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The Moment of Complexity: Emerging Network Culture
" 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 Gö 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.
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.
352 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2002
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About the author
Mark C. Taylor
53 books35 followersMark C. Taylor, Ph.D. (Religious Studies, Harvard University, 1973; B.A., Wesleyan University, 1968), is a philosopher of religion who chaired the Department of Religion at Columbia University 2007–2015. Previously, he was Cluett Professor of Humanities at Williams College (Williamstown, Massachusetts), where he began his teaching career in 1973.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
December 2, 2019
I really wanted to give this 2.5 stars. Some great ideas but overall this felt like an essay forcibly expanded into a book.
April 21, 2016
This is quite simply the single best book on complexity and complex systems I've ever read, and it is certainly one of the best books I've ever read at all.
The author uses complex systems and information theory to make sense of the world in its current state, and along the way discusses art and philosophy as well.
Full of profound insights!
I found this book in a library while walking around, so it also proves the point that if you want your book to get noticed give it a bright orange cover. :-D
The author uses complex systems and information theory to make sense of the world in its current state, and along the way discusses art and philosophy as well.
Full of profound insights!
I found this book in a library while walking around, so it also proves the point that if you want your book to get noticed give it a bright orange cover. :-D
January 30, 2016
The bulk of the text is a well-considered synthesis of diverse theories on complexity. Each chapter is insightful, informative, and complementary to one another.
Unfortunately, the philosophical ruminations of the main text culminate to a chapter devoted to the author's new Global Education Network (GEN), a Web-based, for-profit, virtual corporation for delivering postsecondary education. Here, it becomes apparent that the essays leading up to the final chapter serve as implicit justification for his work with GEN, concluding The Moment of Complexity on an unsatisfying note.
Unfortunately, the philosophical ruminations of the main text culminate to a chapter devoted to the author's new Global Education Network (GEN), a Web-based, for-profit, virtual corporation for delivering postsecondary education. Here, it becomes apparent that the essays leading up to the final chapter serve as implicit justification for his work with GEN, concluding The Moment of Complexity on an unsatisfying note.
February 21, 2012
Good until he starts to brag about his own accomplishments in the last chapter.
November 5, 2010
The first chapter of this is a spectacular exploration of the far-reaching implications of complexity theory. Taylor is a little over-romantic about Gehry, but his points are solid and beautiful. This is required reading for anyone wondering where the new thinking is going - in architecture, art, theory, and other disciplines. The rest of the book is essentially unnecessary.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews