I’ve decided that I will post reviews of some of the books I’ve been reading on this blog. I know it may not make for the most exciting reading in the world, but it helps me better understand the books I’ve been reading and forces me to improve my writing as well. My initial review is of Emergence: The Connected Lives of Ants, Brains, Cities, and Software by Steven Johnson

Complexity has buzzword in the sciences for the last several years, and the media has been quick to jump on the bandwagon. From Stephen Wolfram’s hefty tome, A New Kind of Science, to Michael Chrichton’s latest thriller, Prey, complexity has become the latest scientific media darling. Despite the hype, complexity is a fascinating interdisciplinary field, and it promises, if not a paradigm shift, than at least a new tool for examining the world. Steven Johnson’s Emergence: The Connected Lives of Ants, Brains, Cities, and Software promises to introduce the reader to the basics of emergent systems and self-organizing behavior, and by and large it delivers. Though he doesn’t include any hard science, Johnson explores the interdisciplinary nature of the field, and offers an enlightening and entertaining read.

A complex adaptive systems is one in which a higher-level order emerges out of the simple and random interaction of its parts. Johnson explains the phenomenon using the example of an ant colony. Though individual ants are short-lived and stupid, the colony as a whole is capable of amazing feats of “intelligence.” It can find the shortest path to food, wage war on other colonies, and change over time. The startling thing about this behavior is that none of the individual ants are aware of the colonies action or purpose. As individuals they operate by a few simple biological rules, and lack the capacity to control or even comprehend the ultimate goal of the colony. The higher level order arises only through the interaction of thousands of individual ants each going about their own lives.

The story does not end with ants, and Johnson describes emergent phenomenon in systems as diverse as 12th century Florence and the human brain. He describes how sciences, programmers, and sociologists are trying to harness complexity to develop new software and new ways of creating cities and networks. These individual examples are well researched and entertaining, and point to the deep significance of complex systems. Whether emergence indicates a paradigm shift or merely a detour in the road of scientific exploration, Emergence provides a broad description of the interactions that define our world. And if nothing else, it’s worth reading merely for the fascinating tidbits on everything from ants to Sim City.