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More than the Sum of the Parts: Complexity in Physics and Beyond
From physics to information theory and cosmology, from the structure of animal societies to the linguistic analysis of human writing, systems consisting of many interacting constituents often show a collective behaviour not predictable from the interaction of the individual constituents. In
More than the Sum of the Parts, Helmut Satz addresses different forms of this complex behaviour, which have been thoroughly investigated only in the past decades. Although these studies originate in physics, the behaviour is found to be universal, ranging from the structure of the early universe to
the formation of flocks of birds, and to the frequency of words in literary texts. Complexity is thus becoming an increasingly important interdisciplinary field for future scientific research.
In a conceptual and non-technical way, Satz opens up this exciting field for a general readership and those studying any field of the natural sciences.
More than the Sum of the Parts, Helmut Satz addresses different forms of this complex behaviour, which have been thoroughly investigated only in the past decades. Although these studies originate in physics, the behaviour is found to be universal, ranging from the structure of the early universe to
the formation of flocks of birds, and to the frequency of words in literary texts. Complexity is thus becoming an increasingly important interdisciplinary field for future scientific research.
In a conceptual and non-technical way, Satz opens up this exciting field for a general readership and those studying any field of the natural sciences.
- GenresScience
160 pages, Hardcover
Published August 25, 2022
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
February 16, 2023
A great introduction and overview of complex systems.
The definition of complex system is itself ... well, not obvious. Sometimes complex feels like a synonym for not understood, but actually it's more precise than that, referring to systems whose processes can exhibit macro-scale behaviour that isn't simply the aggregation of the micro-scale behaviours of its components: the canonical example is that water freezes, but a single water molecule doesn't. Another approach is to use the term to describe systems where chains of cause and effect are difficult to disentangle.
Whichever definition you prefer, this is a gentle but still very scientific introduction. There's enough maths for it not to feel shallow, but little enough for it to be widely accessible even when dealing with concepts like entropy that are often a challenge to explain clearly. There's a really good discussion of criticality and universality, as well as the irreversibility of phase transitions such as sand pile transitions. It'd be a good introduction for students.
The definition of complex system is itself ... well, not obvious. Sometimes complex feels like a synonym for not understood, but actually it's more precise than that, referring to systems whose processes can exhibit macro-scale behaviour that isn't simply the aggregation of the micro-scale behaviours of its components: the canonical example is that water freezes, but a single water molecule doesn't. Another approach is to use the term to describe systems where chains of cause and effect are difficult to disentangle.
Whichever definition you prefer, this is a gentle but still very scientific introduction. There's enough maths for it not to feel shallow, but little enough for it to be widely accessible even when dealing with concepts like entropy that are often a challenge to explain clearly. There's a really good discussion of criticality and universality, as well as the irreversibility of phase transitions such as sand pile transitions. It'd be a good introduction for students.
Displaying 1 of 1 review