The Nile on eBay Complexity by Melanie Mitchell
A fascinating look at the exciting new sciences of complexity and what they reveal about everything from ant colonies to the World Wide Web, now available in paperback
FORMATPaperback LANGUAGEEnglish CONDITIONBrand New Publisher Description
What enables individually simple insects like ants to act with such precision and purpose as a group? How do trillions of neurons produce something as extraordinarily complex as consciousness? In this remarkably clear and companionable book, leading complex systems scientist Melanie Mitchell provides an intimate tour of the sciences of complexity, a broad set of efforts that seek to explain how large-scale complex, organized, and adaptive behavior can emerge fromsimple interactions among myriad individuals. Based on her work at the Santa Fe Institute and drawing on its interdisciplinary strategies, Mitchell brings clarity to the workings of complexity across abroad range of biological, technological, and social phenomena, seeking out the general principles or laws that apply to all of them. Richly illustrated, Complexity: A Guided Tour--winner of the 2010 Phi Beta Kappa Book Award in Science--offers a wide-ranging overview of the ideas underlying complex systems science, the current research at the forefront of this field, and the prospects for its contribution to solving some of the most important scientific questions of our time.
Notes
An accessible introduction to the science that underlies much of biology and technology.
Author Biography
Melanie Mitchell is Professor of Computer Science at Portland State University and External Professor at the Santa Fe Institute.
Table of Contents
PrefaceAcknowledgmentsPart I: Background and HistoryChapter 1: What is Complexity?Chapter 2: Dynamics, Chaos, and PredictionChapter 3: InformationChapter 4: ComputationChapter 5: EvolutionChapter 6: Genetics, SimplifiedChapter 7: Defining and Measuring ComplexityPart II: Life and Evolution in ComputersChapter 8: Self-Reproducing ProgramsChapter 9: Genetic AlgorithmsPart III: Computation Writ LargeChapter 10: Cellular Automata, Life, and the UniverseChapter 11: Computing with ParticlesChapter 12: Information Processing in Living SystemsChapter 13: How to Make Analogies (If You Are A Computer)Chapter 14: Prospects of Computer ModelingPart IV: Network ThinkingChapter 15: The Science of NetworksChapter 16: Applying Network Science to Real-World NetworksChapter 17: The Mystery of ScalingChapter 18: Evolution, ComplexifiedPart V: ConclusionChapter 19: The Past and Future of the Sciences of ComplexityNotesBibliographyIndex
Review
"Melanie Mitchell's book is most enjoyable, truly inspiring, skillfully written, and, above all, beautifully clear. The author's enthusiasm and passion for the field make the book fascinating to read. Her rigor, clarity, and healthy skepticism make the book sound and the field scientifically stronger. It is an excellent and rigorous account of the scientific field of complexity. She proves by example that it is possible to explain complex systems science withrigor, breadth, depth, and- above all-exquisite clarity."--Artificial Life"Complexity: A Guided Tour is well written and engaging, laced with candid humor and occasional blunt remarks about some of the major characters in the field. It is a fine introduction to complexity science and could serve as a first-rate text for an advanced course for undergraduates and an excellent guide for courses at the graduate level. Experts and nonspecialists alike will have a hard time putting it down."--Physics Today"A well-written, easy to understand, and entertaining piece of popular science."--Genetic Programming and Evolvable Machines"Perhaps one of this generation's standard introductions to the exciting worlds of the sciences of complexity."--Emergence: Complexity and Organization"Complexity stands out from other popular science books by mentioning recent discoveries and theories from genetics. Readers may enjoy Mitchell's personal perspective and her inclusion of recent research. Readers who have not been introduced to the ideas explored in Complexity will find the content fascinating."--Mathematical Association of America Reviews"Mitchell's tour will be a helpful introduction to those in various disciplines who seek a gentle introduction to this emerging specialty."--Computing Reviews"The author, a denizen of the community of complexity researchers, provides an engaging introduction to the many interdisciplinary issues surrounding attempts at understanding how fantastic holistic attributes can arise from teems of underwhelming components -- how minds arise from simple neurons and cagey ant colonies from embarrassingly thick-headed individual ants. If Mitchell's book were required reading for undergraduate freshmen, I would anticipate alarge surge in the number of students interested not only in complexity, but interested in science more generally. And not just more students, but students more exercised about what may lie ahead as theyattempt to come to grips with nature."