A Crude Look At The Whole

Download or read book A Crude Look at the Whole written by John H. Miller and published by Basic Books. This book was released on 2016-01-05 with total page 268 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A top expert explains why a social and economic understanding of complex systems will help society to anticipate and confront our biggest challenges Imagine trying to understand a stained glass window by breaking it into pieces and examining it one shard at a time. While you could probably learn a lot about each piece, you would have no idea about what the entire picture looks like. This is reductionism -- the idea that to understand the world we only need to study its pieces -- and it is how most social scientists approach their work. In A Crude Look at the Whole, social scientist and economist John H. Miller shows why we need to start looking at whole pictures. For one thing, whether we are talking about stock markets, computer networks, or biological organisms, individual parts only make sense when we remember that they are part of larger wholes. And perhaps more importantly, those wholes can take on behaviors that are strikingly different from that of their pieces. Miller, a leading expert in the computational study of complex adaptive systems, reveals astounding global patterns linking the organization of otherwise radically different structures: It might seem crude, but a beehive's temperature control system can help predict market fluctuations and a mammal's heartbeat can help us understand the "heartbeat" of a city and adapt urban planning accordingly. From enduring racial segregation to sudden stock market disasters, once we start drawing links between complex systems, we can start solving what otherwise might be totally intractable problems. Thanks to this revolutionary perspective, we can finally transcend the limits of reductionism and discover crucial new ideas. Scientifically founded and beautifully written, A Crude Look at the Whole is a powerful exploration of the challenges that we face as a society. As it reveals, taking the crude look might be the only way to truly see.

Download or read book Global Sustainability written by Hans Joachim Schellnhuber and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2010-02-18 with total page 413 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Interdisciplinary exploration of the best scientific and political strategies to attain global sustainability, from many Nobel Prize-winning and other high-profile authors.

Download or read book Rock, Paper, Scissors written by Len Fisher and published by Basic Books. This book was released on 2008-11-04 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Praised by Entertainment Weekly as “the man who put the fizz into physics,” Dr. Len Fisher turns his attention to the science of cooperation in his lively and thought-provoking book. Fisher shows how the modern science of game theory has helped biologists to understand the evolution of cooperation in nature, and investigates how we might apply those lessons to our own society. In a series of experiments that take him from the polite confines of an English dinner party to crowded supermarkets, congested Indian roads, and the wilds of outback Australia, not to mention baseball strategies and the intricacies of quantum mechanics, Fisher sheds light on the problem of global cooperation. The outcomes are sometimes hilarious, sometimes alarming, but always revealing. A witty romp through a serious science, Rock, Paper, Scissors will both teach and delight anyone interested in what it what it takes to get people to work together.

Download or read book Rethinking Civilizational Analysis written by Said Amir Arjomand and published by SAGE. This book was released on 2004-06-09 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Although the concept of 'civilization' has deep roots in the social sciences, there is an urgent need to re-think it for contemporary times. Rethinking Civilizational Analysis points to an exhaustion in using 'the nation state' and 'world system' as the basic macro-units of social analysis because they do not get to grips with the 'soft power' variable of cultural factors involved in global aspects of development.

Download or read book Crude Awakening written by Amanda Coyne and published by Bold Type Books. This book was released on 2011-11-08 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Presents a history of the Alaskan oil industry, revealing political corruption, the FBI's investigation, and how these events will influence American politics.

Download or read book Talking Back to the Machine written by Peter J. Denning and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 1999-06-04 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The success of Beyond Calculation led the ACM to produce this sequel, Talking Back to the Machine. This book captures the visions of the nineteen speakers at the ACM conference, most of whom were not represented in Beyond Calculation. Renowned experts all, they ponder how computers will influence the ways we function as individuals and within society in coming decades.

Download or read book Principles of Systems Science written by George E. Mobus and published by Springer. This book was released on 2014-11-10 with total page 782 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This pioneering text provides a comprehensive introduction to systems structure, function, and modeling as applied in all fields of science and engineering. Systems understanding is increasingly recognized as a key to a more holistic education and greater problem solving skills, and is also reflected in the trend toward interdisciplinary approaches to research on complex phenomena. While the concepts and components of systems science will continue to be distributed throughout the various disciplines, undergraduate degree programs in systems science are also being developed, including at the authors’ own institutions. However, the subject is approached, systems science as a basis for understanding the components and drivers of phenomena at all scales should be viewed with the same importance as a traditional liberal arts education. Principles of Systems Science contains many graphs, illustrations, side bars, examples, and problems to enhance understanding. From basic principles of organization, complexity, abstract representations, and behavior (dynamics) to deeper aspects such as the relations between information, knowledge, computation, and system control, to higher order aspects such as auto-organization, emergence and evolution, the book provides an integrated perspective on the comprehensive nature of systems. It ends with practical aspects such as systems analysis, computer modeling, and systems engineering that demonstrate how the knowledge of systems can be used to solve problems in the real world. Each chapter is broken into parts beginning with qualitative descriptions that stand alone for students who have taken intermediate algebra. The second part presents quantitative descriptions that are based on pre-calculus and advanced algebra, providing a more formal treatment for students who have the necessary mathematical background. Numerous examples of systems from every realm of life, including the physical and biological sciences, humanities, social sciences, engineering, pre-med and pre-law, are based on the fundamental systems concepts of boundaries, components as subsystems, processes as flows of materials, energy, and messages, work accomplished, functions performed, hierarchical structures, and more. Understanding these basics enables further understanding both of how systems endure and how they may become increasingly complex and exhibit new properties or characteristics. Serves as a textbook for teaching systems fundamentals in any discipline or for use in an introductory course in systems science degree programs Addresses a wide range of audiences with different levels of mathematical sophistication Includes open-ended questions in special boxes intended to stimulate integrated thinking and class discussion Describes numerous examples of systems in science and society Captures the trend towards interdisciplinary research and problem solving