77 Best Chaos Theory Books of All Time
We've researched and ranked the best chaos theory books in the world, based on recommendations from world experts, sales data, and millions of reader ratings. Learn more
Featuring recommendations from Charles T. Munger, Malcolm Gladwell, Richard Branson, and 82 other experts. 1
Few writers distinguish themselves by their ability to write about complicated, even obscure topics clearly and engagingly. In Chaos, James Gleick, a former science writer for the New York Times, shows that he resides in this exclusive category. Here he takes on the job of depicting the first years of the study of chaos--the seemingly random patterns that characterise many natural phenomena.
This is not a purely technical book. Instead, it focuses as much on the scientists studying chaos as on the chaos itself. In the pages of Gleick's book, the reader meets dozens of...
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Pedro G FerreiraIt turns out that even simple equations can have such complicated behaviour that, in practice, it’s impossible to predict the outcome, which is described as ‘chaotic’. (Source)
Adam MaloofJames Gleick is a former science writer for the New York Times and in this book Gleick describes the science of chaos, and how complex systems can also be interpreted in terms of simple rules and simple (but interacting) behaviours. (Source)
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The legendary introduction to physics from the subject's greatest teacher
"The whole thing was basically an experiment," Richard Feynman said late in his career, looking back on the origins of his lectures. The experiment turned out to be hugely successful, spawning a book that has remained a definitive introduction to physics for decades. Ranging from the most basic principles of Newtonian physics through such formidable theories as general relativity and quantum mechanics, Feynman's lectures stand as a monument of clear exposition and deep insight. Now, we are reintroducing the... more
"The whole thing was basically an experiment," Richard Feynman said late in his career, looking back on the origins of his lectures. The experiment turned out to be hugely successful, spawning a book that has remained a definitive introduction to physics for decades. Ranging from the most basic principles of Newtonian physics through such formidable theories as general relativity and quantum mechanics, Feynman's lectures stand as a monument of clear exposition and deep insight. Now, we are reintroducing the... more
Bill GatesYou don't have to take a course [to learn physics]. If you're hardcore, read the Feynman book and do the problems. (Source)
David BainbridgeI think that he is one of the most intelligent people to live in the 20th century. Yet at the same time, surprisingly, he is an amazingly good teacher. This is quite an unusual combination. (Source)
3
Why did the stock market crash more than 500 points on a single Monday in 1987? Why do ancient species often remain stable in the fossil record for millions of years and then suddenly disappear? In a world where nice guys often finish last, why do humans value trust and cooperation? At first glance these questions don't appear to have anything in common, but in fact every one of these statements refers to a complex system. The science of complexity studies how single elements, such as a species or a stock, spontaneously organize into complicated structures like ecosystems and economies; stars... more
Bill GurleyThis is such a great point. This is the essence of Complexity Theory. With complex systems (multi-variable, nonlinear), you have no idea if the variable you are using for analysis will hold over the long term. Read this book, it changes everything - https://t.co/Z1ySFSb4pd https://t.co/rht8SzZ76l (Source)
Ryan Petersen@trengriffin @mjmauboussin @bgurley Which one is better? I love Waldrop, never found a better complexity book (besides Big History, great courses) (Source)
Pedro G FerreiraIdeas of complexity have not been applied to cosmology as much as I think they should be. (Source)
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Over the past two decades, no field of scientific inquiry has had a more striking impact across a wide array of disciplines–from biology to physics, computing to meteorology–than that known as chaos and complexity, the study of complex systems. Now astrophysicist John Gribbin draws on his expertise to explore, in prose that communicates not only the wonder but the substance of cutting-edge science, the principles behind chaos and complexity. He reveals the remarkable ways these two revolutionary theories have been applied over the last twenty years to explain all sorts of phenomena–from... more
Recommended by Charles T. Munger, and 1 others. Charles T. Munger… it's pretty hard to understand everything, but if you can't understand it, you can always give it to a more intelligent friend. (Source)
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Esta apasionante lectura nos descubre la naturaleza de los procesos arbitrarios de la vida cotidiana y cambia para siempre la percepción que tenemos de ellos. En 1905 Albert Einstein publicó una impactante explicación sobre el movimiento browniano -el movimiento arbitrario de partículas- comparándolo con la clase de movimiento que se observaría en el caminar de un borracho. La comparación se convirtió desde entonces en una poderosa herramienta para entender el movimiento puramente arbitrario que, por definición, no tiene ningún modelo específico.
