Yannis's review
Emergence: The Connected Lives of Ants, Brains, Cities, and Software
by Steven Johnson
Yannis's review
Emergence: The Connected Lives of Ants, Brains, Cities, and Software by Steven Johnson
Yannis's review
rating:
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 networks, and urban planning. The examples are mostly interesting, but don't really advance the discussion very far beyond the basic concepts laid down in the first two or three chapters. Also, the final chapter ends with an oddly static-feeling attempt to illustrate emergent processes occurring simultaneously in the world. Decent as a basic introduction to its subject -- and useful for pointing the reader to interesting and important people and works across diverse fields of study -- but probably...more
