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From: gal2@kimbark.uchicago.edu (Jacob Galley)
Subject: Recommend intro to complex sys theory
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Date: Tue, 30 May 1995 17:23:08 GMT
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brown@altair.krl.caltech.edu (C. Titus Brown) writes:
>
>ObQuark&Jaguar: I found it extremely hard to get through the first several
>chapters; Gell-Mann is not used to light writing, and it shows.  Not recommended
>as an introduction to complexity or SFI, although it does espouse Gell-Mann's
>particular viewpoint (which may or may not be worth listening to).

I have not touched any of the recent books about "complexity" aimed at
laymen.  The one I have picked up is _The Origins of Order_ by Stuart
Kauffman (Oxford, 1993).  The book is intimidatingly big and dense,
but Kauffman's writing is surprisingly clear and he takes the time to
review basic concepts like phase space and fractal dimension.  His
topic is specifically self-organization in evolution.  I don't know
exactly what "complexity" refers to, but I am guessing there is some
overlap between the buzzword and Kauffman's work.

Jake.

-- 
The artificial sundering of res cogitans and res extensa is the heritage of
dualism, with the extrusion between them of LIFE---this double-faced ontology
of death creates problems which it has rendered unsolvable from the start.
								<-- Hans Jonas
