Complexity

A Guided Tour

AvMelanie Mitchell

Häftad, Engelska, 2011

270 kr

Beställningsvara. Skickas inom 5-8 vardagar. Fri frakt över 249 kr.

Fler format och utgåvor

Inbunden

319 kr

Skickas inom 5-8 vardagar

Beskrivning

What enables individually simple insects like ants to act with such precision and purpose as a group? How do trillions of neurons produce something as extraordinarily complex as consciousness? In this remarkably clear and companionable book, leading complex systems scientist Melanie Mitchell provides an intimate tour of the sciences of complexity, a broad set of efforts that seek to explain how large-scale complex, organized, and adaptive behavior can emerge from simple interactions among myriad individuals. Based on her work at the Santa Fe Institute and drawing on its interdisciplinary strategies, Mitchell brings clarity to the workings of complexity across a broad range of biological, technological, and social phenomena, seeking out the general principles or laws that apply to all of them. Richly illustrated, Complexity: A Guided Tour--winner of the 2010 Phi Beta Kappa Book Award in Science--offers a wide-ranging overview of the ideas underlying complex systems science, the current research at the forefront of this field, and the prospects for its contribution to solving some of the most important scientific questions of our time.

Produktinformation

Utgivningsdatum:2011-11-24
Mått:155 x 234 x 25 mm
Vikt:476 g
Format:Häftad
Språk:Engelska
Antal sidor:368
Förlag:OUP USA
ISBN:9780199798100

Utforska kategorier

Mer om författaren

Melanie Mitchell is Professor of Computer Science at Portland State University and External Professor at the Santa Fe Institute.

Recensioner i media

Melanie Mitchell's book is most enjoyable, truly inspiring, skillfully written, and, above all, beautifully clear. The author's enthusiasm and passion for the field make the book fascinating to read. Her rigor, clarity, and healthy skepticism make the book sound and the field scientifically stronger. It is an excellent and rigorous account of the scientific field of complexity. She proves by example that it is possible to explain complex systems science with rigor, breadth, depth, and- above all-exquisite clarity.

Innehållsförteckning

Preface Acknowledgments Part I: Background and HistoryChapter 1: What is Complexity? Chapter 2: Dynamics, Chaos, and Prediction Chapter 3: Information Chapter 4: Computation Chapter 5: Evolution Chapter 6: Genetics, Simplified Chapter 7: Defining and Measuring Complexity Part II: Life and Evolution in ComputersChapter 8: Self-Reproducing Programs Chapter 9: Genetic Algorithms Part III: Computation Writ LargeChapter 10: Cellular Automata, Life, and the Universe Chapter 11: Computing with ParticlesChapter 12: Information Processing in Living Systems Chapter 13: How to Make Analogies (If You Are A Computer)Chapter 14: Prospects of Computer Modeling Part IV: Network ThinkingChapter 15: The Science of Networks Chapter 16: Applying Network Science to Real-World Networks Chapter 17: The Mystery of Scaling Chapter 18: Evolution, Complexified Part V: ConclusionChapter 19: The Past and Future of the Sciences of Complexity NotesBibliographyIndex