Complexity: Life at the Edge of Chaos

Introduces the pioneers of complexity theory--from Heinz Pagels to Brian Arthur--examines the theory's components, and explains its value in the effort to achieve a unification of the life sciences. By the author of Bones of Contention.

Complexity, the nexus of theories forming at the edge of chaos theory and the boundaries of artificial life, may spark in life science a revolution equivalent to that wrought in physics by quantum mechanics. Anthropologist Lewin ( Bones of Contention ) provides an authoritative introduction to such pioneers on this mathematically demanding frontier as Stuart Kauffman, Jim Lovelock and Heinz Pagels; naming them is easier at this early juncture of complexity's development, when there are fewer than a dozen active researchers, than it will become as complexity attracts further peer reviews. In its embrace of "underlying simplicity in complex natural systems," complexity challenges aspects of Darwinian evolution and, as Lewin points out, comes close to the Gaia Hypothesis. This anecdotal introduction offers the general reader a generous sampling of this emergent theory.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Complexity has its roots in the work of many scientists from several disciplines and has only very recently, with the establishment of an institute in Santa Fe dedicated to its study, begun to come into focus as an analytical theory. Lewin's book is written as a kind of scientific travelog; he goes from the San Juan Basin of New Mexico to rural southwest England to the rain forests of Costa Rica in order to interview some of the key figures of complexity, whose independent works have contributed to the development of what could become a unified theory of the life sciences. Whether studying cellular automata or the evolution of life on earth, these scientists have found that order naturally seems to emerge within dynamic systems, often from the very brink of chaos. Lewin's far-ranging treatment of the subject is quite different from that of Michael Waldrop's Complexity: The Emerging Science at the Edge of Order and Chaos ( LJ 11/1/92), which remains pretty much centered at the Sante Fe Institute. Of the two, Lewin offers the most vivid and engaging discussion of complexity for general readers.
- Gregg Sapp, Montana State Univ. Libs., Bozeman
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.