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A list of books on complex systems, including networks and ecology -- a little more in depth than most pop-sci books but not daunting academic books
Score
A book’s total score is based on multiple factors, including the number of people who have voted for it and how highly those voters ranked the book.
| 1 |
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Complexity: A Guided Tour
by
4.11 avg rating — 3,459 ratings
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| 2 |
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Sync: The Emerging Science of Spontaneous Order
by
Steven H. Strogatz (Goodreads Author)
4.07 avg rating — 3,273 ratings
score: 696,
and
7 people voted
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| 3 |
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Chaos: Making a New Science
by
James Gleick (Goodreads Author)
4.03 avg rating — 40,557 ratings
score: 657,
and
7 people voted
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| 4 |
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Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid
by
4.29 avg rating — 52,011 ratings
score: 556,
and
6 people voted
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| 5 |
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A New Kind of Science
by
Stephen Wolfram (Goodreads Author)
3.62 avg rating — 2,179 ratings
score: 462,
and
5 people voted
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| 6 |
|
This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. The Climate
by
4.16 avg rating — 27,469 ratings
score: 397,
and
4 people voted
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| 7 |
|
Linked: How Everything Is Connected to Everything Else and What It Means for Business, Science, and Everyday Life
by
Albert-László Barabási (Goodreads Author)
3.94 avg rating — 5,210 ratings
score: 394,
and
4 people voted
|
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| 8 |
|
Emergence: The Connected Lives of Ants, Brains, Cities, and Software
by
Steven Johnson (Goodreads Author)
3.95 avg rating — 3,550 ratings
score: 393,
and
4 people voted
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| 9 |
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Out of Control: The New Biology of Machines, Social Systems, and the Economic World
by
Kevin Kelly (Goodreads Author)
4.23 avg rating — 1,705 ratings
score: 391,
and
4 people voted
|
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| 10 |
|
Hidden Order: How Adaptation Builds Complexity
by
3.89 avg rating — 388 ratings
score: 380,
and
4 people voted
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| 11 |
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Scale: The Universal Laws of Growth, Innovation, Sustainability, and the Pace of Life in Organisms, Cities, Economies, and Companies
by
4.11 avg rating — 5,430 ratings
score: 366,
and
4 people voted
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| 12 |
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Honeybee Democracy
by
4.13 avg rating — 1,846 ratings
score: 299,
and
3 people voted
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| 13 |
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The Web of Life: A New Scientific Understanding of Living Systems
by
4.18 avg rating — 1,915 ratings
score: 293,
and
3 people voted
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| 14 |
|
The Origins of Order: Self-Organization and Selection in Evolution
by
4.19 avg rating — 279 ratings
score: 287,
and
3 people voted
|
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| 15 |
|
The Cathedral & the Bazaar: Musings on Linux and Open Source by an Accidental Revolutionary
by
3.83 avg rating — 4,284 ratings
score: 274,
and
3 people voted
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| 16 |
|
The Self-Made Tapestry: Pattern Formation in Nature
by
4.39 avg rating — 166 ratings
score: 195,
and
2 people voted
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| 17 |
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Vehicles: Experiments in Synthetic Psychology
by
4.41 avg rating — 505 ratings
score: 194,
and
2 people voted
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| 18 |
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What Is Life? with Mind and Matter and Autobiographical Sketches
by
4.13 avg rating — 7,588 ratings
score: 188,
and
2 people voted
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| 19 |
|
The Structure and Dynamics of Networks
by
Mark Newman (Editor)
4.16 avg rating — 63 ratings
score: 180,
and
2 people voted
|
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| 20 |
|
The Difference: How the Power of Diversity Creates Better Groups, Firms, Schools, and Societies (The William G. Bowen Series)
by
3.81 avg rating — 314 ratings
score: 175,
and
2 people voted
|
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| 21 |
|
Emergence: From Chaos To Order
by
really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 268 ratings
score: 174,
and
2 people voted
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| 21 |
|
The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference
by
4.01 avg rating — 848,458 ratings
score: 174,
and
2 people voted
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| 23 |
|
At Home in the Universe: The Search for the Laws of Self-Organization and Complexity
by
4.02 avg rating — 1,428 ratings
score: 172,
and
2 people voted
|
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| 24 |
|
How Nature Works: The Science of Self-organized Criticality
by
4.02 avg rating — 333 ratings
score: 168,
and
2 people voted
|
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| 24 |
|
How the Leopard Changed Its Spots : The Evolution of Complexity
by
3.77 avg rating — 128 ratings
score: 168,
and
2 people voted
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| 26 |
|
The End of Certainty: Time, Chaos, and the New Laws of Nature
by
3.92 avg rating — 436 ratings
score: 167,
and
2 people voted
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| 27 |
|
Deep Simplicity: Bringing Order to Chaos and Complexity
by
3.97 avg rating — 1,478 ratings
score: 165,
and
2 people voted
|
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| 28 |
|
Why Big Fierce Animals Are Rare: An Ecologist's Perspective
by
4.18 avg rating — 268 ratings
score: 100,
and
1 person voted
|
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| 28 |
|
Seaweed Chronicles: A World at the Water’s Edge
by
3.87 avg rating — 527 ratings
score: 100,
and
1 person voted
|