En este nuevo libro, Leonard Mlodinow... more
En este nuevo libro, Leonard Mlodinow... more
David SpiegelhalterThis is a general introduction to the history of probability and the way it comes into everyday life. It intersperses the historical development with modern applications, and looks at finance, sport, gambling, lotteries and coincidences. (Source)
Gabriel CoarnaLeonard Mlodinow's "The Drunkarkd's Walk" -more precisely, the section on the "Monty Hall" problem- totally changed how I look-at/think-about probabilities and choices in general; this has impacted almost every real-life choice I've made since I read this book. (Source)
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The tendency to synchronize may be the most mysterious and pervasive drive in all of nature. It has intrigued some of the most brilliant minds of the 20th century, including Albert Einstein, Richard Feynman, Norbert Wiener, Brian Josephson, and Arthur Winfree. At once elegant and riveting, Sync tells the story of the dawn of a new science. Steven Strogatz, a leading mathematician in the fields of chaos and complexity theory, explains how enormous systems can synchronize themselves, from the electrons in a superconductor to the pacemaker cells in our hearts. He shows that although... more
Recommended by Morten Kringelbach, and 1 others. Morten KringelbachSteven Strogatz is a wonderful scientist. He is both a mathematician and a physicist. He’s done a lot of work on understanding non-linear systems. The reason I’ve chosen this book is that if we really want to understand the language of the brain we have to engage with these very powerful concepts of how it is that things are synchronised. This is a book for the general public that tries to relay... (Source)
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This textbook is aimed at newcomers to nonlinear dynamics and chaos. The presentation stresses analytical methods, concrete examples, and geometric intuition. A unique feature of the book is its emphasis on applications. These include mechanical vibrations, lasers, biological rhythms, superconducting circuits, insect outbreaks, chemical oscillators, genetic control systems, chaotic waterwheels, and even a technique for using chaos to send secret messages. In each case, the scientific background is explained at an elementary level and closely integrated with mathematical theory.
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An astonishing technique for recovering and cloning dinosaur DNA has been discovered. Now humankind’s most thrilling fantasies have come true. Creatures extinct for eons roam Jurassic Park with their awesome presence and profound mystery, and all the world can visit them—for a price.
Until something goes wrong. . . .
In Jurassic Park, Michael Crichton taps all his mesmerizing talent and scientific brilliance to create his most electrifying technothriller. less
Until something goes wrong. . . .
In Jurassic Park, Michael Crichton taps all his mesmerizing talent and scientific brilliance to create his most electrifying technothriller. less
Recommended by Richard Branson, and 1 others. Richard BransonToday is World Book Day, a wonderful opportunity to address this #ChallengeRichard sent in by Mike Gonzalez of New Jersey: Make a list of your top 65 books to read in a lifetime. (Source)
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Pop culture, chaos theory and matters of the heart collide in this unique novella from the Hugo and Nebula winning author of Doomsday Book.
Sandra Foster studies fads and their meanings for the HiTek corporation. Bennet O'Reilly works with monkey group behavior and chaos theory for the same company. When the two are thrust together due to a misdelivered package and a run of seemingly bad luck, they find a joint project in a flock of sheep. But series of setbacks and disappointments arise before they are able to find answers to their questions. less
Sandra Foster studies fads and their meanings for the HiTek corporation. Bennet O'Reilly works with monkey group behavior and chaos theory for the same company. When the two are thrust together due to a misdelivered package and a run of seemingly bad luck, they find a joint project in a flock of sheep. But series of setbacks and disappointments arise before they are able to find answers to their questions. less
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Steve JurvetsonA series of epiphanies from [the author] and others that the world is really interesting when you look at iterative algorithms applied millions and billions of times. (Source)
Don't have time to read the top Chaos Theory books of all time? Read Shortform summaries.
Shortform summaries help you learn 10x faster by:
- Being comprehensive: you learn the most important points in the book
- Cutting out the fluff: you focus your time on what's important to know
- Interactive exercises: apply the book's ideas to your own life with our educators' guidance.
11
The revised and updated edition includes three completely new chapters on the prediction and control of chaotic systems. It also incorporates new information regarding the solar system and an account of complexity theory. This witty, lucid and engaging book makes the complex mathematics of chaos accessible and entertaining. Presents complex mathematics in an accessible style. Includes three new chapters on prediction in chaotic systems, control of chaotic systems, and on the concept of chaos. Provides a discussion of complexity theory. less
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In 1992, Leadership and the New Science launched a revolution by demonstrating that ideas drawn from quantum physics, chaos theory, and molecular biology could improve organizational performance. Margaret Wheatley called for free-flowing information, individual empowerment, relationship networks, and organizational change that evolves organically -- ideas that have become commonplace. This new edition includes a new chapter that examines the relationship of change to identity. less
Recommended by Susan Mazza, and 1 others. 
