Emergence: The Connected Lives of Ants, Brains, Cities, and Software
by Steven Johnson
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The first few chapters are a really good overview of the concept of emergent intelligence -- wherein a group individually "dumb" organisms/programs/processes/behaviors gradually cohere into a more intelligent/adaptive whole -- and provide some characteristic examples such as slime molds and ant colonies. The rest of the book becomes increasingly meandering and fluffy, and mostly consists of examples of the phenomenon, drawn from biology, cognitive science, computer programming and net...more
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Read in October, 2006
An introduction to the concept of emergence, which is becoming a trendy idea these days. Johnson gives an overview of some of the different experiments and fields which have lead to the creation of this idea, such as how mold spores and ant colonies work, as well as examples from city planning and computer science. Emergence relates to how bottom-up systems with simple rules creates high degrees of complexity through their interactions. I found the book a good source of some of the early case...more
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Read in February, 2008
This book gives a vocabulary to trends in technology and consumer culture I experience and sense, but couldn't articulate. It's explains the the history leading up to the present "emergent technologies." Towards the end, it becomes a predicitive.
If you like books with a wide topical range, you'll like this book...but that's also the reason I didn't like this one so much. It references in passing and so many disparate subjects; ants, neurology, sim city, autism, and computer slim...more
If you like books with a wide topical range, you'll like this book...but that's also the reason I didn't like this one so much. It references in passing and so many disparate subjects; ants, neurology, sim city, autism, and computer slim...more
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Read in September, 2002
recommends it for:
urban planning students
Johnson makes complex theory accessible and non-threatening with great humor and engaging content appealing to the less scientific mind. Does this reveal any new insights to experienced tech nerds? Probably not, but the audience that most benefits from his examples tying in the unlikely models of emergence are new grad students in any field that will require methodolgy and students of urban and community planning.
Jane Jacobs' studies are a recurring theme emphasizing the component relevant...more
Jane Jacobs' studies are a recurring theme emphasizing the component relevant...more
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Read in January, 2000
See my brief review of "Complexity: the emerging science at the edge of order and chaos". This book began to flesh out for me the fascinating area of emergence as a phenomenon. This shows how individual items (e.g. ants) combine to make a super-organism that 'has a mind of its own', and how in our human lives such a thing as a city emerges as the product less of planning than of dynamic interaction. Recommended as a fertile introduction to complexity theory and emergence.
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Read in January, 2007
I drifted into this book because of my interest in swarming. Johnson has a knack for explaining complicated and counterintuitive ideas cleverly without stealing the scene. Though we're far from fully understanding how complex behavior manifests from simple units and rules, our awareness that such emergence is possible is guiding research across disciplines. Readers unfamiliar with the sciences of complexity will find "Emergence" an excellent starting point
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Read in January, 2002
recommends it for:
Nerds and the like
I found this book to be highly accessible and fun to read. After a while, I wasn't surprised by his successive examples. But, I did think that he did a wonderful job demonstrating emergent behaviors of complex organized systems. Being a devotee of complexity theory, this book was right up my alley. It gave me a chance to articulate mentally what I already knew to be true experientially.
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Read in October, 2007
Without hyperbole, his book changed the way I see the world. The examples Johnson gives, regarding concepts from SimCity to anthills, reveal the broad applicability of the theory of Emergence, and thus reveal the theory's infallibility. If you read this book, you will not see maps, video games or life in general in the same (though in hindsight inferior) way you did before. Enjoy.
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Read in January, 2008
Key point: Ants do not exhibit any intelligence on their own. They take their cues as a group and only as a group can they make ingenious mounds of architecture. Science and western thought tend to atomize big problems into little components. Johnson suggests that this habit has prevented us form understanding complex structures like consciousness.
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Read in January, 2006
Great book, Steven Johnson is the poet of the science world and excellent at describing difficult concepts. Like most books with really interesting titles like 'Sync', 'Consilience', and so on, you kind of get the point about half way through the book. If you don't keep reading. He'll pound it into you.
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Termites build vast cathedrals, yet no individual termite knows how to build a cathedral. Substitute 'neurons' for 'termites' and 'minds' for 'cathedrals' and you begin to get a good idea of how your consciousness works.
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Read in January, 2004
Back when emergence was new, this book earned accolades. Now that the principles of self-organization are commonly cited and understood, it feels less so. But for every individual who has yet to understand what ant colonies and traffic jams have in common, pick this one up. You won't regret it.
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Read in January, 2005
Great topic, way too slow. I guess he thought he needed to dumb it down a little too much. A lot too much. So much of the writing doesn't deal with the topic of emergence, it skirts the issue and tells you over and over what a cool idea it is. I got about 1/3 of the way through and put it down.
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The title makes it sounds like someone in the establishment is finally going to say the obvious, "If you program an ant colony with the right software and put it in a brainless human head, you're good to go." Unfortunately, the author doesn't get there and the book suffers because of it.
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The first few chapters are excellent---Johnson explores several interesting examples of emergent systems. After about 160 pages, though, he loses steam (and with it, clarity of argument), reverting to uninspired and sometimes irrelevant chitchat about the future of computer software.
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Read in January, 2006
This book is a quick read, and you don't even have to read all of it to get the point. Unfortunately, the point is kind of fuzzy. Yup, a fuzzy point. However, you will feel smarter afterwards. I'm not sure what the author says in this book... but he's right. I can feel it.
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Read in January, 2008
Highly recommend this one!
Johnson's writing is straightforward and not at all pretentious.
This book really makes the reader view our world in a different light.
Fascinating!
Johnson's writing is straightforward and not at all pretentious.
This book really makes the reader view our world in a different light.
Fascinating!
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Read in April, 2007
This man is a freaking genius. Ordinarily boring subjects like ant colonies and slime molds become fascinating subcultures in his eyes. I don't care who you are, read it.
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More stuff emerges from the cloud of gas
Sometimes the cloud turns into an insect
Sometimes the insects turn into brains
Sometimes the brains go to French raves
Sometimes the cloud turns into an insect
Sometimes the insects turn into brains
Sometimes the brains go to French raves
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Read in May, 2007
recommends it for:
designers
heard it was good at a design conference.
But when I finished it I felt like the dude didn't really have a complete grasp of what he was writing about.
But when I finished it I felt like the dude didn't really have a complete grasp of what he was writing about.
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