Complexity

The Emerging Science at the Edge of Order and Chaos

By: M. Mitchell Waldrop

Narrated by: Mikael Naramore

“If you liked Chaos, you’ll love Complexity. Waldrop creates the most exciting intellectual adventure story of the year” (The Washington Post).

In a rarified world of scientific research, a revolution has been brewing. Its activists are not anarchists, but rather Nobel Laureates in physics and economics and pony-tailed graduates, mathematicians, and computer scientists from all over the world. They have formed an iconoclastic think-tank and their radical idea is to create a new science: complexity. They want to know how a primordial soup of simple molecules managed to turn itself into the first living cell--and what the origin of life some four billion years ago can tell us about the process of technological innovation today.

This book is their story--the story of how they have tried to forge what they like to call the science of the 21st century.

“Lucidly shows physicists, biologists, computer scientists and economists swapping metaphors and reveling in the sense that epochal discoveries are just around the corner...[Waldrop] has a special talent for relaying the exhilaration of moments of intellectual insight.” (The New York Times Book Review)

“Where I enjoyed the book was when it dove into the actual question of complexity, talking about complex systems in economics, biology, genetics, computer modeling, and so on. Snippets of rare beauty here and there almost took your breath away.” (Medium)

“[Waldrop] provides a good grounding of what may indeed be the first flowering of a new science.” (Publishers Weekly)

Cover design by Mauricio Díaz

©1995 M. Mitchell Waldrop (P)2020 Audible, Inc.

An overview of the Science of Complexity through the story of the creation of the Santa Fe Institute.

This book is very engaging through its story telling, it brings up fundamental train of thoughts narrative of different contributor of the Santa Fe Institute. It conveys the "human" aspect of how Science breakthrough can emerge through honest and open collaborations of different field of Science. In a "Meta"-way, the author illustrates very well how the different point of view merge to create something bigger than itself, the Santa Fe Institute. It is a bit light on the Science side but highly enjoyable nonetheless.

Worth the read

It’s been over 2 years and I still think about this book often. I didn’t expect to gain such a comprehensive understanding of biology and how closed systems starting with simple rules could expand into into much more complex emergent patterns. This book also highlights the importance of interdisciplinary research which I’m happy to see appears to be becoming more mainstream as more people realize that many subjects actually mesh together in interesting unexpected ways.

Excellent book on the development of complexity

This is one of the earliest popular account of the concept of complexity. More than twenty years after its publication, listening to it, I am still surprised by its relevance and clarity in explaining a lot of “complex” topics. I think It’s a classic and a must read to getting into the door of the science of complexity. Vivid biographies and stories of main founding characters of the new science are bonuses to the theoretical explanation of the main concepts of the interdisciplinary science.

History with a side of Science

While it covers the basic concepts, it's mostly just the story of the scientists that made up a specific field

Very good

If you are interested in the story, it's very well told. Well written and well narrated.