Identify Based On Books Complexity: A Guided Tour
| Title | : | Complexity: A Guided Tour |
| Author | : | Melanie Mitchell |
| Book Format | : | Hardcover |
| Book Edition | : | First Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 349 pages |
| Published | : | April 1st 2009 by Oxford University Press, USA (first published March 2nd 2009) |
| Categories | : | Science. Nonfiction. Mathematics. Physics |
Melanie Mitchell
Hardcover | Pages: 349 pages Rating: 4.07 | 2343 Users | 181 Reviews
Narration In Pursuance Of Books Complexity: A Guided Tour
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.Particularize Books To Complexity: A Guided Tour
| Original Title: | Complexity: A Guided Tour |
| ISBN: | 0195124413 (ISBN13: 9780195124415) |
| Edition Language: | English |
Rating Based On Books Complexity: A Guided Tour
Ratings: 4.07 From 2343 Users | 181 ReviewsCritique Based On Books Complexity: A Guided Tour
Expansive but not comprehensive. The book gives a good smattering from a scattering of niche scientific fields but doesnt really tie it all together satisfyingly. It felt like I was carefully examining a specific puzzle piece and then Id set it down and examine another piece intently but it never fit with the previous or consecutive pieces. In the end I was still left with a jumbled pile of puzzle pieces. Granted I can see the contours of the individual pieces a little more clearly but Im stillVery nice introduction to complex systems research & "complexity" in general.This book made me flash-back to my Computer Science studies, but in a very good way. It touches on theoretical foundations (Turing Machines, decidability, halting problem, genetic algorithms, fractals, laws of thermodynamics, ...) but the writing is very fluent and approachable.The author introduced me to the field of Network Theory, a science that builds on graph theory. It leads to interesting questions (and
As a non-fiction book, this is very well written - it's on the level of an undergrad, with few actual formulas and very little "jargon" (most of it is hidden in the footnotes for interested readers). Since the author often intersperses her own personal views and experiences working in the field the book feels more like listening to an excited relative explain his or her field at a party than a technical explanation at a conference. I'm also impressed about the overall niceness of this book - for
first half or so is good, up to her phd thesis explanation. best put that chapter into an appendix and rewrite the rest.apparently popular science is best written either as a cumulation story or as independent chapters that tie together in the end. the cumulation story would be introduction, then more info, then big point you want to make after most everyone is up to speed. the issue is how to provide background information without loosing people and boring the knowledgeable at the same. what
How does an ant colony organize itself? How does the immune system work? What is the similarity between the world wide web and your brain? If you have pondered any of these questions, "Complexity: A Guided Tour" is just the book for you.1Any computer scientist who graduated in the last ten or so years would have covered some of the topics in Melanie Mitchell's "Complexity: A Guided Tour", and would have probably wished that they had Ms. Mitchell as a lecturer! Ms. Mitchell is clearly passionate
Melanie Mitchell is an excellent teacherwarm, relaxed, and engaging. Knowing my interests, a brilliant (and kind) PhD student gave me the book to introduce the general ideas of complexity and to provide an infrastructure for further learning. She was bang on! I am off and running with videos and more books. I suspect that Complexity: A Guided Tour, published in 2011 but written over several years before that, is getting a little out of date, but it is still very useful.The pace is good, but a
I found this book quite easy to read. It does not require any prior knowledge and is very well written.The most challenging part was the chapter on the halting problem and Turing machines. If you got through that, the rest of the book won't be too much of a challenge. I was surprised to find out how many topics I was already familiar with (to varying degrees), but have seen from a slightly different perspective while reading this book. Definitely recommended !
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