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In this clear, engaging book, Robin Robertson draws parallels between alchemy and chaos theory and shows how to apply them to our inner development. He is not proposing they replace traditional spiritual paths, but rather that they reflect deep structures in the psyche that any inner journey awakens. The model they provide necessarily underlies all paths of spiritual transformation and describes a framework for the stages through which any seeker goes. No matter what your particular calling, these insights enrich understanding of the transformative process, whether outside in the world, or... more
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The fate of Rodimus and the Matrix of Leadership is finally revealed in this newest story arc of "Transformers, Chaos Theory". The situation on Earth continues to deteriorate while we shift focus to outer space where Rodimus was last seen dead! But, after crash landing on a strange planet, Rodimus struggles to find a way back to Earth and the Autobot forces...until a few familiar faces show up to help and a new threat to Cybertron is revealed. less
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An authoritative handbook, this volume offers both a comprehensive review of the current science of mindfulness and a guide to its ongoing evolution. Leading scholars explore mindfulness in the context of contemporary psychological theories of attention, perceptual processing, motivation, and behavior, as well as within a rich cross-disciplinary dialogue with the contemplative traditions. After surveying basic research from neurobiological, cognitive, emotional/affective, and interpersonal perspectives, the book delves into applications of mindfulness practice in healthy and clinical... more
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Until recently, such phenomena as the volatility of weather systems, the fluctuation of the shock market, or the random firing of neurons in the brain were considered too "noisy" and complex to be probed by science. But now, with the aid of high-speed computers, scientists have been able to penetrate a reality that is changing the way we perceive the universe. Their findings -- the basis for chaos theory -- represent one of the most exciting scientific pursuits of our time.
No better introduction to this find could be found than John Briggs and F. David Peat's Turbulent... more
No better introduction to this find could be found than John Briggs and F. David Peat's Turbulent... more
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If you have ever felt your life was out of control and headed toward chaos,science has an important message: Life is chaos, and that's a very exciting thing!
In this eye-opening book, John Briggs and F. David Peat reveal sevenenlightening lessons for embracing the chaos of daily life.
Be Creative:
engage with chaos to find imaginative new solutions and live more dynamically
Use Butterfly Power:
let chaos grow local efforts into global results
Go With the Flow:
use chaos to... more
In this eye-opening book, John Briggs and F. David Peat reveal sevenenlightening lessons for embracing the chaos of daily life.
Be Creative:
engage with chaos to find imaginative new solutions and live more dynamically
Use Butterfly Power:
let chaos grow local efforts into global results
Go With the Flow:
use chaos to... more
20
Clouds are not spheres, mountains are not cones, and lightning does not travel in a straight line. The complexity of nature's shapes differs in kind, not merely degree, from that of the shapes of ordinary geometry, the geometry of fractal shapes.
Now that the field has expanded greatly with many active researchers, Mandelbrot presents the definitive overview of the origins of his ideas and their new applications. The Fractal Geometry of Nature is based on his highly acclaimed earlier work, but has much broader and deeper coverage and more extensive illustrations. less
Now that the field has expanded greatly with many active researchers, Mandelbrot presents the definitive overview of the origins of his ideas and their new applications. The Fractal Geometry of Nature is based on his highly acclaimed earlier work, but has much broader and deeper coverage and more extensive illustrations. less
Don't have time to read the top Chaos Theory books of all time? Read Shortform summaries.
Shortform summaries help you learn 10x faster by:
- Being comprehensive: you learn the most important points in the book
- Cutting out the fluff: you focus your time on what's important to know
- Interactive exercises: apply the book's ideas to your own life with our educators' guidance.
