Steven Johnson's Emergence: The Connected Lives of Ants Brains Cities & Software" is a fascinating look at how self-organising systems are changing the world. Why do people cluster together in neighborhoods? How do internet communities spring up from nowhere? Why is a brain conscious even though no single neuron is? What causes a media frenzy? The answer as Steven Johnson's groundbreaking book shows is emergence: change that occurs from the bottom up. When enough individual elements interact & organize themselves the result is collective intelligence
- even though no-one is in charge. It is a phenomenon that exists at every level of experience & will revolutionize the way we see the world. " Exhilarating". (J.G. Ballard). "A dizzying dazzling romp through fields as disparate as urban planning computer-game design neurology & control theory". (" Economist"). " Mind-expanding.. .intelligent witty & tremendously thought-provoking... Popular science books interesting enough to read twice don't come along all that often". (" Guardian"). " Not just a fascinating quirk of science: it's the future". (" The New York Times"). Steven Johnson is the author of the acclaimed books " Everything Bad is Good for You" " Mind Wide Open" " Where Good Ideas Come From" " Emergence" & " Interface Culture". His writing appeared in the " Guardian" the " New Yorker" " Nation" & " Harper's" as well as the op-ed pages of " The New York Times" & the " Wall Street Journal". He is a Distinguished Writer In Residence at NYU's School Of Journalism & a Contributing Editor to " Wired"."