Chaos: Making a New Science by James Gleick - Paperback

I'm not sure if I'm just too stupid but this book is so difficult to read. The concepts are not difficult to understand, but the way its written it so (ironically) chaotic that its so difficult to understand what the heck James Gleick is trying to say. It's not difficult to understand the jist behind things like Chaos Theory and Non-Linear Dynamics - I fully understand what this is. But the way James explains the experiments and the concepts are so goddam awful that I ended up having to do internet research - it took 2 lines from the opening paragraph of Wikipedia to summarise everything James said in some entire chapters. I gave it 2 stars instead of 1 because I appreciate him introducing the words to me. But thats all he did, introduce the words, I had to understand the concepts, the people behind the experiments and the experiments myself via internet research (and it took FAR FAR FAR FAR less time understanding things from a Wikipedia article or YouTube video which go into MUCH more depth too).

I am a bit biased in that I find this topic fascinating but ignoring that this book is very accessible, you don’t need to be qualified in maths to enjoy it! It is wide ranging and covers all the basic topics without muddying the waters with too much detail. It’s really not so scary, so what have you got to lose? Give it a go! You may even find yourself inspired to take your interest further like I am about to!!

Der Titel "Chaos: The Making of a New Science" verhieß eine Menge - und hielt wenig. So könnte man meine Bewertung gleich zusammenfassen.Gleick gelingt es nicht zu erklären, was "Chaos" ist, sondern er redet ständig drumrum. Die Chaostheorie als solche wird nicht erläutert, dafür findet ein nerviges "name dropping" statt, es werden etliche bekannte Namen genannt, aber ohne echte Zusammenhänge zu erklären. Das geht einher mit einer unwissenschaftlichen Sprache, die man auch bei einem populärwissenschaftlichen Buch erwarten würde und könnte.Fazit: Schade, aber dafür kann ich nach langem Nachdenken nur einen Stern vergeben. Keine Empfehlung von mir.

The book is almost a tribute to early contributors to non-linear sciences. So many that even if I could, I could mention only fewer than few of them.Hence, I will skip ahead & won't come across partial towards anyone...well except Edward Lorenz!I also found the highest points of the book in the topics of universality, helium in a box, information theory, fractals & the rhythm of scales, mode locking, cross section of an attractor, coastline measurement, briefly mentioned theorem related to deterministic non-periodic flow, horseshoe, degrees of freedom...It is astonishing that even with so much progress, most of these topics are either not mentioned in mainstream curriculum or not appreciated as those should be.Therefore, the book is for everyone & anyone who may find non-linear sciences unnecessary, in the way or daunting.There are many excellent quotes by the pioneers of this field & author himself...some struck me like a lightning bolt while others lingered in the thoughts slowly taking over. More often then not, this made me to take the happy long pause to follow the racing of thoughts.In my little understanding of the science, I suppose the degrees of freedom I could understand here is perhaps a sibling to the topics of uncertainty principle and paradox of observations.Anyhow, I will certainly be back to refer this book again and again...yet not every fallback being exactly the same :)

First read this book in '99 and it made my brain tingle it was so interesting, lent it to someone who did not return so ordered again. Absolutely reccommend, this book is jam packed full of inspirational theories that will make your mind start to work overtime. The images in the book are fantastic, love the fractals. Cannot reccommend this book enough!