21
Los biólogos moleculares han descubierto los elementos fundamentales para la construcción de la vida, pero ello no les ha ayudado en su comprensión de las acciones integradoras vitales de los organismos vivos. Recientemente, ha ido emergiendo un nuevo lenguaje para la comprensión de los complejos sistemas vivos. Diversos científicos le otorgan distintos nombres: «teoría de los sistemas dinámicos», «teoría de la complejidad», «dinámica no-lineal», «dinámica de redes», etc. Los atractores caóticos, los fractales, las estructuras disipativas, la auto-organización y las redes autopoiésicas, son... more
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In the 1980's, James Gleick's Chaos introduced the world to complexity. Now, Albert-László Barabási's Linked reveals the next major scientific leap: the study of networks. We've long suspected that we live in a small world, where everything is connected to everything else. Indeed, networks are pervasive--from the human brain to the Internet to the economy to our group of friends. These linkages, it turns out, aren't random. All networks, to the great surprise of scientists, have an underlying order and follow simple laws. Understanding the structure and behavior of these networks will help us... more
Anne-Marie SlaughterLinked is about how to understand the world in terms of networks. To understand network science the first thing to do is to visualise the world the way you visualise the Internet or even the universe – hubs of infinitely intersecting networks. As the author says, everything can be reduced to links and nodes. This book is a very accessible introduction to the science of networks and to how to... (Source)
Bill BarhydtWritten before Facebook, this book predicts what the world will look like with amazing precision. (Source)
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Network science offers a powerful language to represent and study complex systems composed of interacting elements — from the Internet to social and biological systems. In its standard formulation, this framework relies on the assumption that the underlying topology is static, or changing very slowly as compared to dynamical processes taking place on it, e.g., epidemic spreading or navigation. Fuelled by the increasing availability of longitudinal networked data, recent empirical observations have shown that this assumption is not valid in a variety of situations. Instead, often the network... more
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Almost 12 years have passed by since we wrote Chaos and Fractals. At the time we were hoping that our approach of writing a book which would be both accessible without mathematical sophistication and portray these exiting new fields in an authentic manner would find an audience. Now we know it did. We know from many reviews and personal letters that the book is used in a wide range of ways: researchers use it to acquaint themselves, teachers use it in college and university courses, students use it for background reading, and there is also a substantial audience of lay people who just want to... more
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What makes the 21st century different from the 20th century? This century is the century of extremes -- political, economic, social, and global black-swan events happening with increasing frequency and severity. Book of Extremes is a tour of the current reality as seen through the lens of complexity theory the only theory capable of explaining why the Arab Spring happened and why it will happen again; why social networks in the virtual world behave like flashmobs in the physical world; why financial bubbles blow up in our faces and will grow and burst again; why the rich get richer and will... more
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Don't have time to read the top Chaos Theory books of all time? Read Shortform summaries.
Shortform summaries help you learn 10x faster by:
- Being comprehensive: you learn the most important points in the book
- Cutting out the fluff: you focus your time on what's important to know
- Interactive exercises: apply the book's ideas to your own life with our educators' guidance.
31
This is the first volume of the series Ages in Chaos, in which Immanuel Velikovsky undertakes a reconstruction of the history of antiquity. With utmost precision and the exciting style of a presentation that's typical for him he shows, beyond doubt, what nobody would consider possible: in the conventional history of Egypt - and therefore also of many neighboring cultures - a span of 600 years is described, which has never happened! This assertion is as unbelievable and outrageous as the assertions in Worlds in Collision or Earth in Upheaval. But Velikovsky takes us on a detailed and highly... more
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Belgian philosopher Isabelle Stengers and Ilya Prigogine, winner of the Nobel Prize in 1977 for his work on the thermodynamics of non-equilibrium systems, make their ideas accessible to a wide audience in this book, which has engendered massive debate in Europe and America. Stengers and Prigogine show how the two great themes of classic science, order and chaos, which coexisted uneasily for centuries, are being reconciled in a new and unexpected synthesis.
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This introduction to applied nonlinear dynamics and chaos places emphasis on teaching the techniques and ideas that will enable students to take specific dynamical systems and obtain some quantitative information about their behavior. The new edition has been updated and extended throughout, and contains a detailed glossary of terms.
