In Defense of Chaos

Chaos gets a bad rap. Few people realize that without the dynamics of chaos, order would not exist. In fact, nothing would exist. Without chaos there would be no creation, no structure and no existence. After all, order is merely the repetition of patterns; chaos is the process that establishes those patterns. LK Samuels, goes beyond the normal boundaries studied by chaologists. It views science through a political and socioeconomic looking glass, exposing paradoxes and contrarian insights found in swarm intelligence, genetic algorithms, the licensing effect, self-organizing systems, strange attractors, edge-of-chaos disequilibrium, geometrical fractals, cellular automata, and autocatalytic sets, to name a few. In Defense of Chaos examines why chaology provides ample scientific evidence that open-ended, adaptable and evolving systems work far better than closed-ended, rigid and deterministic ones. Not only do dynamic systems work better, but they foster self-determination. The nature of the physical world favors the freedom for people to self-organize and self-govern without the interference of external command and control structures. "In Defense of Chaos is a passionate book by a passionate man. The chapter on swarm intelligence is alone worth the price of the book. L. K. Samuels shows how we can learn from ants and birds about how-or whether-to plan societies. Samuels' well-told story of how the federal government killed people in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina is haunting. " Prof. David R. Henderson, Research Fellow, Hoover Institution, Stanford University Editor, The Concise Encyclopedia of Economics.