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| 28 |
|
Making Things Work: Solving Complex Problems in a Complex World
by
3.81 avg rating — 102 ratings
score: 100,
and
1 person voted
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| 28 |
|
Scala: Le leggi universali della crescita, dell'innovazione, della sostenibilità e il ritmo di vita degli organismi, delle città, dell'economia e delle aziende
by
4.11 avg rating — 5,430 ratings
score: 100,
and
1 person voted
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| 28 |
|
Becoming Rooted: One Hundred Days of Reconnecting with Sacred Earth
by
4.39 avg rating — 222 ratings
score: 100,
and
1 person voted
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| 28 |
|
The Story of Humanity: Ecology & Consequence
by
Ishi Nobu (Goodreads Author)
4.92 avg rating — 12 ratings
score: 100,
and
1 person voted
|
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| 28 |
|
The Nature of Economies
by
3.80 avg rating — 498 ratings
score: 100,
and
1 person voted
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| 35 |
|
Bursts: The Hidden Pattern Behind Everything We Do
by
Albert-László Barabási (Goodreads Author)
3.31 avg rating — 1,082 ratings
score: 99,
and
1 person voted
|
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| 35 |
|
X-Events: The Collapse of Everything
by
3.34 avg rating — 232 ratings
score: 99,
and
1 person voted
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| 35 |
|
The Nature of Code
by
4.56 avg rating — 495 ratings
score: 99,
and
1 person voted
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| 35 |
|
Thinking In Systems: A Primer
by
4.19 avg rating — 21,362 ratings
score: 99,
and
1 person voted
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| 39 |
|
Networks, Crowds, and Markets: Reasoning about a Highly Connected World
by
4.16 avg rating — 305 ratings
score: 98,
and
1 person voted
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| 39 |
|
Complejidad
by
3.85 avg rating — 315 ratings
score: 98,
and
1 person voted
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| 39 |
|
Digraphs: Theory and Techniques
by
it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 1 rating
score: 98,
and
1 person voted
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| 39 |
|
Make Your Own Algorithmic Art
by
4.47 avg rating — 15 ratings
score: 98,
and
1 person voted
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| 43 |
|
Artificial Life: A Report from the Frontier Where Computers Meet Biology
by
Steven Levy (Goodreads Author)
really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 324 ratings
score: 97,
and
1 person voted
|
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| 44 |
|
Smart Mobs: The Next Social Revolution
by
Howard Rheingold (Goodreads Author)
3.77 avg rating — 864 ratings
score: 96,
and
1 person voted
|
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| 45 |
|
Small Worlds: The Dynamics of Networks between Order and Randomness
by
3.88 avg rating — 85 ratings
score: 95,
and
1 person voted
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| 46 |
|
Nexus: Small Worlds and the Groundbreaking Science of Networks
by
3.81 avg rating — 521 ratings
score: 94,
and
1 person voted
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| 47 |
|
The Quark and the Jaguar: Adventures in the Simple and the Complex
by
3.84 avg rating — 1,784 ratings
score: 92,
and
1 person voted
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| 48 |
|
Investigations
by
4.07 avg rating — 151 ratings
score: 91,
and
1 person voted
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| 48 |
|
Acquiring Genomes: A Theory Of The Origin Of Species
by
3.97 avg rating — 284 ratings
score: 91,
and
1 person voted
|
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| 50 |
|
Reinventing the Sacred: A New View of Science, Reason, and Religion
by
3.65 avg rating — 413 ratings
score: 89,
and
1 person voted
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| 50 |
|
Evolution as Entropy: Toward a Unified Theory of Biology
by
3.76 avg rating — 21 ratings
score: 89,
and
1 person voted
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| 52 |
|
The Evolution of Cooperation
by
4.25 avg rating — 2,303 ratings
score: 88,
and
1 person voted
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| 52 |
|
Evolving Hierarchical Systems: Their Structure and Representation
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really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 9 ratings
score: 88,
and
1 person voted
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| 54 |
|
Diffusion of Innovations
by
4.10 avg rating — 1,494 ratings
score: 87,
and
1 person voted
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| 55 |
|
Complexity: The Emerging Science at the Edge of Order and Chaos
by
4.05 avg rating — 3,115 ratings
score: 86,
and
1 person voted
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| 56 |
|
Harnessing Complexity
by
3.73 avg rating — 148 ratings
score: 85,
and
1 person voted
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| 57 |
|
Micromotives and Macrobehavior
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really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 1,179 ratings
score: 84,
and
1 person voted
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| 58 |
|
The Complexity of Cooperation: Agent-Based Models of Competition and Collaboration
by
4.01 avg rating — 201 ratings
score: 82,
and
1 person voted
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| 59 |
|
Six Degrees: The Science of a Connected Age
by
3.90 avg rating — 1,183 ratings
score: 81,
and
1 person voted
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| 60 |
|
Adaptation in Natural and Artificial Systems: An Introductory Analysis with Applications to Biology, Control, and Artificial Intelligence
by
3.89 avg rating — 71 ratings
score: 76,
and
1 person voted
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| 61 |
|
The Computational Beauty of Nature: Computer Explorations of Fractals, Chaos, Complex Systems, and Adaptation
by
4.37 avg rating — 268 ratings
score: 73,
and
1 person voted
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| 62 |
|
Complexity and Postmodernism: Understanding Complex Systems (Economies of Asia; 14)
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4.06 avg rating — 72 ratings
score: 72,
and
1 person voted
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62 books ·
39 voters ·
list created September 20th, 2013
by Paul Hartzog (votes) .
Anyone can add books to this list.
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