From the reviews:
"Will serve as one of the most eminent introductions to the geometric theory of dynamical systems." --Monatshefte f�r Mathematik less
From the reviews:
"Will serve as one of the most eminent introductions to the geometric theory of dynamical systems." --Monatshefte f�r Mathematik less
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This book presents elements of the theory of chaos in dynamical systems in a framework of theoretical understanding coupled with numerical and graphical experimentation. The theory is developed using only elementary calculus and algebra, and includes dynamics of one-and two-dimensional maps, periodic orbits, stability and its quantification, chaotic behavior, and bifurcation theory of one-dimensional systems. There is an introduction to the theory of fractals, with an emphasis on the importance of scaling, and a concluding chapter on ordinary differential equations. The accompanying software,... more
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This textbook is aimed at newcomers to nonlinear dynamics and chaos, especially students taking a first course in the subject. The presentation stresses analytical methods, concrete examples, and geometric intuition. The theory is developed systematically, starting with first-order differential equations and their bifurcations, followed by phase plane analysis, limit cycles and their bifurcations, and culminating with the Lorenz equations, chaos, iterated maps, period doubling, renormalization, fractals, and strange attractors. less
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The book covers the syllabus for Engineering chemistry course offered to first year B.E/B.Tech students of various India University less
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X-23 thought she'd walked away from her past. But in the wake of her brutal discoveries in Madripoor, she realizes there are some crimes - of the heart and body - that cannot be so easily forgotten. Yet as memories begin to spin her out of control, an old mentor and an uneasy ally return to her life: Wolverine and the vampire Jubilee. COLLECTING: X-23 10-16 less
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This book represents the best of the first three years of the Society for Chaos Theory in Psychology conferences. While chaos theory has been a topic of considerable interest in the physical and biological sciences, its applications in psychology and related fields have been obscured until recently by its complexity. Nevertheless, a small but rapidly growing community of psychologists, neurobiologists, sociologists, mathematicians, and philosophers have been coming together to discuss its implications and explore its research possibilities.
Chaos theory has been termed the first... more
Chaos theory has been termed the first... more
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Introduction to the Modeling and Analysis of Complex Systems introduces students to mathematical/computational modeling and analysis developed in the emerging interdisciplinary field of Complex Systems Science. Complex systems are systems made of a large number of microscopic components interacting with each other in nontrivial ways. Many real-world systems can be understood as complex systems, where critically important information resides in the relationships between the parts and not necessarily within the parts themselves. This textbook offers an accessible yet technically-oriented... more
Don't have time to read the top Chaos Theory books of all time? Read Shortform summaries.
Shortform summaries help you learn 10x faster by:
- Being comprehensive: you learn the most important points in the book
- Cutting out the fluff: you focus your time on what's important to know
- Interactive exercises: apply the book's ideas to your own life with our educators' guidance.
41
After the economic meltdown of 2008, Warren Buffett famously warned, “beware of geeks bearing formulas.” But as James Weatherall demonstrates, not all geeks are created equal. While many of the mathematicians and software engineers on Wall Street failed when their abstractions turned ugly in practice, a special breed of physicists has a much deeper history of revolutionizing finance. Taking us from fin-de-siècle Paris to Rat Pack-era Las Vegas, from wartime government labs to Yippie communes on the Pacific coast, Weatherall shows how physicists successfully brought their science to bear on... more
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Chaos surrounds us. Seemingly random events -- the flapping of a flag, a storm-driven wave striking the shore, a pinball's path -- often appear to have no order, no rational pattern. Explicating the theory of chaos and the consequences of its principal findings -- that actual, precise rules may govern such apparently random behavior -- has been a major part of the work of Edward N. Lorenz. In The Essence of Chaos, Lorenz presents to the general reader the features of this "new science," with its far-reaching implications for much of modern life, from weather prediction to philosophy,... more
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Chaos and Dynamical Systems presents an accessible, clear introduction to dynamical systems and chaos theory, important and exciting areas that have shaped many scientific fields. While the rules governing dynamical systems are well-specified and simple, the behavior of many dynamical systems is remarkably complex. Of particular note, simple deterministic dynamical systems produce output that appears random and for which long-term prediction is impossible. Using little math beyond basic algebra, David Feldman gives readers a grounded, concrete, and concise overview.
In... more
In... more
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In this important book, John H. Holland dramatically shows us that the “emergence” of order from disorder has much to teach us about life, mind and organizations. Creative activities in both the arts and the sciences depend upon an ability to model the world. The most creative of those models exhibits emergent properties, so that “what comes out is more than what goes in.” From the ingenious checkers-playing computer that started beating its creator in game after game, to the emotive creations of the poet, Emergence shows that Holland’s theory successfully predicts many complex... more
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A major scientific revolution has begun, a new paradigm that rivals Darwin's theory in importance. At its heart is the discovery of the order that lies deep within the most complex of systems, from the origin of life, to the workings of giant corporations, to the rise and fall of great civilizations. And more than anyone else, this revolution is the work of one man, Stuart Kauffman, a MacArthur Fellow and visionary pioneer of the new science of complexity. Now, in At Home in the Universe, Kauffman brilliantly weaves together the excitement of intellectual discovery and a fertile mix of... more
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While creativity plays an important role in the advancement of computer science, great ideas are built on a foundation of practical experience and knowledge. This book presents programming techniques which will be useful in both AI projects and more conventional software engineering endeavors. My primary goal is to enter- tain, to introduce new technologies and to provide reusable software modules for the computer programmer who enjoys using programs as models for solutions to hard and interesting problems. If this book succeeds in entertaining, then it will certainly also educate. I selected... more
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Russ Marion describes formal and social organizations from the perspective of chaos and complexity theories. The book is generously illustrated and includes references plus an annotated bibliography. less
Don't have time to read the top Chaos Theory books of all time? Read Shortform summaries.
