Re: Good Books on Complexity Theory?? (Summary)

[John W. Fondon III (Trey)]

I highly recommend Stu Kauffman's book, Origins of Order.  It, unlike most
books on complexity, is a true piece of scholarship and will change the way
you look at complexity in life (It is, however, quite difficult to read; if
you don't have the time to digest this classic, he did write a "lite"
version...).

John W. Fondon III (Trey)
UT Southwestern Medical Center
Dallas, Texas
address@hidden
address@hidden

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----- Original Message -----
From: Darren Schreiber <address@hidden>
To: <address@hidden>
Sent: Tuesday, January 11, 2000 1:16 AM
Subject: Good Books on Complexity Theory?? (Summary)


> Below I have summarized the responses I received on my search for a good
> book on complexity.
>
> The reactions I received to Sunny Auyang's "Foundations of Complex-System
> Theories : In Economics, Evolutionary Biology, and Statistical Physics"
> were strong and positive.  I have attached Steve Upton's review below.
>
> At the very bottom of the list you can read the details of Swarm-modelling
> list member Richard Morris' own book on complexity.
>
> Thanks to all for their help and insights:  (My next request will be for
> good complexity webpages).
>
> -----------------------------------------------------------
>
> Steve Railsback:
> John Holland's _Emergence_ and Hidden Order
>
> Robert Bell
> Dept. of Geography
> University of California, Los Angeles:
> Individual-based models and approaches in ecology
> Donald L. DeAngelis, Louis j. Gross, Editors
>
> Matthew M Murphy:
> Epstein and Axtell's "Growing Artificial
> Societies"
>
> Richard Morris
> Artificial Worlds: Computers, Complexity, and the Riddle
>  of Life.  By Richard Morris.
>
> Pietro Terna:
> Complexity. (You can find news about it at
> <http://journals.wiley.com/complexity>).
> [I also have looked through Complexity International at
> http://www.csu.edu.au/ci/ (D.S.)]
> EPSTEIN J.M. e AXTELL R. (1996), Growing Artificial Societies - Social
> Science from the Bottom Up, Cambridge MA, MIT Press.
>
> Gary Polhill:
> Byrne, D. (1998) COMPLEXITY THEORY AND THE SOCIAL SCIENCES: AN
INTRODUCTION
> Routledge
>
> Julie Dugdale:
> Complexity and Postmodernism
> Paul Cilliers
> pub: Routledge
> 1998
>
> Stephen C. Upton:
> Bar-Yam's "Dynamics of Complex Systems"
> Gell-Mann's "The Quark and the Jaguar"
> Epstein and Axtel's "Growing Artificial Societies"
>
> I have read a number of complexity books, and so far (I've just begin
> reading selected portions of this book), I think the book will be a *MUST*
> read.  Auyang takes the philosophical road, in that, he discusses
> complexity issues from a broad categorical perspective, rather than rely
on
> numerical equations, and applying specific mathematical techniques to
> address a problem (I think these books, such as Bar-Yam's "Dynamics of
> Complex Systems" are good in that they do bring *current* mathematical
> techniques to bear, but I believe the mathematics has some catching up to
> do).  He adresses the *ideas* associated with complexity, and that to me,
> is why this book is signficant for me.  I particular like his discussion
on
> uniting deterministic and stochastic concepts (pg 248).  Just to give you
> perspective, my background is in statistical mechanics, military
operations
> research, and natural algorithms for global optimization. I'm currently
> doing some agent based modeling for the military.
>
>
>
>
>
> Artificial Worlds: Computers, Complexity, and the Riddle
>  of Life
>
>  By Richard Morris.
>
>  Plenum Trade, 1999, 200 pp.
>  ISBN: 0-306-46002-5
>  Price: $25.95 (US and Canada) / $31.14 (elsewhere)
>
>
>  "An eminently readable account of the profound ideas that
>  inspire research today; must reading for those following
>  complexity, cosmology and biological and chemical
>  evolution."
>  -- Julius Rebek, Jr., Director, Skaggs Institute for Chemical
>  Biology, Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, California
>
> Publisher's blurb:
>
>  At the cutting edge of discovery, an exciting, new branch of
>  research, called the "sciences of complexity," offers novel
>  ways to explore such provocative questions.
>
>  This fascinating book shows that complexity scientists have
>  been experimenting with complex chemicals displaying some
>  of the characteristics of life, and have created electronic
>  computer virus-like life forms that are born, die, reproduce,
>  mutate and evolve. Through these artificial worlds they have
>  actually been able to monitor evolution as it happens, since it
>  takes place at a much more rapid pace within a computer.
>  Among the phenomena that these scientists hope to observe
>  are the evolution of multicellular life forms, and possibly
>  even the evolution of electronic intelligence. Could it be that
>  life itself is an emergent property that arises spontaneously
>  when a chemical system attains a certain degree of
>  complexity?
>
>  Richard Morris makes this major field of inquiry accessible to
>  a popular readership as never before, while he reveals its
>  potential to solve the greatest of all questions to puzzle
>  humankind: what is life?
>
>  Contents
>  1. What Is Life?
>  2. Creating Life in the Laboratory
>  3. The Evolution of Complexity
>  4. Fitness Landscapes
>  5. Artificial Life
>  6. Is Natural Selection the Whole Story?
>  7. Artificial Life on the Internet
>  8. Swarm
>  9. The Promise of Complexity
>  Annotated Bibliography
>  World Wide Web Resources
>  Index
>
> _____________________________________________
>
> Darren Schreiber
>           Attorney at Law
>          Graduate Student
>      Political Science, UCLA
> address@hidden
>
>
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