--Quarterly Review of Biology"The best popular science books are those that give the reader the sense of looking over the shoulder of a leading researcher doing cutting-edge work at the frontier of scientific inquiry. Isaacson's recent biography of Einstein belongs in this category. So too does Melanie Mitchell's Complexity: A Guided Tour."--The Oregonian"How can something be dependent and autonomous at the same time? And why do so many systems in nature show this hierarchical organization? No on has answered these questions, but in Complexity, computer scientist, Melanie Mitchell...offers a valuable snapshot of the growing field of complex-systems science from which the answers may eventually arise."--Nature"The book succeeds in buckling down much of the field's ambiguity, along with its role in the scientific community. And refreshingly, while laying out the surprisingly diverse set of fundamental theories that compose the framework for studying complex systems, Mitchell never oversteps the achievements of what her field has actually produced."--BookslutListed in "Nature: Physics," Volume 5, May 2009"This volume is an engaging and lucid introduction to complex systems...Mitchell is able to succinctly describe core ideas and discoveries...Useful to advanced students and researchers in adjacent areas."--CHOICE"An enthusiastic, sincere, and knowledgeable guide."--Science"Melanie Mitchell's Complexity is essential reading. It's a book whose capacity to inspire delight in your own intelligence makes Mitchell's work akin to instructions for a Sol Lewitt drawing. With attentive reading, you'll soon produce a competent understanding of "sensitive dependence on initial conditions," leap millenia of physics, and turn a sharp corner with history." --The Magazine of Yoga
Promotional
This richly illustrated volume--winner of the 2010 Phi Beta Kappa Book Award in Science--offers a wide-ranging overview of complex systems science.
Long Description
What enables individually simple insects like ants to act with such precision and purpose as a group? How do trillions of neurons produce something as extraordinarily complex as consciousness? In this remarkably clear and companionable book, leading complex systems scientist Melanie Mitchell provides an intimate tour of the sciences of complexity, a broad set of efforts that seek to explain how large-scale complex, organized, and adaptive behavior can emerge fromsimple interactions among myriad individuals. Based on her work at the Santa Fe Institute and drawing on its interdisciplinary strategies, Mitchell brings clarity to the workings of complexity across a broad range of biological, technological, and social phenomena, seeking out the general principles orlaws that apply to all of them. Richly illustrated, Complexity: A Guided Tour--winner of the 2010 Phi Beta Kappa Book Award in Science--offers a wide-ranging overview of the ideas underlying complex systems science, the current research at the forefront of this field, and the prospects for its contribution to solving some of the most important scientific questions of our time.
Review Text
"Melanie Mitchell's book is most enjoyable, truly inspiring, skillfully written, and, above all, beautifully clear. The author's enthusiasm and passion for the field make the book fascinating to read. Her rigor, clarity, and healthy skepticism make the book sound and the field scientifically stronger. It is an excellent and rigorous account of the scientific field of complexity. She proves by example that it is possible to explain complex systems science withrigor, breadth, depth, and- above all-exquisite clarity."--Artificial Life"Complexity: A Guided Tour is well written and engaging, laced with candid humor and occasional blunt remarks about some of the major characters in the field. It is a fine introduction to complexity science and could serve as a first-rate text for an advanced course for undergraduates and an excellent guide for courses at the graduate level. Experts and nonspecialists alike will have a hard time putting it down."--Physics Today"A well-written, easy to understand, and entertaining piece of popular science."--Genetic Programming and Evolvable Machines"Perhaps one of this generation's standard introductions to the exciting worlds of the sciences of complexity."--Emergence: Complexity and Organization"Complexity stands out from other popular science books by mentioning recent discoveries and theories from genetics. Readers may enjoy Mitchell's personal perspective and her inclusion of recent research. Readers who have not been introduced to the ideas explored in Complexity will find the content fascinating."--Mathematical Association of America Reviews"Mitchell's tour will be a helpful introduction to those in various disciplines who seek a gentle introduction to this emerging specialty."