false <![CDATA[Critical Mass: How One Thing Leads to Another]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1175043198m/472609.jpg 472609 4 <div>Are there &#8220;natural laws&#8221; that govern the ways in which humans behave and organize themselves, just as there are physical laws that govern the motions of atoms and planets? Unlikely as it may seem, such laws now seem to be emerging from attempts to bring the tools and concepts of physics into the social sciences. These new discoveries are part of an old tradition. In the seventeenth century the philosopher Thomas Hobbes, dismayed by the impending civil war in England, decided that he would work out what kind of government was needed for a stable society. His solution sparked a new way of thinking about human behavior in looking for the &#8220;scientific&#8221; rules of society.</div><div> </div><div>Adam Smith, Immanuel Kant, Auguste Comte, and John Stuart Mill pursued this idea from different political perspectives. But these philosophers lacked the tools that modern physics can now bring to bear on the matter. Philip Ball shows how, by using these tools, we can understand many aspects of mass human behavior. Once we recognize that we do not make most of our decisions in isolation but are affected by what others decide, we can start to discern a surprising and perhaps even disturbing predictability in our laws, institutions, and customs.</div><div> </div><div>Lively and compelling, <i>Critical Mass </i>is the first book to bring these new ideas together and to show how they fit within the broader historical context of a rational search for better ways to live.</div> 1601748 book 2004 Critical Mass: How One Thing Leads to Another total:125|5:33|4:44|3:36|2:10|1:2| 125 471 256 23 472609 0374530416 9780374530419 95 18 Critical Mass: How One Thing Leads to Another 3.77 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1175043198m/472609.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/472609.Critical_Mass_How_One_Thing_Leads_to_Another 3 3 false Sat Mar 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Sat Jan 26 09:53:38 -0800 2008 Sun Jun 01 14:12:48 -0700 2008
I'm very mixed about this book. It discusses the application of statistical physics and computer simulations to problems...more...]]> 870853 0099457865 9780099457862 23 4 Critical Mass: How One Thing Leads to Another 3.77 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1179072592m/870853.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/870853.Critical_Mass_How_One_Thing_Leads_to_Another 1 0 false Tue Nov 25 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Tue Nov 25 04:17:16 -0800 2008 Tue Nov 25 04:25:52 -0800 2008 more...]]> 870853 0099457865 9780099457862 23 4 Critical Mass: How One Thing Leads to Another 3.77 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1179072592m/870853.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/870853.Critical_Mass_How_One_Thing_Leads_to_Another 4 2 false Tue Aug 26 11:39:57 -0700 2008 Wed Aug 06 00:33:36 -0700 2008 Tue Aug 26 11:39:57 -0700 2008 more...]]> 472609 0374530416 9780374530419 95 18 Critical Mass: How One Thing Leads to Another 3.77 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1175043198m/472609.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/472609.Critical_Mass_How_One_Thing_Leads_to_Another 2 0 false Sat Aug 02 15:04:57 -0700 2008 Sat Aug 30 13:13:22 -0700 2008 more...]]> 472609 0374530416 9780374530419 95 18 Critical Mass: How One Thing Leads to Another 3.77 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1175043198m/472609.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/472609.Critical_Mass_How_One_Thing_Leads_to_Another 2 0 false Wed Aug 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Mon Jul 02 07:52:59 -0700 2007 Mon Aug 20 10:34:57 -0700 2007 more...]]> 472609 0374530416 9780374530419 95 18 Critical Mass: How One Thing Leads to Another 3.77 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1175043198m/472609.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/472609.Critical_Mass_How_One_Thing_Leads_to_Another 5 0 false Wed Jun 06 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Wed Sep 16 08:30:26 -0700 2009 Wed Sep 16 08:33:30 -0700 2009 more...]]> 472609 0374530416 9780374530419 95 18 Critical Mass: How One Thing Leads to Another 3.77 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1175043198m/472609.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/472609.Critical_Mass_How_One_Thing_Leads_to_Another 0 0 false Thu Oct 22 12:17:45 -0700 2009 Thu Oct 22 12:18:38 -0700 2009 472609 0374530416 9780374530419 95 18 Critical Mass: How One Thing Leads to Another 3.77 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1175043198m/472609.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/472609.Critical_Mass_How_One_Thing_Leads_to_Another 3 0 false Mon Jan 07 21:26:33 -0800 2008 Mon Jan 07 21:30:25 -0800 2008 more...]]> 472609 0374530416 9780374530419 95 18 Critical Mass: How One Thing Leads to Another 3.77 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1175043198m/472609.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/472609.Critical_Mass_How_One_Thing_Leads_to_Another 3 0 false Wed Oct 08 00:42:00 -0700 2008 Sun Aug 31 11:54:22 -0700 2008 Wed Oct 08 00:42:00 -0700 2008
