Simply Complexity - The Library of the Uncommons

English language

Published 2009 by Oneworld Publications.

ISBN:: 978-1-78074-049-2

The new branch of science which will reveal how to avoid the rush hour, overcome cancer, and find the perfect date

What do traffic jams, stock market crashes, and wars have in common? They are all explained using complexity, an unsolved puzzle that many researchers believe is the key to predicting - and ultimately solving - everything from terrorist attacks and pandemic viruses right down to rush hour traffic congestion. Complexity is considered by many to be the single most important scientific development since general relativity and promises to make sense of no less than the very heart of the Universe. Using it, scientists can find order emerging from seemingly random interactions of all kinds, from something as simple as flipping coins through to more challenging problems such as predicting shopping habits, the patterns in modern jazz, and the growth of cancer tumours.

source: official publisher page www.simonandschuster.com/books/Simply-Complexity/Neil-Johnson/9781851686308

…

The new branch of science which will reveal how to avoid the rush hour, overcome cancer, and find the perfect date

What do traffic jams, stock market crashes, and wars have in common? They are all explained using complexity, an unsolved puzzle that many researchers believe is the key to predicting - and ultimately solving - everything from terrorist attacks and pandemic viruses right down to rush hour traffic congestion. Complexity is considered by many to be the single most important scientific development since general relativity and promises to make sense of no less than the very heart of the Universe. Using it, scientists can find order emerging from seemingly random interactions of all kinds, from something as simple as flipping coins through to more challenging problems such as predicting shopping habits, the patterns in modern jazz, and the growth of cancer tumours.

source: official publisher page www.simonandschuster.com/books/Simply-Complexity/Neil-Johnson/9781851686308

2 editions

coucou reviewed Simply Complexity by Neil Johnson

Review of 'Simply Complexity' on 'LibraryThing'

2 stars

The author accomplishes the amazing feat of describing increasing disorder in a multi-state system because of the higher probability of "spread-outness" - withouth ever once mentioning the term "entropy". Leaving out complicated mathematics in favour of nice, tangible everyday scenarios that we can grasp using only simple arithmetics is one thing. But failing to pinpoint the central terms in the game is a severe deficit. Besides, the references and further reading section starts out with URLs to Wikipedia articles. What the actual heck. This is not "complexity theory". This is a very readable introduction on the lowest possible level that takes some liberties with what should be revealed to the casual reader and what is best kept shrouded.