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

A look at the rebellious thinkers who are challenging old ideas with their insights into the ways countless elements of complex systems interact to produce spontaneous order out of confusion

Waldrop presents his narrative of the "science of complexity in high screenplay style, offering a cast of five main characters. In general, he makes the emerging nature of complexity theory accessible to the general reader. He dissipates his advantage, however, in order to depict the personalities of the scientists he discusses, using at least three of them-Stuart Kauffman, Brian Arthur and Chris Langton-to act as interdisciplinary infielders of sorts, who relay the theory itself through a long subplot on structuring and funding the Santa Fe Institute in the 1970s. Complexity theory most likely will receive other, more rigorous examinations than Waldrop's, but he provides a good grounding of what may indeed be the first flowering of a new science.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

The Santa Fe Institute is an interdisciplinary think tank that has attracted the services of an electric and brilliant group of scholars. Here, economists work with biologists and physical scientists to develop theories that, many hope, will reveal that while natural systems may operate "at the edge of chaos," they are in fact self-organized. Thus conceived, the so-called science of complexity could explain the mysteries of how life began and might even predict global economic trends. The picture that emerges from this book, though, is that while many separate scientific endeavors overlap, a true conceptual synthesis is still a long way away. Waldrop writes in a very readable, sometimes overly light and chatty style, but by focusing so strongly on individual efforts, he inadvertently supports the impression that what is called the unified science of complexity is conjectural and quite fragmented. While this book succeeds as a chronicle of the Santa Fe Institute, it does not fully convince the reader that complexity represents a scientific revolution. Optional for public libraries.
- Gregg Sapp, Montana State Univ. Libs., Bozeman
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.