Wow! eBook
The Engine of Complexity: Evolution as Computation
Author(s): John Mayfield (Author)
- Publisher: Columbia University Press
- Publication Date: July 9, 2013
- Language: English
- Print length: 416 pages
- ISBN-10: 0231163045
- ISBN-13: 9780231163040
Book Description
Intended for the intellectually adventuresome, this book challenges and rewards readers with a nuanced understanding of evolution and complexity that offers consistent, durable, and coherent explanations for major aspects of our life experiences. Numerous examples throughout the book illustrate evolution and complexity formation in action and highlight the core function of computation lying at the work's heart.
Editorial Reviews
Review
Wide ranging, ambitious, and clearly written, John E. Mayfield's
The Engine of Complexity shows how information flowing down the ages in genes, thoughts, and words, guided only by the invisible hand of selection, has built everything from beetles and human brains to steam engines, space shuttles, and iPads. It will open your eyes to a different way of seeing the world. -- Mark Pagel, University of Reading, author of Wired for Culture: Origins of the Human Social MindJohn E. Mayfield succeeds beautifully in making computational and biological concepts understandable to the non-expert reader. He suggests we are about to see a sea-change in our thinking with respect to how we view evolution in our society; he may be right, and his book is good reading to ready yourself for this potential change. -- Alan G. Atherly, Iowa State University
An extraordinarily ambitious and broad volume. -- Chris Adami ―
Quarterly Review of Biology