But what's most perplexing is a review of the book on the back cover by Elissa Schappell from Vanity Fair: "Philip Ball makes physics sexy again in Critical Mass."...more...]]> 870853 0099457865 9780099457862 23 4 Critical Mass: How One Thing Leads to Another 3.77 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1179072592m/870853.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/870853.Critical_Mass_How_One_Thing_Leads_to_Another 4 1 false Mon Oct 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Wed Jan 09 10:10:33 -0800 2008 Wed Jan 09 10:29:57 -0800 2008 more...]]> 472609 0374530416 9780374530419 95 18 Critical Mass: How One Thing Leads to Another 3.77 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1175043198m/472609.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/472609.Critical_Mass_How_One_Thing_Leads_to_Another 5 1 false Wed Mar 11 06:10:04 -0700 2009 Wed Mar 11 06:11:29 -0700 2009 472609 0374530416 9780374530419 95 18 Critical Mass: How One Thing Leads to Another 3.77 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1175043198m/472609.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/472609.Critical_Mass_How_One_Thing_Leads_to_Another 5 1 false Tue Mar 25 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Wed Mar 26 14:26:57 -0700 2008 Fri Mar 28 23:12:55 -0700 2008 Critical Mass a rebuttal to those eager metaphors. Ball goes through a history of science and its efforts to apply those discoveries to society. Great info.more...]]> 472609 0374530416 9780374530419 95 18 Critical Mass: How One Thing Leads to Another 3.77 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1175043198m/472609.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/472609.Critical_Mass_How_One_Thing_Leads_to_Another 2 0 false Mon Aug 01 00:00:00 -0700 2005 Fri Aug 03 16:34:31 -0700 2007 Fri Aug 03 16:36:19 -0700 2007 more...]]> 472609 0374530416 9780374530419 95 18 Critical Mass: How One Thing Leads to Another 3.77 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1175043198m/472609.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/472609.Critical_Mass_How_One_Thing_Leads_to_Another 0 0 false Thu Oct 08 12:56:03 -0700 2009 Thu Oct 08 13:01:51 -0700 2009 472609 0374530416 9780374530419 95 18 Critical Mass: How One Thing Leads to Another 3.77 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1175043198m/472609.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/472609.Critical_Mass_How_One_Thing_Leads_to_Another 0 0 false Mon Sep 22 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Mon Sep 22 15:39:25 -0700 2008 Wed May 13 11:40:07 -0700 2009 Law 1: Conservation of Energy - You can't win.
Law 2: Entropy - You can't break even.
Law 3: Ab...more...]]> 870853 0099457865 9780099457862 23 4 Critical Mass: How One Thing Leads to Another 3.77 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1179072592m/870853.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/870853.Critical_Mass_How_One_Thing_Leads_to_Another 4 0 false Sat Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2005 Tue Feb 05 14:43:38 -0800 2008 Tue Feb 05 14:47:25 -0800 2008
He looks at critical points (phase transitions), ways to do counterfactual analyses of historical events, models that can explain bubbles/crashes.

It's like a ...more...]]> 472609 0374530416 9780374530419 95 18 Critical Mass: How One Thing Leads to Another 3.77 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1175043198m/472609.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/472609.Critical_Mass_How_One_Thing_Leads_to_Another 2 0 false Mon Oct 01 18:21:28 -0700 2007 Mon Oct 01 18:24:00 -0700 2007 472609 0374530416 9780374530419 95 18 Critical Mass: How One Thing Leads to Another 3.77 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1175043198m/472609.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/472609.Critical_Mass_How_One_Thing_Leads_to_Another 5 0 false Thu Jul 03 08:55:39 -0700 2008 Thu Jul 03 08:56:19 -0700 2008 472609 0374530416 9780374530419 95 18 Critical Mass: How One Thing Leads to Another 3.77 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1175043198m/472609.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/472609.Critical_Mass_How_One_Thing_Leads_to_Another 4 0 false Tue May 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Fri Feb 01 16:02:14 -0800 2008 Fri Feb 01 16:03:45 -0800 2008 472609 0374530416 9780374530419 95 18 Critical Mass: How One Thing Leads to Another 3.77 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1175043198m/472609.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/472609.Critical_Mass_How_One_Thing_Leads_to_Another 3 0 false Thu Aug 14 14:26:29 -0700 2008 Tue Sep 02 01:13:20 -0700 2008 http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=472609