Patterns in the Sand : Computers, Complexity, and Everyday Life

Bossomaier, Terry; Green David

ISBN 10: 0738201723 / ISBN 13: 9780738201726

Verlag: Reading, MA, USA: Perseus, 1998, 1999

Beschreibung

First edition, first printing. 8vo., wrappers, 206 pp. Foreword by Paul Davies. ISBN: 0738201723. Fine in wrappers. [b92]. Bestandsnummer des Verkäufers 01-0719-14

Bibliografische Details

Titel: Patterns in the Sand : Computers, Complexity...

Verlag: Reading, MA, USA: Perseus, 1998

Erscheinungsdatum: 1999

Einband: Softcover

Auflage: 1. Auflage

Über diesen Titel

Inhaltsangabe:

Until recently, science has made progress by breaking large systems down into smaller and simpler parts, studying and explaining how these parts operate, and putting them back together again. Although this reductionist approach works amazingly well when we study the atom or the function of a single gene, it hits a brick wall when it comes to vastly complex systems like the brain, or the weather, or the ecosphere. Such systems are just too complicated to yield their secrets to the reductionist approach. The new science of complexity, one of the twentieth centuries greatest contributions to our comprehension of nature, is concerned with treating vastly complicated systems, like the biosphere or the Internet, as holistic systems. Patterns in the Sand discusses this new scientific paradigm that treats life as a natural computation, and shows how this approach translates into ways of dealing with complexity in real life. It shows, for example, how key ideas, such as chaos, criticality, and emergent phenomena, helps us to understand how ants build their nests, how the brain works, why we enact simple routines like getting up in the morning and going to work, and why accidents happen. Using such everyday phenomena as illustrations, Bossomaier and Green take us from the most basic function of the simple Turing computer through the vast interrelationships of the earths biota, right up to the search for life on other planets, while providing a new understanding of the complicated, complex, world around us.

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor:

Terry Bossomaier and David Green are leading international researchers who have made important contributions to the science of complexity and have both published several technical books in the area. Professor Bossomaier’s research focuses on neural computation and Professor Green’s on environmental information. Terry Bossomaier and David Green are leading international researchers who have made important contributions to the science of complexity and have both published several technical books in the area. Professor Bossomaier’s research focuses on neural computation and Professor Green’s on environmental information.