

I am neither a physicist nor an economist. College mathematics was difficult for me. I understand now that my intellectual strengths are not analysis but synthesis; I can see the whole picture;I am a generalist. I taught reading, English and composition, hands-on problem solving math, social studies, and natural science to fifth and sixth graders. I believed in Dewey's learning-by-doing methods. I am creative in music and writing and encouraged creative thinking. IF YOU ARE THIS KIND OF PERSON and yet curious to know more about the cutting edge of physical science as it relates to the humanities, society and the economy, then the book, Complexity, by Mitchell Waldrop is enlightening reading. The biographical sketches help relate the participants in the Sante Fe Institute to the reader who is a layman regarding advanced science and math. As an elementary educator I especially appreciated the sections on the brain and the evolution of learning. My belief that cooperation and competition play more or less and equal role in human activity was reinforced as I read about the development of complex, dynamic systems. Finally, The concept of complexity suggests a surprising connection between physics and spirituality. To me, it provided a scientific rationale for my personal ethics which call for balance and adherence to the golden rule.

THE best popular introduction to complexity

I work for a company that is commercializing some applications of complexity science, so I've read a heap of "popular" books on the subject. This is far and away the best: Waldrop gives some entertaining historical background on the Santa Fe Institute, but the "meat" of the book is complexity science and its implications, and his descriptions are clear, easy to understand, and accurate. He not only tells you what complexity science is but WHY you should care about it -- and by doing that, he goes far beyond most other popularizers. The book is a little dated now, but not seriously, and I still recommend it to people as the best general introduction to the subject. (For those wishing to delve a little deeper, Stuart Kauffman's "At Home in the Universe" goes more into the technical side of complexity science while still remaining very readable.)

this book should get 6 stars

In one word, this book was awesome. Waldrop's account of the development of the science of complexity is both compelling and spell-binding. His historical account of the Sante Fe Institute and its members was an inspiring story. Written like a novel, this book was very simple to read and understand and very easy to follow. Even the casual reader could follow its simplifying explanations of the complicated theories invovled in the science of complexity. This book is also a great follow-on to James Gleick's "Chaos - Making a New Science". I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in complex adaptive systems theory, especially its applications in the realm of economics. Waldrop's work here is outstanding!!!