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Emergence: The Connected Lives of Ants, Brains, Cities, and Software | 
 enlarge | Author: Steven Johnson
Publisher: Scribner
Category: Book
List Price: $16.00
Buy New: $6.87
You Save: $9.13 (57%)
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Avg. Customer Rating:  82 reviews
Sales Rank: 26878
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 288
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 8.4 x 5.5 x 0.7
ISBN: 0684868768
Dewey Decimal Number: 003
EAN: 9780684868769
ASIN: 0684868768
Publication Date: August 27, 2002
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Amazon.com Review
An individual ant, like an individual neuron, is just about as dumb as can be. Connect enough of them together properly, though, and you get spontaneous intelligence. Web pundit Steven Johnson explains what we know about this phenomenon with a rare lucidity in Emergence: The Connected Lives of Ants, Brains, Cities, and Software. Starting with the weird behavior of the semi-colonial organisms we call slime molds, Johnson details the development of increasingly complex and familiar behavior among simple components: cells, insects, and software developers all find their place in greater schemes. Most game players, alas, live on something close to day-trader time, at least when they're in the middle of a game--thinking more about their next move than their next meal, and usually blissfully oblivious to the ten- or twenty-year trajectory of software development. No one wants to play with a toy that's going to be fun after a few decades of tinkering--the toys have to be engaging now, or kids will find other toys. Johnson has a knack for explaining complicated and counterintuitive ideas cleverly without stealing the scene. Though we're far from fully understanding how complex behavior manifests from simple units and rules, our awareness that such emergence is possible is guiding research across disciplines. Readers unfamiliar with the sciences of complexity will find Emergence an excellent starting point, while those who were chaotic before it was cool will appreciate its updates and wider scope. --Rob Lightner
Product Description
A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOKA VOICE LITERARY SUPPLEMENT TOP 25 FAVORITE BOOKS OF THE YEAR AN ESQUIRE MAGAZINE BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR 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. 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.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 77 more reviews...
 Nice soft intro to concepts of self-organisation August 4, 2008
For those with a technical interest in the matter, this is a nice soft intro to the topics with which concerned. It is written with a somewhat emotional style; probably not an ideal technical resource.
For the readers not akin to the concepts at all, the book successfully conveys a nice (and vitally important) way of interpreting natural phenomena (that of self-organisation, collective intelligence, etc.), but, through its somewhat emotional style, may create a sort of hype around the concept.
A pleasant and fast read, over-all; worth it.
Emergence - The Study of Macro-behavior resulting from Micro-level Agents. June 13, 2008
The property of "emergence" is essentially the top-level or macro-level view of the behavior or intelligence of a system. The system can be an ant colony, the Internet, a nation, or any collection of individual agents or actors.
To take one example, an ant colony, can be studied in terms of the individual intelligence and actions and behavior of the individual ants in the colony. This is the micro-view.
However, collectively, the ants function together in a system (i.e., the colony). Thus, the colony can also be studied in terms of its behavior, intelligence and actions. This is the macro-view. This is the systems view. Emergent properties are the top level properties that "emerge" from the properties, functions, behavior and actions of the individual units in the system (i.e., the individual ants).
Emergence is a very important concept, especially in terms of group behavior, the world wide web and the Internet, as well as in artifical intelligence and biological and ecological systems. Emergence is also a very important concept in "swarm intelligence" and "hive" type intelligence. These are important concepts for computer science, among many other fields.
Thus the importance of this book which elucidates the concept of "emergence" by describing it in the context of several different areas of study in which it appears.
 Disappointment January 11, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I saw Steven Johnson's lively and a compellingly fascinating presentation on the topic of the book at a conference, which inspired my desire to read his book.
Unfortunately, the 250+ pages of the book provide very little insight beyond a 30+ minute presentation. The writing style is not forceful or engaging, but rather dull and lifeless. The lasting feeling is that the author is attempting to make the book accessible to a group of smart 10 year olds by using short sentences, simple vocabulary and endlessly repeating the same ideas over and over again.
