SEEING https://ift.tt/WrmwlXP

The author, founder of the Maui Institute and author of Men Are Easy (2007), lays out basic concepts of systems theory and complexity theory from the last half-century and integrates them into a grand framework based on Lenard Troncale’s systems processes theory, uniting physical, biological, and cultural aspects of the world. Rasmussen covers ideas including self-organization, the process by which simple individual actions yield complex, emergent group behaviors (as when individual birds that instinctively follow a few rules on how to position themselves beside each other become exquisitely coordinated flocks); the structure of networks; chaotic systems like weather and financial markets, in which tiny changes in inputs can generate huge, unpredictable storms or sell-offs; nested fractal patterns visible in everything from lightning strikes to broccoli to bitcoin values; and the breakthrough process of “systems ontogenesis,” in which low-level complexity makes a quantum leap to higher-level complexity (as when an assortment of organic molecules assembles itself into a living cell, or farming villages organize themselves into a state). In later chapters, the author applies these notions to higher-order phenomena like consciousness—slime molds, she notes, can do impressive cognitive feats like navigating mazes. Rasmussen’s treatise unfolds in concise, well-organized chapters that contain a wealth of instructive photos and charts. She conveys sometimes abstruse scientific concepts in prose that’s admirably lucid, straightforward, and intuitively appealing. (“Self-organizing criticality is the point of catastrophic change to the system…The sandpile after an avalanche has flattened, and its parameters have changed. A pandemic spreads until enough people either die or are immune, and the pandemic ends. A spark leads to a forest fire, leaving ash and debris.”) The result is a fine introduction for lay readers to systems theory that reveals its fertile insights in many ingenious guises.

from Kirkus Reviews https://ift.tt/Li8RGFr