General Informativeness scale GI How much will someone get by reading it, from a complexity of science point of view. (1 ok, 10 a must read).
Dave's like index: DI what I got out of it at the time of reading and do I go back to reread it or use it as a reference. (1: nice read: I read it all, 10: its got key information or a perspective no where else)
Complexity cluelessness CC: Does the author have a clue about levels of complexity and dissipative structures. (1 clueless(disorder or order), 10 on the edge.)
Gell-Mann, Murray, The Quark and Jaguar.
A general book on complexity by the Nobel-Prize winner physicist (quarks).
Well written, informative. Clearly a conventional view point, but
brilliant physicist's perspective. A good discussion on different
types of complexity. He is utterly confused by his own notion of
coarse graining. He hasn't got a clue about temperament and obviously
really doesn't get Prigogine, Bohm, or Rosen. GD 3, GI 7, DI 3,
CC 2.
Prigogine, Ilya and Isabela Stengers, The
End of Certainity, Time, Chaos, the New Laws of Nature
This is a must read book for understanding dissipative structures and
the relationship between conventional dynamics (ordinary human experience
and Newton mechanics) and statistical mechanics.
Every physicist should be required to read. Well written, extremely
informative: a major contribution to science. If you don't completely
understand everything he says, you will somewhat clueless to the issues
of complexity and the nature of the evolution of the universe. If
Prigogine knew about Rosen, Crutchfield, and Fontana he would get it. GD
8, GI 10, DI 10, CC 8
Prigogine, Ilya and Isabela Stengers, Order
out of Chaos, 1986
This is his earlier work, which is more accessible and helps explain
the notion of dissipative structures in a reasonable clear manner.
It helps clarify to what is meant by entropy in a understandable way. It
uncovers the conventional physicist's myopic view of the world: it will
explain why Boltzmann's principle is limited. GD 7, GI 10, DI
8, CC 7
Smolin, Lee, The Life of the Cosmos,
Oxford University Press, 1997
Do you want to know about the Universe works in general and its origins.
Smolin is on the cutting edge of physics. Extremely well written, extremely
informative. Smolin has the best perspective and knowledge for a
physicist/cosmologist. This is a must read for understanding most
of the issues of quantum mechanics amd cosmology from an enlightened physicist.
He doesn't seem to know about Rosen, and Prigogine's book came after he
published this book. He has talked to Kauffman, so he might be getting
more insight in the coming years. He probably doesn't realize the
significance of Crutchfield and Fontana's work at this juncture.
GD
7, GI 10, DI 9, CC 9
Buss, Leo W., The Evolution of Individuality,
Princeton University Press, 1987
A technical book about the evolutionary transition between single-cell
organisms to multi-cellular organisms. Well written and insightful,
but assumes a strong biological background. Very important work to
provide a biological evidence of levels of complexity and selection processes
that are not included in the main stream neo-darwinism biological understanding.
Buss has been working with Fontana, so for a biologist he understands complexity
probably the best. GD 7, GI 9, DI 8, CC 8
Kauffman, Stuart, At Home in the Universe,
Oxford University Press, 1995
One of the first books to read to understand most of the notions of
one level of complexity and the some of the science behind the emergence
of the science of complexity. Well written, informative, wide ranging.
Kauffman is the best in explaining chaos, order, and a little bit of the
notion of the edge-of-chaos, for an information perspective. He has
the best explanation of autocatalytic sets, an underlying process of life.
Kauffman is on the cutting edge of understanding the origin of life. GD
6, GI 9, DI 8, CC 8
Rosen, Robert, Life Itself, Columbia
University Press, 1991
This book is mind altering. One of the most difficult books to
understand, but not because of its writer, but because of its importance
in what he has to say. Expect to have to read it six or seven times.
Each time you get more out of it. If you have trouble with the normal
way science is done, then it will explain why there is a problem in the
current scientific characterizations. You might have to learn Category
Theory and like it. GD 10, GI 8, DI 10, CC 9.
Rosen, Robert, Anticipatory Systems, 1985
Unfortunately this book is extremely hard to find and get. Its
out of print, not surprising, since its the most important book for the
last hundred years. (If you know about history, this a recurring theme).
This book is a great read after one understands Rosen (I suggest first
reading Life Itself several times before getting to this book). Although
he starts slow, he, in typical Rosen fashion, weaves an extremely compelling
story of his tribulations (he wasn't sure he could continue his research).
He surveys the theoretical landscape, provides mind boggling insight into
the nature of scientific models (of current science) and what their limitations
are. His deconstruction of statistical mechanics is a relevation.
Also he looks at most of the basic concepts of science and deconstructs
them. His explanations of notions of time, error, side effects,
among others is ground breaking. GD 10, GI 8, DI 10, CC 9.