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"It may be that I have stumbled
upon an adequate description of life itself."
These modest yet profound words trumpet
an imminent paradigm shift in scientific, economic, and
technological thinking. In the tradition of Schrodinger's
classic What Is Life?, Kauffman's Investigations
is a tour-de-force exploration of the very essence of life
itself, with conclusions that radically undermine the scientific
approaches on which modern science rests -- the approaches
of Newton, Boltzman, Bohr, and Einstein.
Building on his pivotal ideas about order
and evolution in complex life systems, Kauffman finds that
classical science does not take into account that physical
systems -- such as people in a biosphere -- effect their
dynamic environments in addition to being affected by them.
These systems act on their own behalf as autonomous agents,
but what defines them as such? In other words, what is life?
Kauffman supplies a novel answer that goes beyond traditional
scientific thinking by defining and explaining autonomous
agents and work in the contexts of thermodynamics and information
theory.
Much of Investigations unpacks the
progressively surprising implications of his definition.
Significantly, he sets the stages for a technological revolution
in the coming decades. Scientists and engineers may soon
seek to create autonomous agents -- both organic and mechanical
-- that can not only construct things and work, but also
reproduce themselves. Kauffman also lays out a foundation
for a new concept of organization, and explorers the requirements
for the emergence of a general biology that will transcend
terrestrial biology to seek laws governing biospheres anywhere
in the cosmos. Moreover, he presents four candidate laws
to explain how autonomous agents co-create their biosphere,
and the startling idea of a co-creating cosmos.
A showcase of Kauffman's most fundamental
and significant ideas, Investigations presents a
new way of thinking about the fundamentals of general biology
that will change the way we understand life itself -- on
this planet and anywhere else in the cosmos.
Stuart Kauffman, winner of the MacArthur
"genius" award, is a founding member of the Santa
Fe Institute, the leading center for the emerging sciences
of complexity. A major force in science and its applications
to the business world, he formed BiosGroup LP in 1996 in
partnership with Ernst & Young. The author of previous
bestsellers Origins of Order and At Home in the
Universe, he lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
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