Shortform summaries help you learn 10x faster by:
- Being comprehensive: you learn the most important points in the book
- Cutting out the fluff: you focus your time on what's important to know
- Interactive exercises: apply the book's ideas to your own life with our educators' guidance.
51
Time, the fundamental dimension of our existence, has fascinated artists, philosophers, and scientists of every culture and every century. All of us can remember a moment as a child when time became a personal reality, when we realized what a "year" was, or asked ourselves when "now" happened. Common sense says time moves forward, never backward, from cradle to grave. Nevertheless, Einstein said that time is an illusion. Nature's laws, as he and Newton defined them, describe a timeless, deterministic universe within which we can make predictions with complete certainty. In effect, these great... more
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Why do catastrophes happen? What sets off earthquakes, for example? What about mass extinctions of species? The outbreak of major wars? Massive traffic jams that seem to appear out of nowhere? Why does the stock market periodically suffer dramatic crashes? Why do some forest fires become superheated infernos that rage totally out of control?
Experts have never been able to explain the causes of any of these disasters. Now scientists have discovered that these seemingly unrelated cataclysms, both natural and human, almost certainly all happen for one fundamental reason. More than... more
Experts have never been able to explain the causes of any of these disasters. Now scientists have discovered that these seemingly unrelated cataclysms, both natural and human, almost certainly all happen for one fundamental reason. More than... more
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This official Student Solutions Manual includes solutions to the odd-numbered exercises featured in the second edition of Steven Strogatz's classic text Nonlinear Dynamics and Chaos: With Applications to Physics, Biology, Chemistry, and Engineering. The textbook and accompanying Student Solutions Manual are aimed at newcomers to nonlinear dynamics and chaos, especially students taking a first course in the subject. Complete with graphs and worked-out solutions, this manual demonstrates techniques for students to analyze differential equations, bifurcations, chaos, fractals, and other... more
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The new "sine" of mathematical geekdom!
Do you dream about long division in your sleep? Does the thought of solving abstruse equations bring a smile to your face? Do you love celebrating pi every March? Then, Math Geek was made for you! With this guide, you'll learn even more about the power of numbers as you explore their brilliant nature in ways you've never imagined. From manhole covers to bubbles to subway maps, each page gives you a glimpse of the world through renowned mathematicians' eyes and reveals how their theorems and equations can be applied to nearly everything... more
Do you dream about long division in your sleep? Does the thought of solving abstruse equations bring a smile to your face? Do you love celebrating pi every March? Then, Math Geek was made for you! With this guide, you'll learn even more about the power of numbers as you explore their brilliant nature in ways you've never imagined. From manhole covers to bubbles to subway maps, each page gives you a glimpse of the world through renowned mathematicians' eyes and reveals how their theorems and equations can be applied to nearly everything... more
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This authoritative work brings together leading play therapists to describe state-of-the-art clinical approaches and applications. The book explains major theoretical frameworks and summarizes the contemporary play therapy research base, including compelling findings from neuroscience. Contributors present effective strategies for treating children struggling with such problems as trauma, maltreatment, attachment difficulties, bullying, rage, grief, and autism spectrum disorder. Practice principles are brought to life in vivid case illustrations throughout the volume. Special topics include... more
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When a leaf falls on a windy day, it drifts and tumbles, tossed every which way on the breeze. This is chaos in action. In Fly Me to the Moon, Edward Belbruno shows how to harness the same principle for low-fuel space travel--or, as he puts it, surfing the gravitational field.
