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COMPLEXITY: A GUIDED TOUR by Melanie Mitchell Oxford University Press, 2009, 349 pp. ISBN: 978-0-19-512441-5
First, I must admit that the topic of this book, complexity, is one that fascinates me and often leaves me wanting more information, especially since it relates to my own field of networks. So it is not surprising that I enjoyed this book and found it interesting and enlightening. The book's Preface sets the stage for a deep analysis of modern-day thinking on the subject of scientific philosophy and the major issue related to complexity: "Twentieth-century science was marked by the demise of the reductionist dream" in that "fundamental physics [and] scientific reductionism have been notably mute in explaining the complex phenomena closest to our humanscale concerns", (p. x) Complexity is a controversial subject because of its potential impact as well as its current ambiguity in regard to reductionism.
Author Mitchell wrote this book after giving lectures to attendees of seminars at the Santa Fe Institute to explain the structures and processes associated with complexity. "It is about the questions that fascinate ... the complex systems community", (p. xii) While the book, written for a general audience, is not highly technical, it is comprehensive and thorough in explaining many of the topics in the science of complexity,...