Emergence: The Connected Lives of Ants, Brains, Cities, and Software

Front Cover
Simon and Schuster, Sep 10, 2002 - Computers - 288 pages
In the tradition of Being Digital and The Tipping Point, Steven Johnson, acclaimed as a "cultural critic with a poet's heart" (The Village Voice), takes readers on an eye-opening journey through emergence theory and its applications.

A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK
A VOICE LITERARY SUPPLEMENT TOP 25 FAVORITE BOOKS OF THE YEAR
AN ESQUIRE MAGAZINE BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR

Explaining why the whole is sometimes smarter than the sum of its parts, Johnson presents surprising examples of feedback, self-organization, and adaptive learning. How does a lively neighborhood evolve out of a disconnected group of shopkeepers, bartenders, and real estate developers? How does a media event take on a life of its own? How will new software programs create an intelligent World Wide Web?

In the coming years, the power of self-organization -- coupled with the connective technology of the Internet -- will usher in a revolution every bit as significant as the introduction of electricity. Provocative and engaging, Emergence puts you on the front lines of this exciting upheaval in science and thought.
 

Contents

New Foreword for the Tenth Anniversary
9
PART
25
PART
69
PART THREE
191
Notes
235
Bibliography
265
Acknowledgments
275
Copyright

Other editions - View all

Common terms and phrases

About the author (2002)

Steven Johnson was born on June 6, 1968. He received an undergraduate degree at Brown University, where he studied semiotics, and later went on to receive a graduate degree in English literature from Columbia University. He is the author of several books including Future Perfect: The Case for Progress in a Networked Age; Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation; The Invention of Air: A Story of Science, Faith, Revolution and the Birth of America; and The Ghost Map: The Story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic-and How it Changed Science, Cities and the Modern World. His book, How We Got to Now: Six Innovations That Made the Modern World, was the subject of a six-part series on PBS, which he also hosted.

Bibliographic information