Complexity: The Emerging Science at the Edge of Order and Chaos by M. Mitchell Waldrop (PDF)

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“If you liked Chaos, you’ll love Complexity. Waldrop creates the most exciting intellectual adventure story of the year” (The Washington Post). 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 twenty-first century. “Lucidly shows physicists, biologists, computer scientists and economists swapping metaphors and reveling in the sense that epochal discoveries are just around the corner . . . [Waldrop] has a special talent for relaying the exhilaration of moments of intellectual insight.” —The New York Times Book Review “Where I enjoyed the book was when it dove into the actual question of complexity, talking about complex systems in economics, biology, genetics, computer modeling, and so on. Snippets of rare beauty here and there almost took your breath away.” —Medium “[Waldrop] provides a good grounding of what may indeed be the first flowering of a new science.” —Publishers Weekly

User’s Reviews

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐The storyteller makes no choice soon you will not hear his voice his job is to shed light and not to master,Hunter/Garcia Terrapin StationI first became interested in things which just did not fit into my real world experience when I discovered, whilst quite young, that the weather forecast was not always correct in it’s predictions. In Britain, talking about the weather as per Kate Fox, is an entry into conversation between strangers.My passion was science and in particular, Astronomy, and I found the history of the subject fascinating.Jump ahead a few years and I read for my first degree, in Economics. I found that the subject, based on the concept of rationality, did not match the facts and I found it hard to agree with Milton Friedman about the realism of models when the main purpose was predictability. I was skeptical too, of the economists claims to have some insight into policy either in terms of the National Plan, or the imposition of taxes such as sin taxes. My skepticism was not supported by the intellectual tools in my arsenal until a paper by Hayek entitled “The Use of Knowledge in Society” alerted me to a new way of thinking about economics which caused me to rethink my notion of economics as science into one of process. Going back to first principles of Adam Smith and before, I became more uncomfortable about contemporary economics and in particular the notion of equilibrium. Reading Adam Ferguson led me to rethink again about so-called economic actors and the notion of spontaneous orders.A television show in Britain on Chaos and Anti-Chaos, prompted me to investigate further. Partly due to Geoff Hodgson’s works on institutionalism and reading Darwin as well as behaviouralist authors I came across ideas of Gaia and thence to Chaos by Gleick. Almost to the present when I settled down to read this wonderful book, little did I realize this at the time.The title is a bit of a misnomer as it really is about the establishment of an interdisciplinary research centre called the Santa Fe Institute, appropriately based in that city in New Mexico. The author combines fascinating stories of how the people came together to create such a unique body each being motivated by ideas, not necessarily recognized as aspects on complexity as such, which did not fit the mould that they were trying to be forced into.The book is a toure de force on how these individuals pursued their ideas, thinking the unthinkable, talking to others who were like minded, being able to get in touch with specialists in disciplines who recognized that these people would perhaps be the ones to break the mould.The stories of enthusiasm, determination, persistence of the individuals and finding the ability to speak across the divide of disciplines and recognize that their subject areas could be examined using methodologies which were similar and which undermined a lot of traditional ways of thinking about problems, are highly infectious. Almost an intellectual equivalent of bodice-rippers in romance novels. Similarly the book is fast paced in demonstrating how these avenues of study have opened up a veritable panorama of research programmes which are leading to fruitful outcomes.I have been unhappy for years with the whole notion of economic forecasts and financial analysts forecasts, which when wrong (often) do not lead to unemployment. Similarly, I question the notion of rational human beings, meaning men, when consumers are women by a significant margin who use different criteria in any marketplace. The failure of prediction over the centuries has caused a lot of human misery and will probably cause more. I must concur with one notion in this book that economics should be more of a discipline seeking understanding of real economies.Complexity shows how things change, how they evolve by what economic professionals call exogenous shocks which cannot be predicted by their modeling. Humans are affected by feelings, the weather and a host of other things which cannot be modeled or quantifies. This introduction to fascinating new ways in which to view the world has a lot of explanatory power in so many areas. It really is an outstanding work which I am going to reread almost immediately.It is a long time since reading one book has generated so much enthusiasm for further study and rereading older works through new lenses. My only regret is that I never found it earlier.To see a world in a grain of sand and heaven in a wild flower Hold infinity in the palms of your hand and eternity in an hour.William Blake.

