Finally! For those of us who know that chaos,
catastrophes, cooperation and competition are facts,
not just empty theory, Professor Péter Érdi has
written "Complexity Explained." Érdi is Henry
R. Luce Professor of Complex System Studies at
Kalamazoo. "Complexity" is his fifth book, and it
cuts across numerous disciplines including physics,
chemistry, life sciences, math, economics, sociology
and more, even fine art! The book explains why
complex systems research is important in
understanding the structure, function and dynamics
of complex natural and social phenomena. He presents
models of love and war, (turns out that they are not
very different), studies the dynamics of urban
segregation, opinion formations and drug
propagation. According to Érdi, seemingly complex
and disparate phenomena such as earthquakes, stock
market crashes and epileptic seizures, have similar
architecture and are predictive...or at least the
limits of their predictability can be understood and
widened. Still sound too complex? Relax, says
Professor Érdi. "Complexity" is accessible to both
science majors and lay audiences. The book,
published by Springer, is available from the
Kalamazoo College bookstore (and Amazon.com).
