Simplexity: The Simple Rules of a Complex World - Softcover

Kluger, Jeffrey

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0719568137 ISBN 13: 9780719568138

Publisher: John Murray, 2008

Synopsis

Why does kicking the TV work?
What can the US military learn from the lowly bacterium?
Why are the instruction manuals for cell phones incomprehensible?
How does a spark of a single virus trigger an epidemic that claims millions?

In recent years, cutting-edge studies in fields such as economics, genetics, stock-market analysis and child development have hit on a startling new theory - 'simplexity'. To put it simply, simple things can be more complicated than they seem, and complex things more simple. The evidence is before our eyes: in your elaborate network of household plumbing actually run on a very basic mechanism, or the crystal paperweight on your desk, spectacular in its complexity.

As simplexity moves from the research lab into popular consciousness it will challenge our models for modern living. You'll never unknowingly whack the TV again and you'll understand just how much it means to smile at your child. Popular science journalist Jeffrey Kluger adeptly translates cutting-edge theory into a high-octane history of everything, which will have you rethinking the rules of business and pleasure. From the micro to the macro, Simplexity is a startling reassessment of the building blocks of life and how they affect us all.

About this title

About the Author

Jeffrey Kluger is a senior editor and writer for Time magazine. With astronaut Jim Lovell, he wrote Lost Moon: The Perilous Voyage of Apollo 13, on which the 1995 movie Apollo 13 was based. His other books include the critically acclaimed Splendid Solution: Jonas Salk and the Conquest of Polio. Kluger lives in New York City with his wife and daughters.

From Publishers Weekly

Frustrated by the traffic on narrow bridges? Stunned by the number of buttons on a remote control? Saddened by the lack of basic medical care in the developing world? Kluger (Splendid Solutions) makes the modern world comprehensible, analyzing social and technological systems to reveal that things that seem complicated can be preposterously simple; things that seem simple can be dizzyingly complex. He compares cells to cities to stock markets, renders quarks and fractals accessible and draws parallels between Wal-Mart and AIDS clinics in Tanzania. Although Kluger is prone to hyperbole, his astonishing discoveries require no exaggeration: the book describes how even the most technologically advanced manufacturing plant is infinitely simpler than a humble houseplant with its microhydraulics and fine-tuned metabolism and dense schematic of nucleic acids—and baseball fans will be dismayed to discover that football is, in fact, the more complex of the two games: the possible number of starting configurations before the play even begins is... 31.4 billion. Kluger's findings are likely to incite controversy, confirming his contention that explaining simplicity and complexity is never as straightforward as it seems. (June)
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Edition details

• Publisher: John Murray
• Publication date: 2008
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0719568137
• ISBN 13: 9780719568138
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 288