Belbruno devised one of the most exciting concepts now being used in space flight, that of swinging through the cosmos on the subtle fluctuations of the planets' gravitational pulls. His idea was met with skepticism until 1991, when he used it to get a stray Japanese satellite back on course to... more
Belbruno devised one of the most exciting concepts now being used in space flight, that of swinging through the cosmos on the subtle fluctuations of the planets' gravitational pulls. His idea was met with skepticism until 1991, when he used it to get a stray Japanese satellite back on course to... more
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Safety-I is defined as the freedom from unacceptable harm. The purpose of traditional safety management is therefore to find ways to ensure this 'freedom'. But as socio-technical systems steadily have become larger and less tractable, this has become harder to do. Resilience engineering pointed out from the very beginning that resilient performance - an organisation's ability to function as required under expected and unexpected conditions alike - required more than the prevention of incidents and accidents. This developed into a new interpretation of safety (Safety-II) and consequently a new... more
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Over the last three decades, the Santa Fe Institute and its network of researchers have been pursuing a revolution in science.
Ignoring the boundaries of disciplines and schools and searching for novel fundamental ideas, theories, and practices, this international community integrates the full range of scientific inquiries that will help us to understand and survive on a complex planet.
This volume collects essays from the past thirty years of research, in which contributors explain in clear and accessible language many of the deepest challenges and insights of... more
Ignoring the boundaries of disciplines and schools and searching for novel fundamental ideas, theories, and practices, this international community integrates the full range of scientific inquiries that will help us to understand and survive on a complex planet.
This volume collects essays from the past thirty years of research, in which contributors explain in clear and accessible language many of the deepest challenges and insights of... more
Don't have time to read the top Chaos Theory books of all time? Read Shortform summaries.
Shortform summaries help you learn 10x faster by:
- Being comprehensive: you learn the most important points in the book
- Cutting out the fluff: you focus your time on what's important to know
- Interactive exercises: apply the book's ideas to your own life with our educators' guidance.
61
An application of the techniques of dynamical systems and bifurcation theories to the study of nonlinear oscillations. Taking their cue from Poincare, the authors stress the geometrical and topological properties of solutions of differential equations and iterated maps. Numerous exercises, some of which require nontrivial algebraic manipulations and computer work, convey the important analytical underpinnings of problems in dynamical systems and help readers develop an intuitive feel for the properties involved. less
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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,... more
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,... more
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For the past two decades, complexity has informed a range of work across the social sciences. There are diverse schools of complexity thinking, and authors have used these ideas in a multiplicity of ways, from health inequalities to the organization of large scale firms. Some understand complexity as emergence from the rule-based interactions of simple agents and explore it through agent-based modelling. Others argue against such restricted complexity and for the development of case-based narratives deploying a much wider set of approaches and techniques. Major social theorists have been... more
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Among the most advanced topics in the literature in the Austro-libertarian milieu is that which deals with the workings of the fully free society, that is, the society with no state, or anarcho-capitalism. Robert Murphy deals with this head on, and makes the first full contribution to this literature in the new century. Working within a Rothbardian framework, he takes up the challenge of Hans Hoppe regarding the role of market insurance in property security to extend the analysis to the security of person.
His applications are part empirical and part speculative, but unfailingly... more
His applications are part empirical and part speculative, but unfailingly... more
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Johnson uses real-life examples as he leads us on a fascinating and entertaining romp through cutting-edge topics like chaos, game theory, economics, and even jazz and quantum physics. He shows the surprising ways in which order eventually emerges from the interaction of all things. less
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Differential Equations, Dynamical Systems, and an Introduction to Chaos, Second Edition, provides a rigorous yet accessible introduction to differential equations and dynamical systems.
The original text by three of the world's leading mathematicians has become the standard textbook for graduate courses in this area. Thirty years in the making, this Second Edition brings students to the brink of contemporary research, starting from a background that includes only calculus and elementary linear algebra.
The book explores the dynamical aspects of ordinary... more
The original text by three of the world's leading mathematicians has become the standard textbook for graduate courses in this area. Thirty years in the making, this Second Edition brings students to the brink of contemporary research, starting from a background that includes only calculus and elementary linear algebra.
The book explores the dynamical aspects of ordinary... more
70
The acclaimed author of The Half-Life of Facts explains the challenges of overly complex technology.
On July 8th, 2015, something weird happened. The NYSE computers went down and trading was suspended for several hours. The culprit wasn't hackers or a rogue algorithm. It was just... a glitch. And it's just the beginning.
Technological complexity is no trivial matter. While a few hours of suspended trading may not have had lasting impact on the markets, imagine the damage that could result from a breakdown of our air traffic control systems, or... more
On July 8th, 2015, something weird happened. The NYSE computers went down and trading was suspended for several hours. The culprit wasn't hackers or a rogue algorithm. It was just... a glitch. And it's just the beginning.
