Get PDF Deep Simplicity: Chaos, Complexity and the Emergence of Life (Penguin Press Science)

A good book to read in tandem with this one is Duncan Watt's excellent Six Degrees which focuses on network theory. I have just finished reading Deep Simplicity and felt the urge to tell anyone who would listen how I felt about the book. Read the other reviewers to find out what the book is about. There have been very few occasions and very few books that moved me in the way that Deep Simplicity did, for it is a work of art and without doubt a genuinely beautiful piece of literature. What's more, I feel that the beauty inherent in the book is self-similar on many scales, from the lucidly illustrative metaphors, to paragraphs that grab you as they weave delicately expounded threads together, to the overall structure and flow of the book itself.

I felt privileged to have read the book. After I finished I was left with a tremendous sense of appreciation for and recognition with our planet, its biosphere, life, and the Universe at large; even for my fellow man - although our depredations are made strikingly apparent. My final and lasting feeling is one of profound enlightenment; something felt when previously reading Gribbin, but not to this extent.

I appreciate greatly the author's aim, sharing his sense of wonder with his readers. Gribbin gives a wide perspective about chaos and complexity with facts from the history of science. Simple laws, non-linearity, sensitivity to initial conditions and feedback give rise to chaos and complexity. Gribbin tries to reveal the facts of our universe with these concepts. Also the author gives some good examples for accessing the subject with ease. Power law pattern and gaia concepts are also analyzed in the book for understanding life.

I derived much benefit from this book.

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And it's been about twenty years since any formal full-time education. I found this book after rifling through ten or so boxes of assorted second-hand books up for grabs in a community centre on the Isles of Scilly. Something about the cover appealed to me.

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Perhaps because I recognised the Hokusai reference and liked the clarity of the art-work. Certainly I'd read and loved James Gleick's classic book on chaos in the Nineties. And the words 'deep simplicity' resonated in my bones. Especially to a man forever in search of simpler ways of existing, to a man drawn instinctively to Zen. Whatever my reasons for picking up this book, I came to love it.

I read a fair amount. Every book has its pace, some quicker, some slower, some turgid, some dense, some with big spaces between paragraphs, and some with type so small it leaves your eyeballs raw. I had a very slow entry into this book, one of those 'I've read this page twenty times and it's still not quite getting in there' scenarios. One of those occasions where you wake yourself up with a 'huh? That may have had to do with my inability to focus my mind on the job in hand at the time, or perhaps that I was sizing it up as to whether to bother reading it at all.

Was it just too geeky? I hadn't paid for it, so didn't feel that there was any reason to suck my money's worth of juice from it. Perhaps I was just plain tired and needed sleep more than information at that moment in my life. Initially I felt back in a classroom. Out of my depth.

Deep Simplicity: Bringing Order to Chaos and Complexity by John Gribbin

Wrestling with concepts, that although expressed with a beautiful clarity, wallowed in the murky depths just out of reach of my present level of understanding. Like a deep sea diver I only saw glimpses of those things that my sphere of illumination touched. And they were strange. I needed time to absorb the paragraphs, to 'update my operating system'. But not for too long. If I did, the thread would go cold and I'd have forgotten what went on before. And so started a dance between myself and this book. It grew on me. And illuminated so many diverse corners of existence that I was left reeling with the implications.

It's a must read. Should be compulsory reading for every human. With stacks of fascinating references to contemporary life and culture, examples being illustrated with traffic jams, telephone noise interference, spots on leopards, estuaries, earthquakes, boiling water, the shape of ferns, to make difficult concepts very accessible and relevant to the world in which we live.

It was a pleasure to go on this journey. To rediscover the joys of learning from one with a much clearer world-view than my own. Made me feel like I'd been living in Plato's Cave! My diver's sphere of illumination is now so much bigger. Perhaps, dare I say it, I've even been allowed a glimpse of the bigger picture.

Of the essence of the nature of creation. And no, it isn't a guy on a cloud with a long flowing beard! It has deep simplicity at its heart. I only wish John Gribbin had been my science teacher at school. He's given me a passion for the subject, a relevance that the dry, dusty delivery of my teachers of yore never managed to kindle. Perhaps I'd have made different decisions along the way, and my current life of yoga, paint-brushes and guitars might instead be replaced with lectures and seminars and bright brains chewing over the big questions of existence?

Perhaps this doorway is still open. Whatever, I only hope that you too can experience the joys of this book. Maybe my very own copy will find its way to you one day. I passed it on to someone I thought would be interested, as I do with most of my books. I'd like to think it'll keep doing the rounds until there's more Sellotape than pages holding it together! An excellent non-math explanation of chaos theory. Gribbin is able to touch the essence of chaos theory by discussing its application to various real life scenarios.

It changed the way I view complex systems.

Deep Simplicity: Bringing Order to Chaos and Complexity

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English Choose a language for shopping. Amazon Music Stream millions of songs. He asserts the truth of the theory of evolution in unequivocal terms. Propagandists of creation and intelligent design often accuse evolution to be only a theory and not fact. In another context, he specifies that a hypothesis is an untested postulate and when it is supported by experiment, it graduates to the status of a theory.