--Computing Reviews"The author, a denizen of the community of complexity researchers, provides an engaging introduction to the many interdisciplinary issues surrounding attempts at understanding how fantastic holistic attributes can arise from teems of underwhelming components -- how minds arise from simple neurons and cagey ant colonies from embarrassingly thick-headed individual ants. If Mitchell's book were required reading for undergraduate freshmen, I would anticipate alarge surge in the number of students interested not only in complexity, but interested in science more generally. And not just more students, but students more exercised about what may lie ahead as they attempt to come to grips with nature."--Quarterly Review of Biology"The best popular science books are those that give the reader the sense of looking over the shoulder of a leading researcher doing cutting-edge work at the frontier of scientific inquiry. Isaacson's recent biography of Einstein belongs in this category. So too does Melanie Mitchell's Complexity: A Guided Tour."--The Oregonian"How can something be dependent and autonomous at the same time? And why do so many systems in nature show this hierarchical organization? No on has answered these questions, but in Complexity, computer scientist, Melanie Mitchell...offers a valuable snapshot of the growing field of complex-systems science from which the answers may eventually arise."--Nature"The book succeeds in buckling down much of the field's ambiguity, along with its role in the scientific community. And refreshingly, while laying out the surprisingly diverse set of fundamental theories that compose the framework for studying complex systems, Mitchell never oversteps the achievements of what her field has actually produced."--BookslutListed in "Nature: Physics," Volume 5, May 2009"This volume is an engaging and lucid introduction to complex systems...Mitchell is able to succinctly describe core ideas and discoveries...Useful to advanced students and researchers in adjacent areas."--CHOICE"An enthusiastic, sincere, and knowledgeable guide."--Science"Melanie Mitchell's Complexity is essential reading. It's a book whose capacity to inspire delight in your own intelligence makes Mitchell's work akin to instructions for a Sol Lewitt drawing. With attentive reading, you'll soon produce a competent understanding of "sensitive dependence on initial conditions," leap millenia of physics, and turn a sharp corner with history." --The Magazine of Yoga
Review Quote
Melanie Mitchell's book is most enjoyable, truly inspiring, skillfully written, and, above all, beautifully clear. The author's enthusiasm and passion for the field make the book fascinating to read. Her rigor, clarity, and healthy skepticism make the book sound and the field scientifically stronger. It is an excellent and rigorous account of the scientific field of complexity. She proves by example that it is possible to explain complex systems science with rigor,breadth, depth, and- above all-exquisite clarity.
Feature
Selling point: Winner of the 2010 Phi Beta Kappa Book Award in ScienceSelling point: Written by a well-known scientist in the field of complex systemsSelling point: Engagingly written in an accessible style for non-specialist readersSelling point: Longlisted for the Royal Society Prize for Science Books, 2010
New Feature
Preface Acknowledgments Part I: Background and History Chapter 1: What is Complexity? Chapter 2: Dynamics, Chaos, and Prediction Chapter 3: Information Chapter 4: Computation Chapter 5: Evolution Chapter 6: Genetics, Simplified Chapter 7: Defining and Measuring Complexity Part II: Life and Evolution in Computers Chapter 8: Self-Reproducing Programs Chapter 9: Genetic Algorithms Part III: Computation Writ Large Chapter 10: Cellular Automata, Life, and the Universe Chapter 11: Computing with Particles Chapter 12: Information Processing in Living Systems Chapter 13: How to Make Analogies (If You Are A Computer) Chapter 14: Prospects of Computer Modeling Part IV: Network Thinking Chapter 15: The Science of Networks Chapter 16: Applying Network Science to Real-World Networks Chapter 17: The Mystery of Scaling Chapter 18: Evolution, Complexified Part V: Conclusion Chapter 19: The Past and Future of the Sciences of Complexity Notes Bibliography Index
Details ISBN0199798109 Author Melanie Mitchell Short Title COMPLEXITY Language English ISBN-10 0199798109 ISBN-13 9780199798100 Media Book Format Paperback Year 2011 Subtitle A Guided Tour Residence US Birth 1953 Imprint Oxford University Press Inc Place of Publication New York Country of Publication United States UK Release Date 2011-11-24 NZ Release Date 2011-11-24 US Release Date 2011-11-24 Affiliation Charles E. Ducommun Professor of Education, Stanford University Position Charles E. Ducommun Professor of Education Qualifications QC Translator M.G. Piety Edited by Linda Darling-Hammond Death 1979 Pages 368 Publisher Oxford University Press Inc Publication Date 2011-11-24 Alternative 9780195124415 DEWEY 003.7 Illustrations 60 illustrations Audience Tertiary & Higher Education AU Release Date 2011-11-23 We've got this
At The Nile, if you're looking for it, we've got it.With fast shipping, low prices, friendly service and well over a million items - you're bound to find what you want, at a price you'll love!
TheNile_Item_ID:131392955;
Your request is processing... Please Wait