Complexity: The Emerging Science at the Edge of Order and Chaos in Complexity Explorer

Aug 16, 2009 Brent rated it it was amazing

Shelves: complexity

A wonderful book that describes the founding of the Santa Fe Institute and the origins of complexity science. After reading it, my response was, "this is what I want to do." ...more

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Jul 23, 2018 Joe rated it it was amazing

I read this when it was first published back in the early 90’s. Along with Gleick’s “Chaos” book, these books literally changed my life and almost lead to an academic career. Going a bit deeper than Gleick, this book reads almost like a thriller - chronicling the early beginnings of the Santa Fe Institute (SFI) and the emergence of complexity sciences. I loved the pacing of the book as well as the noble quest to unify seemingly different but related sciences. A great book that’s aged well. My in ...more

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Dec 16, 2011 Verity Bracken rated it it was amazing

Shelves: recommended-reads, for-personal-library, non-fiction-complexity

A biographical account of the founding of the Santa Fe Institute that introduces the basic scientific concepts researched at the institute in its early days.

This book really resonated with me. I've been running into the phrase "complexity" in other books and articles I've been reading so it was nice to finally read something on Complexity Science. I will have to re-read it because a bunch of the science went over my head but all in all it was a fairly accessible volume.

I have a visual arts back ...more

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Nov 25, 2014 James rated it it was amazing

A great introduction to an idea whose time has come and will transform our world forever.

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Jan 05, 2014 Roozbeh Daneshvar rated it liked it · review of another edition

A good source for people who want to know more about some history of Complex Systems and Santa Fe Institute in particular. It would be better if the reader has a basic idea about the concepts and has encountered the names in the corresponding contexts, before encountering them in this book. In general, I believe that the pace of this book was rather slow; the information content was relatively lower than expected and the book could have been shortened without loss of information.

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