"A well-written journey across a very broad landscape". -- Doug Elias, Cornell Theory Center, Cornell University
As we seek knowledge about man, society, and the universe, we have for centuries turned to the idea of cycles -- creation, death and rebirth. But what are the mechanics at work in this process? This book presents an elegantly simple, yet pervasive, concept that deciphers how nature spins the complex world around us. George Hall uniquely draws upon the competing perspectives of traditional science, the exciting new science of chaos, and the burgeoning and important tenets of complexity theory, catastrophe theory, and fuzzy logic to look for a common theme. All of these perspectives, he finds, are fundamentally united by a common theme: the crucial patterns of elements and their dynamic change over time. Order -- be it the growth of a fetus or the rumbling shift of continents -- evolves because these patterns are themselves the blueprint and the "program" by which nature shapes our awe-inspiring universe.
Hall takes this elegant concept and carries it beyond the traditional sciences into the social sciences. The Ingenious Mind of Nature explains the mechanics of change and provides a provocative concept that accounts for the growth and decline of all systems, be it the universe at large, the miracle of life on earth, or our own thought processes, as we contemplate and unlock the mysteries around us.
