A review by benjamin_manning
Chaos: Making a New Science by James Gleick
3.0
I loved Gleick's other book on Feynman, but this didn't do it as much for me. It was too much in that middle ground of science writing that kind of explained what went on, but made me wanting the details more. If someone wants what I think is. REALLY good book about the beginnings of complexity science and the Santa Fe institute, I would suggest, Complexity: The Emerging Science at the Edge of Order and Chaos. It was sooooo good albeit I didn't review as it was before I started reviewing books this winter.
A few things I learned/thought about:
1. I still can't define chaos despite having read several books about it; maybe the order of disorder? Or the the disorder of order? Problematic that both seem relevant.
2. The fundamental concept of entropy is so befuddling! How can randomness always be increasing, and yet life came to be and the earth came to be and we reproduce? Does that just mean the universe has finite energy, but since we are so small that it's practically infinite?
3. I'm thoroughly convinced that our education system needs to drop high school calculus, and instead switch to stats. However, I'm now also swayed that some practical geometry (not just proofs) would be a really important addition to people's knowledge base. The geometry of nature, I'm sure Jordan Ellenberg would agree!
A few things I learned/thought about:
1. I still can't define chaos despite having read several books about it; maybe the order of disorder? Or the the disorder of order? Problematic that both seem relevant.
2. The fundamental concept of entropy is so befuddling! How can randomness always be increasing, and yet life came to be and the earth came to be and we reproduce? Does that just mean the universe has finite energy, but since we are so small that it's practically infinite?
3. I'm thoroughly convinced that our education system needs to drop high school calculus, and instead switch to stats. However, I'm now also swayed that some practical geometry (not just proofs) would be a really important addition to people's knowledge base. The geometry of nature, I'm sure Jordan Ellenberg would agree!