Evolution is a tried and tested theory in that sense. But here, the association is doubtful. Moreover, Gribbin is a renowned popularizer of science who is also a prolific author. Naturally, his works cover almost all areas of physics. Consequently he advises the readers through foot notes to refer to his various books, if they want to clarify a point under discussion.

This self advertisement is amusing to behold. Aug 17, Nyamka Ganni is currently reading it Shelves: I don't really get why this book is not popular enough! Oct 02, Leandro Melendez rated it liked it. Jan 11, Richard Ash rated it really liked it Shelves: Jun 15, Chandrashekar BC rated it really liked it. Jul 10, YHC rated it it was amazing. This book took me a lot of focus to be able to finish it. So much information from evolution, computer science Turing machine , cosmology It starts from the chaos, thanks to the chaos with patterns, everything follow the law of physics in a predictable way: About 65 years ago, he proposed that stripes, spots, and even appendages like fingers may emerge from a series of chemical interactions between two hypothetical substances: Alan Turing surely an genius that i would like to dig deeper about his mind, thanks to this book.

Overall, I enjoy a lot reading this book since most of the topic are exactly what i am interested in. There are many details about the on-going science, one aspect this book doesn't cover is about AI. Science admirers and investors. In an excellent non-mathematical language, John goes on to explain the prerequisites required to understand life generating systems. He explains power law on how positive feedback loops give exponential function equivalents in real life, fractals, some very important entities to understand complexity generating out of simplicity, evolution to show how today's life forms have been created by simple changing factors and shows the real life examples to understand complexity with simplicity.

He also In an excellent non-mathematical language, John goes on to explain the prerequisites required to understand life generating systems. He also explains chaos theory which is based on divergence of mathematical series which I fortunately learnt in my college. At the end he explains, how life and non-living features exist in equilibrium at this short time interval of 10 million years on the astronomical scales on earth. It's a beautifully written book. Mar 14, Matt rated it really liked it. I read this book on a dare from Charlie Munger. There are some amazing ideas about how life and the universe work.

I especially liked the explanation of how the sun is much larger now than it was a billion years ago and yet the Earth's temperature remains the same. And the bit about how life on another planet can be identified simply by the presence of significant amounts of Oxygen and Nitrogen in the atmosphere. This is no I read this book on a dare from Charlie Munger. This is not an easy read but it is worth the effort. Dec 06, Steve rated it it was amazing Shelves: Good overview of Chaos Theory as it applies to our world, though perhaps a little preoccupied with the question of the origins of life.

It's a wide, deep topic and at pages some parts feel a little short-changed, so perhaps it could be considered a good starting point to explore outward in areas of interest. Accessible to the interested amateur with, say, Algebra and a smattering of Calculus. Oct 02, Spencer rated it really liked it. If finding out that seemingly abstract mathematical principles apply to all sorts of situations in nature gives you satisfaction, this is the book for you.

Jun 04, Adrian rated it it was amazing. Started the book last year ad couldn't get through it. Demanding book, but made it through it the second time. Aug 15, Tim Van Kemenade rated it it was amazing. A mesmerizing read on how vast complex systems emerge from incredibly simple elements.

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Makes one wonder about our own existence. Sep 10, Deepak Saxena rated it really liked it. An accessible and relatively recent Compared to Gliek's Chaos, book on Chaos and Complexity theory discussing the edge of chaos and the emergence if life. Deep Simplicity is a popular science book about the theory of chaos. As always, John Gribbin presents the subject in a remarkably accessible way - the educated layperson will be able to tackle this book.

However, it is not without drawbacks.

Gribbin begins with the Greeks and Galileo and moves onto Newton, and the issue of the three-body problem where it is impossible to use Newton's laws of motion to gen Deep Simplicity is a popular science book about the theory of chaos. Gribbin begins with the Greeks and Galileo and moves onto Newton, and the issue of the three-body problem where it is impossible to use Newton's laws of motion to generate analytical solutions to a situation in which there are three bodies of similar size affecting each other under gravity. He then talks about thermodynamics, and the concept of entropy and how this leads to an arrow of time.

Gribbin also introduces an idea which he seems to be very fond of, that life is an example of using energy flow to reduce local entropy. The next section introduces some of the mathematics behind chaos. Gribbin describes how the iterative approximation techniques used in finding solutions to can never be exactly accurate.

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The concept of phase space, where a single point completely describes a system using multiple dimensions, is used by Poincare to deal with the problem of the Solar System's stabilty. Gradually, Gribbin brings the reader to the realisation that some systems, such as the weather, while deterministic in principle , are very difficult to predict in practice because of the non-linearity of their progression. Simply, small changes in initial conditions can lead to vastly different outcomes.

Indeed, the impossibility of knowing the precise positions or momenta of anything makes such precise prediction unachievable even in principle. The idea of chaos as deterministic yet unpredictable order comes in the next section with the example of turbulence - a single parameter, the fluid speed, is changing, yet the flow changes from regular to turbulent to laminar. Additionally, the chaotic pattern appears to be fractally self-similar, like the Feigenbaum diagram describing species reproduction.