Technological complexity is no trivial matter. While a few hours of suspended trading may not have had lasting impact on the markets, imagine the damage that could result from a breakdown of our air traffic control systems, or... more
Don't have time to read the top Chaos Theory books of all time? Read Shortform summaries.
Shortform summaries help you learn 10x faster by:
- Being comprehensive: you learn the most important points in the book
- Cutting out the fluff: you focus your time on what's important to know
- Interactive exercises: apply the book's ideas to your own life with our educators' guidance.
71
Chaos exists in systems all around us. Even the simplest system of cause and effect can be subject to chaos, denying us accurate predictions of its behaviour, and sometimes giving rise to astonishing structures of large-scale order. Our growing understanding of Chaos Theory is having fascinating applications in the real world - from technology to global warming, politics, human behaviour, and even gambling on the stock market. Leonard Smith shows that we all have an intuitive understanding of chaotic systems. He uses accessible maths and physics (replacing complex equations with simple... more
72
Chaos theory has captured scientific and popular attention. What began as the discovery of randomness in simple physical systems has become a widespread fascination with "chaotic" models of everything from business cycles to brainwaves to heart attacks. But what exactly does this explosion of new research into chaotic phenomena mean for our understanding of the world? In this timely book, Stephen Kellert takes the first sustained look at the broad intellectual and philosophical questions raised by recent advances in chaos theory—its implications for science as a source of knowledge and for... more
73
Putting a New Spin on Groups: The Science of Chaos, Second Edition continues to challenge orthodoxy and static ideas about small group dynamics. A primary goal is to offer an alternative model of group development that addresses three factors:
*The model integrates old ideas from previous models of group development with new concepts from chaos theory and the work of Arthur Young.
*The book emphasizes the importance of conflict in group development and recognizes that group growth--while progressive--is neither linear or unidimensional.
*Particular attention is... more
*The model integrates old ideas from previous models of group development with new concepts from chaos theory and the work of Arthur Young.
*The book emphasizes the importance of conflict in group development and recognizes that group growth--while progressive--is neither linear or unidimensional.
*Particular attention is... more
75
Chance, the great beloved of gamblers, lovers, generals and kings, has long held sway over mortal affairs. Whether assuming the form of the goddess Fortuna and her ever-turning Wheel, or the abstract mathematic of 'randomness', Her favor is universally sought, and Her displeasure feared. To the devotee of Chance, Divination may be regarded as Her secret liturgy, providing glimpses of the unknown to those she esteems. Into the retort of the alchemist-poet, Pendell compounds portent, omen, oracle, and the art of prediction to distill The Language of Birds, a reverie upon the nature of the... more
76
When the whole is greater than the sum of the parts--indeed, so great that the sum far transcends the parts and represents something utterly new and different--we call that phenomenon emergence. When the chemicals diffusing in the primordial waters came together to form the first living cell, that was emergence. When the activities of the neurons in the brain result in mind, that too is emergence.
In The Emergence of Everything, one of the leading scientists involved in the study of complexity, Harold J. Morowitz, takes us on a sweeping tour of the universe, a tour with 28 stops, each... more
In The Emergence of Everything, one of the leading scientists involved in the study of complexity, Harold J. Morowitz, takes us on a sweeping tour of the universe, a tour with 28 stops, each... more
77
A celebrated mathematician explores how math helps us make sense of the unpredictable
We would like to believe we can know things for certain. We want to be able to figure out who will win an election, if the stock market will crash, or if a suspect definitely committed a crime. But the odds are not in our favor. Life is full of uncertainty --- indeed, scientific advances indicate that the universe might be fundamentally inexact --- and humans are terrible at guessing. When asked to predict the outcome of a chance event, we are almost always wrong.
Thankfully, there is hope.... more
We would like to believe we can know things for certain. We want to be able to figure out who will win an election, if the stock market will crash, or if a suspect definitely committed a crime. But the odds are not in our favor. Life is full of uncertainty --- indeed, scientific advances indicate that the universe might be fundamentally inexact --- and humans are terrible at guessing. When asked to predict the outcome of a chance event, we are almost always wrong.
Thankfully, there is hope.... more
Don't have time to read the top Chaos Theory books of all time? Read Shortform summaries.
Shortform summaries help you learn 10x faster by:
- Being comprehensive: you learn the most important points in the book
- Cutting out the fluff: you focus your time on what's important to know
- Interactive exercises: apply the book's ideas to your own life with our educators' guidance.