From Complexity to Life: On The Emergence of Life and Meaning [Hardcover]

Niels Henrik Gregersen (Editor)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0195150708 | ISBN-13: 978-0195150704 | Publication Date: November 28, 2002

This book brings together an impressive group of leading scholars in the sciences of complexity, and a few workers on the interface of science and religion, to explore the wider implications of complexity studies. It includes an introduction to complexity studies and explores the concept of information in physics and biology and various philosophical and religious perspectives. Chapter authors include Paul Davies, Greg Chaitin, Charles Bennett, Werner Loewenstein, Paul Dembski, Ian Stewart, Stuart Kauffman, Harold Morowitz, Arthur Peacocke, and Niels H. Gregersen.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A success." -- C.P. Goodman, The Polyani Society Periodical

"This volume could well serve as the core resource for undergraduates studying contemporary science and philosophy."--CHOICE, P. D. Skiff

About the Author

Niels Henrik Gregersen is at University of Aarhus.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (November 28, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0195150708
• ISBN-13: 978-0195150704
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,126,103 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Uneven, with some gems, September 1, 2005

By 

A. J. Sutter (Tokyo, Japan) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: From Complexity to Life: On The Emergence of Life and Meaning (Hardcover)

This book is a set of 10 essays (plus introduction by Paul Davies) on the "emergence" of complexity from simpler consituents, and on the significatnce of "emergence" for the relationship between science and religion. I expect that at least five essays could be of interest even to atheists.

Ian Stewart provides an exceptionally clear discussion of the Second Law of Thermodynamics and the limited context in which it operates. Usually this law is expressed as the evolution of (closed) systems from a state of order and structure to a state of homogeneity. The problem is that the Universe has been making a transition from homogeneity to clumpy order. Stewart describes how this is due to the nature of gravity, and its differences from Boltzmann's model of statistical mechanics. Along the way, he makes many illuminating points about the distinction between (negative) entropy and information, the compatibility of time-reversible dynamics with the "arrow of time" and many similar matters. If you're interested in physics, this essay is sufficient justification for getting the book.

The other essay that impressed me most was by the editor, N.H. Gregersen, a philosopher and theologian. He nicely distinguishes many possible implications of self-organization and the anthropic principle for both science and religion. His essay, along with that of Arthur Peacocke, also makes some interesting critiques of "intelligent design" (ID) from a religious point of view. Both authors are Christians, though apparently not in the narrow sense of that word so current in the US. However, I can't claim to have followed the brief bits of explicitly Christian theological speculation near the end of each of their essays.

An essay by a leading ID advocate makes for an interesting bit of rhetoric. Most of it is an attack on a straw-man premise, as even the author reveals in his final couple of pages. I understand he has a Ph. D. in math, but much of his jargon-slinging seemed to be more sparkle than substance. Some of his comments (e.g., "[T]hat's why mathematicians refer to topology as 'point-set topology'", p. 106) seem quite bizarre coming from a professional.

Two other essays, by H. Morowitz and W. Loewenstein, were disappointing. Morowitz provides a compressed re-telling of the evolution of the universe and life, with some Christian theology at the end. Loewenstein writes in a cloying, "poetic" style reminiscent of a scientist's talk to a ladies' club luncheon sometime in the 1950s. His penchant for equating energy and information is also quite irritating.

Good contributions from G. Chaitin, C. Bennett and S. Kaufmann were all published previously (or nearly so). Kauffman's essay on the "Fourth Law" of thermodynamics (based on his book "Investigations") is particularly stimulating. His prose is often marred by his excessive vanity, but there's a lot of substance, and it's never as irritating as Loewenstein's. Paul Davies also contributes a nice essay on the Second Law and emergence in his usual level-headed style.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars An interesting mix of articles, December 3, 2006

By 

Glenn L. E. May (Islington, Ontario Canada) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: From Complexity to Life: On The Emergence of Life and Meaning (Hardcover)

with some good science despite the creationist leanings, the symposium being funded by the Templeton Foundation.
I found Ian Stewart's challenge of Roger Penrose (from his books The Emperor's New Mind' and 'The Road to Reality') over the thermodynamics of the universe the most interesting, though I tend to disagree with both of them on the 'mystery of time asymmetry'. Stewart says it's about coarse graining and not the initial conditions whereas Penrose says it's about the exceedingly improbable initial conditions. However Penrose quantifies an estimate of this by comparing an estimate of the current entropy of the universe with that if it were a black hole. This implies the most probable beginning is a black hole, but that would not evolve. Physicists often explain uniquenes with there being an infinite number of universes only some of which will have the right conditions for life as Paul Davies does in his article. Penrose would likely counter argue that a time reversed black hole would be consistent but I would argue this is not possible here (our particular universe has emergent qualities that are not time reversible). In fact Stewart and Penrose agree with each other that the initial conditions were uniform and so unique and both suggest the 2nd law of thermodynamics is unexplainable; whereas Davies has given at least one possibility that makes sense and would render Penrose's calculation meaningless. Personnally I find the possiblility of a beginning uniform quantum fluctuation from the vacuum less mysterious than the subsequent evolving physics with its multiple unravelling and arising forces, particles, quantum mechanics and 'Compton wavelengths'.
While the quibbling over time asymmetry is interesting to a point, the real issue is the evolution of complexity and here the book is weaker (than some other books such as those noted below). Many physicists believe (or hope to find) a yet to be discovered universal organizing law (leading to useful or functional complexity), what Stuart Kauffman and Ian Stewart refer to as a '4th law of thermodynamics.' The real problem though is the limits of mathematics in dealing with a highly non-linear world. The complexity of interest in the book is that leading to life and no one has found a way to model it completely. As Stewart says (pg. 137) "[If] all of the really interesting phenomena are emergent...there will be no practical way to derive those consequences algorithmically. This may not appeal to physicists, but will be attractive to biologists, who find physical laws somewhat unilluminating when it comes to studying living organisms."
Jochen Fromm (author of The Emergence of Complexity) explains:
"It is difficult to construct a theory or model which describes 'emergence'...because a property is emergent if it can not be comprehended by the underlying system model -just as something is complex, if it is difficult to describe...The complexity of nature is deceiving. Self-organization is sometimes identified as the reason for the overwhelming complexity and emergence as the reason for the sudden jumps in complexity. Yet evolution is the main reason and the driving force for the complexity and diversity that can be found in nature and neither the concepts of self-organization nor the phenomenon of emergence can really replace evolution or natural selection."
A very recent book, The Plausibility of Life, has clearly demonstrated these points, and shows how the science of biology can progress outside the confines of mathematics and physical laws, while the physicists continue to argue over the beginning.
[Editorial] "Now two neo-Darwinian biologists have boldy extended the original paradigm by showing how the deep molecular biology of the cell actually fosters biological novelties when plants and animals need them most, not merely when random chance generates them. [They] adduce the evidence that nature has preserved and compartmentalized the core innovations that maximize the adaptive flexibility of species from yeasts to humans. The dynamics of protein chemistry and the plasticity of embryonic cells combine to make creatures capable of assuming many different forms..." This can explain the mystery of how nature handles the fact that most mutations are harmful (through 'facilitated variation').
This is evolution and natural selection at its finest, with no need for any more mysterious laws (though more new principles can be expected to be discovered, arising from the effects of existing physical laws; just like facilitated variation). For the creationists, P. W. Atkins' book "The 2nd Law, Energy, Chaos, Form, descibes how evolution occurs and life operates in accordance with the 2nd law (and the other known laws where relevant, such as energy conservation) without the need for input from above.