The moment of complexity : emerging network culture / Mark C. Taylor.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Taylor, Mark C., 1945-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Complexity (Philosophy).

Culture--Philosophy.

Culture.

Physical Description:

xii, 340 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 2001.

Summary:

"The Moment of Complexity is a profoundly original work. In remarkable and insightful ways, Mark Taylor traces an entirely new way to view the evolution of our culture, detailing how information theory and the scientific concept of complexity can be used to understand recent developments in the arts and humanities. This book will ultimately be seen as a classic." John L. Casti, Santa Fe Institute, author of Godel: A Life of Logic, the Mind, and Mathematics

The science of complexity accounts for that inscrutable mix of chaos and order that governs our natural world. Complexity explains how networks emerge and function, how species organize into ecosystems, how stars form into galaxies, and how just a few sequences of DNA can account for so many different life forms. Recently, the idea of complexity has taken the worlds of business and politics by storm. The concept is used to account for phenomena as varied as the behavior of the stock market, the response of voting populations, and the effects of risk management. Even Disney has used complexity theory to manage crowd control at its theme parks.

Given the startling development of new information technologies, we now live in a moment of unprecedented complexity, an era in which change occurs faster than our ability to comprehend it. With The Moment of Complexity, Mark C. Taylor offers a timely map for this unfamiliar terrain opening in our midst, unfolding an original philosophy through a remarkable synthesis of science and culture. According to Taylor, complexity is not just a breakthrough scientific concept, but the defining quality of the post -- Cold War era. The flux of digital currents swirling around us, he argues, has created a new network culture with its own distinctive logic and dynamic.

Drawing on resources from information theory and evolutionary biology, Taylor explains the operation of complex adaptive systems in social and cultural processes and captures a whole new zeitgeist in the making. To appreciate the significance of our emerging network culture, he claims, we need not only to understand contemporary scientific and technological transformations, but also to explore the subtle influences of art, architecture, philosophy, religion, and higher education. The Moment of Complexity, then, is a remarkable work of cultural analysis on a scale rarely seen today. To follow its trajectory is to learn how we arrived at this critical moment in our culture, and to know where we might head in the twenty-first century.

Contents:

1 From Grid to Network 19

Collapsing Walls 19

The Edge of Chaos 23

Grid Work 25

Superficial Complexity 34

Net Work 40

2 Critical Emergency 47

Politics and Criticism 47

Power and Structure 51

Generational Gaps 54

Digital Divide 61

Decoding the Real 65

3 Strange Loops 73

True Lies 73

Machines and Death 78

Beauty of Organisms 84

Undecidable Openings 93

4 Noise in Formation 99

Buzz of Information 99

Information Ages 103

Information and Communication 107

Time and Uncertainty 111

Shifty Static 118

5 Emerging Complexity 125

Real Close 125

Crystals and Smoke 134

Implications of Complexity 137

E-mergence 143

Birds and Bees 151

6 Evolving Complexity 157

Ant Smarts 157

Complex Adaptive Systems 164

E-volution 171

Species of Origin 176

Morphing 182

Punctuation 191

7 Screening Information 195

How This Book Is Being Written 195

Channeling Experience 199

Culturing Networks 205

Viral Webs 214

Cybergnosis 219

Incarnational Networks 224

Coda: The Currency of Education 233

Practicing Theory 233

Education Business 234

Useful and Useless Education 240

Critical Faculties 251

Net Working Education 257.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 297-323) and index.

ISBN:

0226791173

OCLC:

46364611