Summary of Complexity

"Complexity: A Guided Tour" by Melanie Mitchell is a comprehensive introduction to the emerging field of complexity science and its related topics. Written for people with no technical background, it explores how patterns of complex behavior arise in networks of simple elements and how complexity science is relevant to and has dramatically impacted many scientific fields, from physics and biology to economics and psychology. It is filled with engaging examples such as the workings of the human brain, stock markets, ant colonies, computer viruses, and artificial intelligence. It also examines such topics as computation, emergence, self-organization, chaos theory, and networks. Throughout, Mitchell's accessible and rigorous approach makes "Complexity: A Guided Tour" a valuable and fascinating exploration of a rapidly expanding field.