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Summary: Comparative Connections
Review: Stephen Johnson is out to find connections, and he undoubtedly has found some between ants, brains, cities and software. As a cultural critic Johnson relies heavily on outside sources for all of his 'down and dirty' research; Deborah Gordon's studies on ants; Mitch Resnick's slime mold program, Will Wright's Sim's game, and Rob Malda's Slashdot rating system; and Giaccomo Rizzolati's mirror neurons. Needless to say his Notes and Bibliography sections are broad and vast.I am still very curious about these mirror neurons that exist only in humans and chimpanzees. Johnson used Rizzolati's study of the frontal lobe to close a section on neurological connections between people. Unfortunately, that's all he used it for, a closing to an introduction that was already overstuffed with information about perception studies and autism. For each schizophrenic section there are at least a dozen coherent sections, so the comparisons that Johnson makes between disparate fields are persuasive and legible. The most well-read area of this book deals with cities and their patterns for behavioral learning. You don't have to read the acknowledgements to know that Johnson lives on the island of Manhattan, there are suggestions throughout the text of the invincible air a pedestrian city carries, and I imagine that some of his conclusions aggravate the tiresome rivalry bewteen New York and Los Angeles. Having said that, he pulls a strong thread through Krugman's "polycentric, plum-pudding pattern of the modern metropolis," Jacobs discussions on urban growth as it relates to densities, and Engels's first glimpse of Manchester as it launched modernity.
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Summary: Must read.
Review: Individual ants follow a relatively simple set of rules, yet the complex, adaptive behavior of the ant colony emerges. The major accomplishment of this book is to instill in the reader a true appreciation of the power of this concept, so that your view of the world is fundamentally expanded. Johnson also gets into related, intellectually more challenging ideas, such as group consciousness, and has a wonderful talent for explanation: he was even able to explain to me a passage from Robert Wright, an author who is almost always clear himself. He incorporates personal anecdote and intellectual history without overdoing either. The organization of the book is not entirely linear, but I found this a positive, on balance. Johnson's ideas on the future of software were fascinating, and he managed to give me some appreciation for video games. There was a bit of unnecessary repetition, a few dull pages, and the amount of attention devoted to the emergent behavior of cities was not justified by the quality of material presented on this subject. Never-the-less, this is an extraordinary book, a definite must read, even for the reader with some background, which I had.
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Summary: Worth reading
Review: In many ways this is a good book and I am glad I bought it. There are many positives to this book. What I enjoyed the most was not necessarily what the author said directly, but thoughts of applications that swirled through my head while reading. Emergence (the subject) power comes from it's generality by being applicable to a wide variety of diverse subjects. The writing style is light and accessable to almost anyone. There are also a few negatives. Rather than being objective, the author allows his personal values and political views show through on occassion. There are also a few times where adequate evidence is not shown to support his position. Not perfect, but well worth the read.
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Summary: Almost Aborted Thanks to Reviews Here
Review: Don't know why so many people beat up on this book. Frankly, I think most of the criticism on here is curmudgeony sour grapes. Yes, it is not written by someone in the field. That's a good thing. It's actually written by someone who can write, which is why so many people noted how readable it was. Sure there are more implications that could have been drawn, but so what. If I was grading just pure stimulation, this would get 5 stars; it gets you thinking and seeing things in a new light. I agree with the woman from the restaurant. This is well worth the time.
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Summary: Best listened to instead ?
Review: Sometimes, first exposures to interesting topics are best done through our ears than with our eyes reading books. This seems to be the case for me here. After 30 minutes flipping through this book at the book store, I decided to wait until the Audible(tm) version becomes available to definetely buy it then. The theme (already commented on by other reviewers) is a long narration written with wit and energy. Indeed, as you follow the clear logic, your curiosity grows to see the conclusion which seems near. Instead, the theme unfolds and grabs your interest further. You do not mind not reaching the conclusion just yet as the unfoldings have now captured your attention once again. Visual oriented learners may be dissapointed as graphics, images, bullet point lists and summaries are scarce. Here were my 2 cents worth...
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Summary: Tastes great -- less filling
Review: As per the previous reviews the book is an exuberant romp through a fascinating field of theory. The first half of the book is wonderful and will get you thinking about things differently (unless you are already well read in the area -- which I am not). The annecdotes regarding ants and cities are great introductory material but I found myself wanting the writer to go a little deeper. Chapters 5 and 6 are a little weak and find the author waxing excitedly about a variety of disconnected threads. The closing section of the book is an interesting attempt to extrapolate current trends into the future -- mostly dwelling on music, film, broadband etc. The futurism would have been more satisfying if it had touched more on other areas of life, medical, manufacturing, but that would have required a far greater leap. Overall, a fun book and a very quick read!
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Summary: Good guide to how technology may bring people together
Review: Steven Johnson is an observer of technology and how man finds new ways to adapt it to his needs. He has just the right amount of detachment to see how what's to come meshes with what has been. This "big picture" is what makes reading his work so easy. He takes concepts and ideas that we are already familiar with from our regular routines and explains how technology is trying to solve the same problems. This makes it easy to understand. Emergence is one of those rare books that is at once a cheerleader for man's ingenuity and has the stats and facts to back them up. Mr. Johnson's ideas about how social networks emerge and bend new technology to their needs is compelling and hopeful. I've been a fan of his since his days at FEED. If only the web's best online magazine, FEED, had found the resources to carry on.
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Summary: Submerge into Emergence
Review: This general interest reader tome should spark the imagination of many. It sparked mine.
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Summary: Life Changing
Review: This is the first book I read on complexity science. I have a restaurant with 100 employees and it changed my thinking about the questions we ask about what success is in business. It has had great import for me to review what it meant to determine specific outcomes in my business, as opposed to letting emergent behavior create a much more complex and rich outcome than I would have alone being the CEO of Lynn's Paradise Cafe. The connections this book has made for me in my town have changed my life. It's a great entree into complexity science and I look forward to more from a really great writer.
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Summary: Acceptable Introduction
Review: Those looking for an easy to understand introduction to the concept of emergence will find what they are looking for in this book. The examples of how; ant colonies, cities, software, and perhaps even the human embryonic cell use 'bottoms-up' intelligence to create higher order results, are clearly explained and easy to understand. Even the most uneducated lay person will have little trouble following the logic. The writing style is conversational and moves along easily. Overall, a pretty decent beginning to this subject for the wholly uninitiated. Potential readers should be aware of some other points as well, though. 1.The author seems to make large leaps of logic to reach the conclusions that he seeks, sometimes using perhaps deceitful tactics (ex. in the beginning of the book a picture of the human brain is shown next to the city of Hamburg, which happens to have a similiar shape - the reader gets the feeling that the author wants us to believe this is so due to emergence, rather than chance, never mind that most cities do not resemble a human brain) 2.While the examples in the book are clear and do a lot to help the reader understand emergence, the author keeps repeating them over and over again. Really, the book could have been half it's length and held the same content. 3.There is a lack of more in-depth material in the second half of this book. It would have been nice if the author could have built upon his good beginning by covering more ground. One wonders if he didn't think his readers too stupid to handle it. Still, overall, an acceptable introduction. Some may find it an interesting curiosity and enjoy it on that basis. Those looking for more information, or who already know anything about emergence should get a different book.
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