» Complex Adaptive Systems: An Introduction to Computational Models of Social Life (Princeton Studies in Complexity)

Complex Adaptive Systems: An Introduction to Computational Models of Social Life (Princeton Studies in Complexity) Reviews

Customer Rating:
Summary: complex systems applied to society
Comment: Miller and Page have written an excellent, very accessible introduction to complex systems as applied to social phenomena. They are especially careful in discussing inferences based on computer simulations. Since any computer simulation is an extreme reduction of real social interactions, it's necessary to be careful that a comparison between two simulations captures a principled difference. For example, Miller & Page describe two versions of the forest fire model. In the first version all trees are likely to grow in an available spot with the same probability, while in the second version the trees can have individual inhieritable probabilities of growth. The difference in principle is a differene in the basic abilities of the individual agents (trees). In this example the average number of trees is significantly higher in the second case.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: very good introduction to the subject
Comment: A nice introduction material. You will learn how complex phenomena are currently studied . I will use this book as an intro material to complex systems in my economics course.
My only complain is that the book scarcelly discuss aplications in social sciences!!! I have to use specific articles with applications for that. the author should supress the subtitle. but it is still an excellent book.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Good Overview
Comment: The authors do an excellent job of introducing the field to an educated audience. Any one who has a general college level education can read and understand the basics after reading the book. Tables and charts succinctly illustrate points Miller and Page make and illucidate the text.

If you are looking for a book that discusses progamming, how to do, or other deeper aspects of the field, you will be disappointed. However, if you are just curious and want a good general introduction to the field, perhaps with the goal of further exploration, it is a good anchor from which to base your learning.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Best in Class, Very Technical, Saluting and Moving On
Comment: Sometime I encounter books that are extremely important, that give me an appreciation for a knowledge domain I do not know enough about, and that I simply cannot read and review.

This book, and Generative Social Science: Studies in Agent-Based Computational Modeling (Princeton Studies in Complexity) are two such books. I got half-way through this one, did the introduction to the other, from which I was immediately grabbed by the concept of:

"instead of explaining it, can you grow it?"

Howard Bloom, in Global Brain: The Evolution of Mass Mind from the Big Bang to the 21st Century teaches us that the only way to create a sustainable peace in the Palestine region is to provide absolute security for an entire generation, and raise two whole generations, one on each side, from kindergarten on us, generations that do not consider "the other" to be "pigs and monkeys" by the age of five.

Similarly, the literature on wealth of networks and the fortune at the bottom of the pyramid is growing, and I am convinced that public intelligence (decision support, full disclosure, end of information asymmetries) is going to accomplish two things in the next twenty years:

1) Eradicate corruption and enforce the triple-bottom line

2) Elevate five billion poor by teaching them one cell call at a time so that they can create infinite stabilizing wealth.

See for example:
Infinite Wealth: A New World of Collaboration and Abundance in the Knowledge Era
The Wealth of Networks: How Social Production Transforms Markets and Freedom
Revolutionary Wealth: How it will be created and how it will change our lives
The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid: Eradicating Poverty Through Profits (Wharton School Publishing Paperbacks)

So the very best thing I can say about this book is that I am glad I bought it, I am very glad to have a sense, however weak, of this important exploratory area, and now I know that I need a team of generative social scientists that can do complex modeling for peace and prosperity solutions.

See also, just published at Amazon and free online at Earth Intelligence Network, Collective Intelligence: Creating a Prosperous World at Peace

I urge one and all to become familiar with World Index of Social and Environmental Responsibility (WISER), as best I can tell that is the center of gravity for empowering individuals with deep knowledge of the true costs and many human rights abuses and other crimes that we support today for lack of knowledge. I also recommend the pioneering EarthGame work of Medard Gabel, at BigPictureSmallWorld.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Depending on your interest..
Comment: I found this book to be a bit more technical than I expected. Very good reference book.

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