The Quark and the Jaguar Adventures in the Simple and the Complex

by Gell-Mann, Murray

• ISBN13: 9780805072532
• ISBN10: 0805072535
• Edition: Illus.
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1995-09-15
• Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin

Summary

From one of the architects of the new science of simplicity and complexity comes an explanation of the connections between nature at its most basic level and natural selection, archaeology, linguistics, child development, computers, and other complex adaptive systems. Nobel laureate Murray Gell-Mann offers a uniquely personal and unifying vision of the relationship between the fundamental laws of physics and the complexity and diversity of the natural world. Murray Gell-Mannis Professor and Co-Chairman of the Science Board of the Santa Fe Institute, and Robert Andrews Milikan Professor Emeritus of Theoretical Physics at the California Institute of Technology. In 1969 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for his contributions and discoveries concerning the classification of elementary particles and their interactions. From one of the architects of the new science of simplicity and complexity comes a highly personal, unifying vision of the natural world. As a theoretical physicist, Murray Gell-Mann has explored nature at its most fundamental level. His achievements include the 1969 Nobel Prize for work leading up to his discovery of the quarkthe basic building block of all atomic nuclei throughout the universe. But Gell-Mann is a man of many intellectual passions, with lifelong interests in fields that seek to understand existence at its most complex: natural history, biological evolution, the history of language, and the study of creative thinking. These seemingly disparate pursuits come together in Gell-Mann's current work at The Santa Fe Institute, where scientists are investigating the similarities and differences amongcomplex adaptive systemssystems that learn or evolve by utilizing acquired information. They include a child learning his or her native language, a strain of bacteria becoming resistant to an antibiotic, the scientific community testing new theories, an artist implementing a creative idea, a society developing new customs or superstitions, a computer learning to play chess, or the human race evolving ways of living in greater harmony with itself and with other inhabitants of the Earth. The Quark and the Jaguaris an engaging, elegantly written introduction to the life's work of one of this century's most accomplished and influential scientists. This is Gell-Mann's own story of finding the connections between the basic laws of physics and the complexity and diversity of the natural world. The simple: a quark inside an atom. The complex: a jaguar prowling its jungle territory in the night. Exploring the relationships between them becomes a series of exciting intellectual adventures. "A grand tour of one of the most powerful and richly structured complex adaptive systems of our time: the mind of Murray Gell-Mann. The tour is very much worth taking."Science "A stimulating, provocative, and uncommon cut across compartments of human knowledge that are usually hermetically sealed."Carl Sagan "An exhilarating voyage of learning. Not a sparrow takes wing, not an idea rises, not a quark quivers that does not inspire Murray Gell-Mann. He has made his life an adventuresome quest along the frontiers of knowledge."Bill Moyers "A grand tour of one of the most powerful and richly structured complex adaptive systems of our time: the mind of Murray Gell-Mann. The tour is very much worth taking."Science "A book every bit as interesting as its author. Gell-Mann weaves together such seemingly disparate elements as chimpanzee behavior, avalanche mechanics, superstring theory, and Shakespeare. Extraordinary!"Mark J. Plotkin, author ofTales of a Shaman Apprentice "A book about how the wonderful diversity of the universe can arise out of a set of fairly simple basic laws. It is

Author Biography

Murray Gell-Mann is Robert Andrews Millikan Professor Emeritus of Theoretical Physics at the California Institute of Technology.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. ix
The Simple and the Complex
Prologue: An Encounter in the Jungle	p. 3
Early Light	p. 11
Information and Crude Complexity	p. 23
Randomness	p. 43
A Child Learning a Language	p. 51
Bacteria Developing Drug Resistance	p. 63
The Scientific Enterprise	p. 75
The Power of Theory	p. 89
What Is Fundamental?	p. 107
The Quantum Universe
Simplicity and Randomness in the Quantum Universe	p. 123
A Contemporary View of Quantum Mechanics: Quantum Mechanics and the Classical Approximation	p. 135
Quantum Mechanics and Flapdoodle	p. 167
Quarks and All That: The Standard Model	p. 177
Superstring Theory: Unification at Last?	p. 199
Time's Arrows: Forward and Backward Time	p. 215
Selection and Fitness
Selection at Work in Biological Evolution and Elsewhere	p. 235
From Learning to Creative Thinking	p. 261
Superstition and Skepticism	p. 275
Adaptive and Maladaptive Schemata	p. 291
Machines That Learn or Simulate Learning	p. 307
Diversity and Sustainability
Diversities Under Threat	p. 329
Transitions to a More Sustainable World	p. 345
Afterword	p. 367
Index	p. 377
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