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 ...
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 weather patterns to mass extinctions.
Grounding these paradigm-shifting ideas in their historical context, Gribbin also traces their development from Newton to Darwin to Lorenz, Prigogine, and Lovelock, demonstrating how–far from overturning all that has gone before–chaos and complexity are the triumphant extensions of simple scientific laws. Ultimately, Gribbin illustrates how chaos and complexity permeate the universe on every scale, governing the evolution of life and galaxies alike.
Life, of course, seems to defy this process, by creating order and structure out of disordered (or at least, less ordered) materials. A plant builds its structure, and may make beautiful flowers, out of carbon dioxide, water, and a few traces of other chemicals. But it only does so with the aid of sunlight, energy from an outside source. (查看原文)
Away from equilibrium, a flow of energy can, under the right circumstances, create order spontaneously. This is a crucial insight into our own existence, since there is no denying that we are ordered creatures, and there is overwhelming evidence that the Universe began in a state of much less order. (查看原文)
2005 年，科普作家 John Gribbin 出版了 Deep Simplicity (《深奥的简洁》) 一书，通过阐述混沌系统理论，为读者提供了认知复杂世界的新工具。作者在序言中说到，一个混沌系统需要满足两个条件：其一，系统状态对初始条件敏感；其二，系统具有反馈机制。总体来说，《深奥的简洁...
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![[英] 约翰·格里宾](https://img9.doubanio.com/view/personage/m/public/fac19dee3fe20c191599a113b1a19704.jpg)
约翰·格里宾 作者
安雪仁次
Penguin Books Ltd2005版
月下白桦
Psyche
Penguin Books Ltd2005版
光尘刻书馆
江苏凤凰文艺出版社2019版
1 有用 一个人·杜阿 2015-12-30 15:26:56
标题党，人生的努力方向
0 有用 Lucia 2012-11-02 07:53:19
纯生物进化无人类，无收获看不下去
1 有用 佑扯 2015-04-09 06:24:40
这类书普遍的一个问题是涉猎太宽，章与章之间的关系就散了。深奥的简洁的思路在1/f这个公式上体现比较明显，其他的就差一些
0 有用 weihu 2016-07-16 08:57:29
看看
0 有用 落。 2010-07-16 05:25:27
好多次阅读的时候灵光一现。不过，一下又没了。