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The Collapse of Chaos is the first post-chaos, post-complexity
book, a groundbreaking inquiry into how simplicity in nature is generated from
chaos and complexity. Rather than asking science's traditional question of how
to break the world down into its simplest components, Jack Cohen and Ian Stewart
ask something much more interesting: why does simplicity exist at all? Their story
combines chaos and complexity and-surprisingly-derives simplicity from the intersection
of the two. The Collapse of Chaos is composed
of two parts. The first half is a witty primer, a guided tour of the Islands of
Truth that have been mapped out by conventional science. This section provides
a streamlined and accessible introduction to the central areas of modern science,
including modern cosmology, quantum mechanics, the arrow of time, biological development,
evolution, and consciousness. The unorthodox and adventurous second half dives
into the Oceans of Ignorance that surround what is known. Educated by the first
half to appreciate the subtler issues in the second, the reader is introduced
to a novel and even heretical world where unconventional possibilities are explored
through conversations with characters such as the Victorian computer scientist
Augusta Ada Lovelace and -- for the more outlandish scenarios -- the alien inhabitants
of the planet Zarathustra. At once playful and erudite,
The Collapse of Chaos is sure to introduce new metaphors into art, philosophy,
and popular culture. But what makes the book truly indispensable is its uncanny
ability to make the reader suspect, while immersed in its pages, that he or she
may just possibly be a genius. Jack Cohen, an internationally
known reproductive biologist, is also a consultant to major science fiction writers.
Ian Stewart is a leading British mathematician who teaches at the University of
Warwick; he writes a regular column on mathematics for Scientific American
and is the author of many books, including the bestselling Does God Play Dice?
The authors have worked together for years to uncover the unifying features of
their apparently very different branches of science. |