The initial excitement wears off after about first 50 pages and the impetus to try to read it would help you stumble through the drudgery of another 50 pages, but except to give up sometime soon afterwards.
Great start; Unresolved ending; Ultimately disappointing August 19, 2007
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
I purchased this book on something of a whim; it was listed as recommended by Amazon and looked like something worth checking out. This is appropriate because software systems that make recommendations based on history and feedback are one of the topics that get discussed in this book. The concept appealed to me for a number of reasons. First, it seemed like a fascinating study of complex systems and the relationship therein between the components, the system as a whole, and that which may be greater then the sum of its parts - that which is emergent. Which in fact, for a while it was. Second, I appreciate the idea that a city is a complex system that is not dissimilar to other complex systems. And third, I felt like taking a chance on something that just sounded interesting. Sadly, after high expectations brought on by a well developed first half, this book ultimately disappoints.
Credit where credit is due, this book starts off as well as a book can. In keeping with the old adage that a picture is worth a thousand words, there is a wonderful illustration at the start of this book featuring a map of Hamburg dated circa 1850 next to a diagram of a human brain. Whether there is ultimately anything to them or not, the similarities are astounding. It really went a long way towards grabbing my attention and making this book one that I looked forward to reading. For half of the book, my expectations were met.
The first three chapters take the seemingly mundane and unrelated topics of ant colonies, computer programs based on slime mold observations, and city layout, and make an effective comparison. Something I really liked early on about this book was its observation that both ant colonies and cities expand with an order that suggests a central plan, when in fact the main force behind their development is the elemental units just doing the things that they do. Soldier and worker ands don't do their jobs because the queen orders them to, they do them because taking care of the queen keeps the colony alive, thus sustaining their existence. Neighborhoods don't spring up because someone issues a decree to build homes, they spring up because people have wants and needs regarding where they live. And their existence in a certain place creates a continuing cycle, almost fractal in nature, of more people with their own set of wants and needs. The concept of evolution is also thrown in, and quite effectively.
I think that the strongest point the book makes is that cities are not just clusters of people, they are patterns in time. Human beings wired the way they are seem predestined to create printing presses, newspapers, radios, communications networks, TV's, and internets. But here lies the problem with this book. This is potentially a great point, and I would argue a correct one. It's just that it comes along right at about the halfway point in the book. And after that there not much else other than words. The first half of this book does what the first half of a book should do, it develops an idea. But the development of an idea needs to lead to some sort of conclusion that contains some sense of resolution. Unfortunately, somewhere shortly after the start of chapter 4, this book lets go of all of the cohesion it so nicely developed and spins into seemingly endless and tired commentary about video games and the web. Moreover, the commentary is not very good, and becomes repetitive. By the last couple of chapters it becomes quite clear the only thing concluded will be that the author thinks that in a few more years something really significant is going to come about from recent technological changes. They always do. That in and of itself is not worth very much. In the author's defense, I did read this book in 2007 and it was written in 2000. But still, a book should say considerably more this one does.
If the second half were as good as the first, this book could have been ground-breaking. I appreciate the first half, so I don't consider it a complete waste. However be prepared for quite a let down - 2 stars.
 finger food for the mind December 14, 2006
2 out of 5 found this review helpful
This is a pretty good read - it moves quickly and doesn't get you bogged down in the dna of the concept of emergence. go to wikipedia, read it. then pick up a copy of this and it will provide more context and usefulness. while this may not be the 'grand slam' of books...and to some degree it may be viewed as a popular fad topic...this book is better written than many that end up in the waste bend after page 47. if highlighter markings and cryptic notes in the margin are an indicator for me then it is safe to say that i got my money's worth...and...it contributed to my ongoing pondering of this and many other esoteric terms from the science realm.
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