Chaotic Behavior in Systems
- Bigger than Chaos
- Michael Strevens
- Many complex systems--from immensely complicated ecosystems to minute assemblages of molecules--surprise us with their simple behavior. Consider, for instance, the snowflake, in which a great number of water molecules arrange themselves in patterns with six-way symmetry. How is it that molecules moving seemingly at random become organized according to the simple, six-fold rule? How do the comings, goings, meetings, and eatings of individual animals add up to the simple dynamics of ecosystem populations? More generally, how does complex and seemingly capricious microbehavior generate stable, predictable macrobehavior? In this book, Michael Strevens aims to explain how simplicity can coexist with, indeed be caused by, the tangled interconnections between a complex system's many parts.
- Hardcover 2003 / Paperback 2006
- The Mermaid’s Tale
- Kenneth M. Weiss
- Anne V. Buchanan
- Although relentless competitive natural selection is widely assumed to be the primary mover of evolutionary change, this book shows how life more generally works on the basis of cooperation. The book reveals that the focus on competition and cooperation is largely an artifact of the compression of time—a distortion that dissolves when the nature and origins of adapted life are viewed primarily from developmental and evolutionary time scales.
- Hardcover 2009