Other fractals such as the Sierpinski gasket and the Cantor set are discussed, as well issues of fractal dimension. However, recognising that completely regular and completely random systems are uninteresting, Gribbin quickly ushers the reader onto the "edge of chaos, where complexity lives. He takes many aspects of living development, including abiogenesis, Gaia systems, predator-prey relationships and more and tries to recognise chaotic patterns in them all. He notes that any such system that incoporates feedback will generate chaotic behaviour, but often there seems to be little gained from understanding that the behaviour is chaotic - for example, the idea that Ice Ages are chaotic fluctuations in a punctuated equilibrium appears to be difficult to test!

However, unlike some of his other books on quantum physics, among others, I feel like this topic is one that is best dealt with in greater detail than can be used in a popular science book. Gribbin uses examples well to illustrate the points, but without understanding derivations it is hard to avoid feeling like much of the book is assumed. Additionally, it is possible to see how the book has been structured in hindsight, but while reading I felt disorientated as he jumps from one area to another.

Again, understanding more about the principles behind chaos would have remedied this somewhat. An interesting read, but not as engaging as I might have hoped. Jan 05, Sofia Hou rated it liked it. First half was better than second half.

Writing style a little dry. Feb 06, Toby rated it liked it. John Gribbin is a polymath science writer, but his background is as an astrophysicist. His earlier works on quantum mechanics In Search of Schrodinger's Cat: Solving the Quantum Mysteries were accessible, entertaining, as well as educational. This book opens some deep wells of difficult-to-comprehend ideas, which I'm sure were just as difficult to translate to a popular science audience.

In the Introduction, Gribb John Gribbin is a polymath science writer, but his background is as an astrophysicist. In the Introduction, Gribbin even admits to not understanding chaos and wanting to wait for someone else to popularize it, finally giving up and doing it himself. For all that, he does a decent job of getting the ideas across: The first half of the book concerning the development of these ideas and theories is the more interesting part of the book. In the second half Gribbin applies the concepts to biology, evolution, and finally in a lengthy final chapter Gaia theory and the possibilities of life beyond earth.

Which is to say it felt as though it stopped being about Chaos in general and more about specific non-equilibrium systems. I don't feel as though I got as much out of this book as I have out of others by Gribbin. For a book that's supposed to be readable, I found it rather dull and boring. If you're looking for something on emergent behaviour, Critical Mass by Phillip Ball was a lot more interesting especially the bit about how traffic jams form.

It is the absence of chaos in the changing obliquity angle of tilt thanks to For a book that's supposed to be readable, I found it rather dull and boring. It is the absence of chaos in the changing obliquity angle of tilt thanks to the presence of the Moon which has allowed life on Earth to evolve under more or less stable climatic circumstances for billions of years. Sometimes small mutations, or small changes in the environment, can have big effects on the body form that develops in particular when we are dealing with dissipative systems at the edge of chaos.

Without the intervention of life, all the oxygen in the Earth's atmosphere would get locked away in nitrates, carbon dioxide, iron oxides and silicate rocks in less than ten million years. If you're an astronomer who happens to observe a planet like the Earth and notice that it has an oxygen-rich atmosphere, that either means you are witnessing a rare, transient event on that planet, or that the atmosphere is being maintained in a state far from equilibrium.

Clouds reflect away so much of the incoming solar energy that without any cloud cover the average surface temperature on Earth would be 35 deg C, 20 deg higher than it actually is. Mar 20, Louisa rated it it was amazing Shelves: How did the zebra get its stripes? We've all come across the stories that provide us with some answer or another, mostly involving paint, scorching fire, or the animal in question standing quietly in the shade of some long grass blades. I thought they were beautiful stories, all of them, but none of the explanations were quite as convincing as the one we find in Deep Simplicity.

Gribbin takes us through the history of discoveries in the fields of physics, mathematics, chemistry and biology that l How did the zebra get its stripes? Gribbin takes us through the history of discoveries in the fields of physics, mathematics, chemistry and biology that lead to the development of chaos theory. His narrative focuses on the concepts of chaos, complexity and the idea that complex systems emerge on the edge of chaos; and he concludes that there are simple mathematical rules at the base of complex systems that we find in nature, the sort of systems that feed back on themselves so that what they do affects their own behaviour.

Simple mathematical formulas can explain the patterns and the fractals found in nature, the evolution and extinction of species, the way cells take up different functions in our body, how every little zebra embryo gets its stripes, and ultimately, how life must have started, here on earth and elsewhere in the universe.

Of course, Gribbin doesn't have all the answers, and he readily admits that no one knows just what did occur when life emerged from non-life. But it all makes sense, and it's hard not to find the concepts he describes fascinating. I have many John Gribbin books, and have enjoyed every one of them so far. I found it interesting that this book covers material such as the emergence of life, chaos theory, thermodynamics and the arrow of time, and much more. I have read books on the arrow of time, and found them less satisfying than this one.