Thinking in Complexity

Klaus Mainzer

• 01 april 1996
• 9783540606376

Samenvatting:

The theory of nonlinear complex systems has become a successful problem-solving approach in the natural sciences from laser physics, quantum chaos, and meteorology to computer simulations of cell growth in biology. It is now recognized that many of our social, ecological, and political problems are also of a global, complex, and nonlinear nature. One of the most exciting contemporary topics is the idea that even the human mind is governed largely by the nonlinear dynamics of complex systems. This text offers a wide-ranging but concise treatment and discusses, in a nontechnical language, the common framework behind these endeavours. Emphasis is given to the evolution of new structures in natural and cultural systems and we see clearly how the new integrative approach can give insights not available from traditional reductionistic methods. This revised edition also treats smart materials and artificial life.