⭐This is a brilliant and riveting account of the birth of the science of Complexity at the Santa Fe Institute told in the form of detailed and human biographical profiles of some the leading scientific voices in the movement. Some reviewers here have complained that this isn’t a book of science, per se, but more of history. While you will not find the math, code, detailed analysis of various models, or even illustrations of some of the compelling graphics; you will find well wrought descriptions of the basic theories and the evolution of thinking that delivered them. Getting the social and broader scientific context for the founders is a great introduction. Then you can read their books to get the nitty gritty, and you’ll appreciate it better for having gained the long range perspective from Waldrop.Complexity and emergence are some of the most compelling ideas to come out of the science of chaos – and are real paradigm changing ideas that promise to transform science in the 21st century and beyond. Complexity is the study of how agglomerations of agents behaving individually come to manifest dramatically complex group behaviors (called “emergent phenomena”) with a richness you could never derive from the study of the simple components. Commonly studied emergent behaviors include the stock market, economies, flocks of birds and fish, the rise of life from pre-biotic molecular soup, the properties of complex molecules compared to the properties of their component atoms, etc… Methods of study are frequently computer simulations that model emergent complexity using simple rules in a recursive way reminiscent of chaos theory research. Indeed, Langton shows that emergent complexity is along the same continuum as chaos, but pitched at the edge between chaos and static order – literally the “edge of chaos”. Some of the same scientists feature in both theories too – particularly Doyne Farmer of UCAL Santa Cruz.The fact that informational order appears spontaneously seems to violate the 2nd law of thermodynamics – but does not because only information is being created, not energy. Kauffman calls it “order for free”. This emergent order is deeply significant in a number of ways. First of all it provides a way of studying the structures of reality that are too messy and dynamic to fit classical reductionist science. But, more importantly, the reality of emergent complexity says something deeper about a creative generative force in the universe which resonates deeply with human spiritual feelings. Seeing order emerge spontaneously feels like witnessing “creation”. In the latter chapters we see that evolution moves complex systems closer towards the edge of chaos (lambda around 1/4). Not only does this give a mathematical model for “evolutionary fitness” (which previously had been only definable as a tautology: evolutionary fitness = higher rates of survival (i.e. fitness)) but this also suggests a deeper concordance between a particular degree of chaos and some powerful natural property of phase transition that somehow engenders all the amazing dynamical systems we marvel at – particularly life itself on all its levels, from the swirling metabolic action of cells to the cellular group behavior of complex organisms such as ourselves, and our higher level social behavior. It’s not an accident of evolution – it’s an important, universal and inevitable law of nature, like gravity or electromagnetism.Waldrop gets this and he takes you into Langton’s computer lab the night he has his epiphany while playing the game of “Life” and other critical moments of inspiration. While this book doesn’t spur you to take out your calculator and do the math like Gleik’s “Chaos” it makes you feel the magic and gives you a heck of reading list to pursue further.

⭐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.

⭐What a wonderful book! Thoroughly enjoyed it. Thought provoking, exciting, interesting, and provides a historic framework on some of the issues that all of us encounter / discuss today!

⭐This book seems very dated considering the topic. It is also not what I expected. It’s not about the study of complex systems, but about the creation of the institute that would study it. While interesting, not what I was hoping for.

⭐Zoran Perkov, the Croatian Head of NASDAQ’s Global Operations in 2011, defines complex systems as “places where shit will break and there is nothing you can do about it”. His job was to make sure shit did not break. His inspiration and favourite read is Complexity by Mitchell Waldrop. Published in 1993, unavailable on Kindle and out of print, I found it on Amazon’s second hand bookstore. The content is riveting and it reads like a thriller. Published 20 years ago, why had I not come across the concepts it advances before?Complex systems include the creation of life from the primordial soup of amino acids; they include families and tribes flourishing on cooperative behaviour; they include ecosystems like that which fostered dinosaurs that remain stable for millions of years and then suddenly die out, or hurricanes or flocking birds; they include intricate structures like the eye or kidney: they include the Soviet Union’s forty year hegemony which collapsed in a few months in 1989; they include the sudden stock market crash in 1987 after decades of growth.Essentially the premise of the book is that conventional theory, whether it is Darwin’s theory of evolution or the linear laws of physics or economic theory based on rational decision makers operating with perfect knowledge do not adequately represent complex systems. Neoclassical theories either assume no dynamics with everything in equilibrium or assume negative feedback – the economic law of diminishing returns. Complex systems deal with constantly coalescing, decaying and changing structures. Positive feedback (increasing returns) results in self organising systems. But it is not chaos theory. Complex systems that survive keep a balance on the edge of chaos – always in danger of falling off into too much order on one side or too much chaos on the other.The book reads like a thriller because it recounts the personal and group endeavours of the world class physicists, biologists, geneticists, economists and computer scientists who formed the network of researchers at the Santa Fe Institute where complex systems are studied.

