MARK BUCHANAN is a science writer who has worked on the editorial staff of Nature and as a features editor for New Scientist. He earned a Ph.D. in theoretical physics from the University of Virginia. He is also the author of Nexus, The Social Atom and Forecast.
Why do catastrophes happen? What sets off earthquakes, for example? What about mass extinctions of species? The outbreak of major wars? Massive traffic jams that seem to appear out of nowhere? Why does the stock market periodically suffer dramatic crashes? Why do some forest fires become superheated infernos that rage totally out of control?
Experts have never been able to explain the causes of any of these disasters. Now scientists have discovered that these seemingly unrelated cataclysms, both natural and human, almost certainly all happen for one fundamental reason. More than that, there is not and never will be any way to predict them.
Critically acclaimed science journalist Mark Buchanan tells the fascinating story of the discovery that there is a natural structure of instability woven into the fabric of our world. From humble beginnings studying the physics of sandpiles, scientists have learned that an astonishing range of things–Earth’s crust, cars on a highway, the market for stocks, and the tightly woven networks of human society–have a natural tendency to organize themselves into what’s called the “critical state,” in which they are poised on what Buchanan describes as the “knife-edge of instability.” The more places scientists have looked for the critical state, the more places they’ve found it, and some believe that the pervasiveness of instability must now be seen as a fundamental feature of our world.
Ubiquity is packed with stories of real-life catastrophes, such as the huge earthquake that in 1995 hit Kobe, Japan, killing 5,000 people; the forest fires that ravaged Yellowstone National Park in 1988; the stock market crash of 1987; the mass extinction that killed off the dinosaurs; and the outbreak of World War I. Combining literary flair with scientific rigor, Buchanan introduces the researchers who have pieced together the evidence of the critical state, explaining their ingenious work and unexpected insights in beautifully lucid prose.
At the dawn of this new century, Buchanan reveals, we are witnessing the emergence of an extraordinarily powerful new field of science that will help us comprehend the bewildering and unruly rhythms that dominate our lives and may even lead to a true science of the dynamics of human culture and history.
From the Hardcover edition.
这是一本有关混沌,不确定性,分形,复杂系统的书,先不管内容如何,翻译的是有够差,明显就是一外行翻译的。 “分形”被翻译成“不规则碎片” “正态分布”被翻译成“正常分布”,你别看到一个“normal”就正常啊。 “中心极限定理”被翻译成“中央限定定理“,你倒紧跟中央脚...
评分一切是那么的不可预测,重大事件的发生并不一定有什么特殊的原因,就发生的原因这一条来看,同平凡的小事处于同等地位 但是,历史事件之间又有某种深层次的普遍共性,那就是能量法则 我们处在一个规则与混沌的区间合集里,区分他们的就是临界,作者这本书的贡献 但是,我们怎么...
评分英文版两个版本,书名是Ubiquity: Why Catastrophes Happen?普遍法则:毁灭发生的原因;The Science of History . . . or Why the World Is Simpler Than We Think,历史的科学或为什么世界比我们想象的简单。 这是一本探讨复杂系统大毁灭的普遍现象的科普,采用的解释是自组织...
评分这本科普的内容大致勾起了我本科选修《非线性物理》的内容,只不过它举的例子比当年的老师多了一些(尤其是中间和后面几章),并且表达的更具体和更丰富。 作为一本科普书,这本书的前面几章写的一般,开头似乎有点陈词滥调,但至少如果耐心读下去,明白他要讲的实际上是不同...
看世界看历史看市场有一个新角度
评分another book on complexity, with many examples.
评分another book on complexity, with many examples.
评分another book on complexity, with many examples.
评分another book on complexity, with many examples.
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