Two's company, three is complexity : a simple guide to the science of all sciences
"What do traffic jams, stock market crashes, and wars have in common? They are all explained using complexity, an unsolved puzzle that many researchers believe is the key to predicting - and ultimately solving - everything from terrorist attacks and pandemic viruses right down to rush hour traffic congestion." "In Two's Company, Three is Complexity, international expert Neil Johnson provides a readable account of this fledgling field of science. Arming readers with the tools necessary to analyze a wealth of real-world examples from overcrowded bars through to modern warfare and terrorism, Johnson reveals that despite embodying some of the most fundamental problems facing scientists today, Complexity science promises to make sense of no less than the very heart of the Universe."--Jacket
xiii, 236 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm
9781851684885, 1851684883
77013185
Preface
Part 1: What exactly is complexity science?
1. Two's company, three is complexity
A definition, of sorts
Complexity in action
Why is my own life so complex?
The key components of complexity
Complexity: the science of all sciences
2. Disorder rules, OK?
Another day at the office
If things can get worse, they probably will
We need feedback
Life is just a pocket of order
Our universe's bleak future
Air, air, everywhere
we hope
Our biased world
3. Chaos and all that jazz
Dealing with office dynamics
Systematic interns, and careless ones
Don't worry, it's just chaos
If I remember correctly, I am living on the edge
There's magic, and then there's everything else
What happens when I'm not looking?
4. Mob mentality
I'm a person, not a particle
Thank God it's Friday
Knowing what it means to win
To bar, or not to bar?
Crowds and anti-crowds
Another frustrating experience
Evolution management: engineering the future
5. Getting connected
Knowing me, knowing you
Small worlds, large worlds, and in-between worlds
The importance of networking
How things grow: is it really all in the genes?
Looking at money on trees
Globalization: fairness vs. efficiency
The story so far
Part 2: What can complexity science do for me?
6. Forecasting financial markets
What goes up must come down, but when?
The problem with finance theory as it stands
or walks
A complex walk along Wall Street
Going frm the bar to the market
Look out, we're going to crash
Predicting the future
News, rumors, and terrorism
7. Tackling traffic networks and climbing the corporate ladder
Going back to our routes
Time is money
Creative congestion charging
Different shape, same function
Should I stay at my own level?
8. Looking for Mr./Ms. Right
The perfect pair
Virtual dating
Radioactive relationships
Here comes your super-date
A more sophisticated dating scene
Wolves, dogs, and sheep
9. Coping with conflict: next-generation wars and global terrorism
War and complexity
The law of war
The universal pattern underlying modern wars and terrorism
A complex systems model of modern warfare
The timing of attacks
10. Catching a cold, avoiding a super-flu and curing cancer
Natural-born killers
From communities to classes
Kids, colds, and contagion
Cancer: how to starve a tumor?
Showdown: superbugs vs. the immune system
11. The mother of all complexities: our nanoscale quantum world
Einstein's spookiness
Three is a crowd, but so is two
The secret nanoscale life of plants, bacteria, and brains
Quantum gaming
Many wrongs can make a right
12. To infinity and beyond
The inadequate infinity of physicists
The future is bright, the future is complex
Appendix: Further information
A. complexity, complex systems, and centers of study
B. Downloadable research papers