⭐Complexity by M. Mitchell Waldrop, Simon and Schuster, USA, 1992; Penguin, UK, 1994, 384 ff.The way the world worksBy Howard A. JonesMitchell Waldrop qualified initially with a PhD in particle physics but since then has pursued a career in science journalism. This book is essentially anecdotal and biographical. It described the formation in 1984 and history over the following decade of the Santa Fe Institute, an organization devoted to a study of complex systems in whatever field they may occur. Many of its principals, whose biographies are briefly described here in the context of the Institute, worked previously at the nuclear facility of Los Alamos.The author makes it clear in the opening chapter that “complexity” is a subject that is relevant to most aspects of life, from economics to ecology, and from politics to particle physics. It’s about `the incessant urge of complex systems to organize themselves into patterns’. Biologists have turned to the spontaneous emergence of complexity as their way of countering scientifically the arguments of creationism and “intelligent design” in the natural world. The innate quest for complexity that is built into atoms and molecules is used to explain the emergence of polymers like proteins and nucleic acids from the simple building blocks of amino acids, bases and sugars which, in turn, arise from even simpler molecules and their constituent atoms, obviating the need for divine intervention.Complexity theory explains how chaotic systems often reach a “tipping point” such that a further small change in the system can produce huge consequences. The well-known `butterfly effect’ – the metaphor of a butterfly flapping its wings in southern England producing a snowstorm in the Andes – is an example of these globally interactive but chaotic complex systems. We are continually being told that the global warming of our planet may be another such example and that a few more parts per million of CO2 or a couple of degrees rise in temperature will produce catastrophic climate change.Economics is one subject that recurs frequently in this book. The author actually begins in Chapter 1 with the tale of Brian Arthur whose economic theory of increasing returns first met with great resistance from conventional economists wedded to the idea of diminishing returns. The idea of increasing returns quickly leads to a proliferation of pathways that requires complex network theory to model it. Much of Chapter 3 is devoted to the contributions of biologist Stuart Kauffman to how the order within living systems is a consequence of self-organization of their constituents. Chapter 5 focuses on John Holland and his complex adaptive systems and how they can be modelled by computer programs. Chapter 6 is about Chris Langton’s struggle to construct computer programs to model what he called `artificial life’. In all complexity studies, computer modelling is the one necessarily constant factor, whatever field it is to be applied to. Chapter 9, the final chapter, is an overview of challenges waiting to be met by the Institute in the 1990s. For a highly readable introduction to the study of complex systems with the minimum of technical jargon I know of no book better than this one.Dr Howard A. Jones is the author of The Thoughtful Guide to God (2006) and The Tao of Holism (2008), both published by O Books of Winchester, UK.

⭐How the Leopard Changed Its Spots: The Evolution of Complexity (Princeton Science Library)

⭐Great

⭐All perfect as usual

⭐So far on the basis of whatever I have read, I can say for sure that the book in general when you end it ,will provide you with a highly passionate appreciation forthe beautifully extreme complexity of the universe.The style of writing is in a way that at times the writer is directly discussing with me and at times I feel that the lives of intellectuals mentioned in the book are being exposed by the writer as if a literary drone was showing their lives.It is a documentary book that tells us real information along the journey – some about the real intellectuals involved, some about the institutions, environments and business these intellectuals worked with,some about their revolutionary works and frustations and some about their characters and some parts even included the snippets of the various real conversations or debates that they might have had with each other.I started with this book expecting only to be enlightened about the truths of the universe but got an additional bonus of insights into the exceptional and elite world of academia.

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