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Out of Control: The New Biology of Machines, Social Systems, & the Economic World Paperback – April 14, 1995

by Kevin Kelly (Author)

4.7 187 ratings

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Out of Control chronicles the dawn of a new era in which the machines and systems that drive our economy are so complex and autonomous as to be indistinguishable from living things.

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

In many ways, the 20th century has been the Age of Physics. Out of Control is an accessible and entertaining explanation of why the coming years will probably be the Age of Biology -- particularly evolution and ethology -- and what this will mean to most every aspect of our society. Kelly is an enthusiastic and well-informed guide who explains the promises and implications of this rapidly evolving revolution very well.

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...represents an attempt to comprehend the possible future evolution of everything. This is the wonderful sort of subject which can quickly transform a reader's idle curiosity into an obsessive craving for more knowledge and imaginative interpretation. Kelly offers plenty of both, with hackle-raising enthusiasm, eloquence, and even that scientific rarity, a sense of humor. -- London Spectator

...the best of an important new genre. The book offers a pointed reminder that self organization...is the essence of innovation, progress, and life itself. These are eternal ideas -- and ideas whose time has come. -- Forbes ASAP

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Basic Books; Reprint edition (April 14, 1995)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 531 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0201483408
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0201483406
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.8 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 9 x 6 x 1.6 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #240,468 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #186 in Social Aspects of Technology
- #252 in Theory of Economics
- #535 in Artificial Intelligence & Semantics

Customer Reviews:
4.7 187 ratings

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Kevin Kelly

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Kevin Kelly is Senior Maverick at Wired magazine. He co-founded Wired in 1993, and served as its Executive Editor for its first seven years. He is also founding editor and co-publisher of the popular Cool Tools website, which has been reviewing tools daily since 2003. From 1984-1990 Kelly was publisher and editor of the Whole Earth Review, a journal of unorthodox technical news. He co-founded the ongoing Hackers’ Conference, and was involved with the launch of the WELL, a pioneering online service started in 1985. His books include the best-selling New Rules for the New Economy, the classic book on decentralized emergent systems, Out of Control, a graphic novel about robots and angels, The Silver Cord, an oversize catalog of the best of Cool Tools, and his summary theory of technology in What Technology Wants (2010). His new book for Viking/Penguin is The Inevitable, which is a New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller.

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Customers say

Customers find the book offers fascinating insights and revelations about machine biology. They find it packed with valuable perspectives and ideas about evolution. However, opinions differ on the pacing - some find it prescient and relevant, while others feel it's repetitive at times and challenging to understand the difficult topics.

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Thought provoking Evolution Pacing

13 customers mention "Thought provoking"13 positive0 negative

Customers find the book insightful and packed with valuable ideas. They say it offers a valuable perspective and is relevant. The book explores complex, unpredictable systems and is a must-read for forward-thinking technologists.

"...evolution to artificial intelligence to economies, it examines how and why complex, unpredictable systems form, and how they can be managed and..." Read more

"...4. Physical systems as computational processes; this is the most radical of the ideas in the book, but the author does not expound upon it in any..." Read more

"...The book also introduces many great scientists and scientific projects ranging from Biosphere 2, the Los Alamos complexity/chaos scientists and even..." Read more

"...His chapter topics range far and wide and give you enough to get you interested...." Read more

3 customers mention "Evolution"3 positive0 negative

Customers like the book's discussion of evolution. They say it makes them think about biology, machines, and the future. Evolutionary programming has taken off with many applications in finance, biology, and network.

"...Evolutionary programming has taken off, with many applications in finance, biology, network engineering, and large-scale circuit design...." Read more

"...Made me think about biology, evolution, machines and the future in completely new and fresh ways...." Read more

"...insights and revelations about machine biology, "hive mind" theory, co-evolution, the evolution of computers, and the future of planet Earth...." Read more

6 customers mention "Pacing"3 positive3 negative

Customers have different views on the pacing of the book. Some find it prescient and relevant, with deployment just years away. Others feel it's repetitive at times, making difficult topics challenging to understand, and lacks a coherent thesis.

"...Swarm robots are currently under development, with deployment just years away...." Read more

"...more at home writing magazine articles, and sometimes the book lacks a coherent thesis, but that is more than made up for with wonderful prose, and..." Read more

"...This book was written 16 years ago, so hindsight can readily be applied, and Kelly's predictions about where science would be with relation to..." Read more

"...A little repetitive at times, but that is the author's way of making sure the ideas are fully fleshed out...." Read more

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Jeremy Foote
What a book!
Reviewed in the United States on January 5, 2011
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What a book! I will be thinking about the concepts and ideas presented in this book for a long, long time. Kelly is a little more at home writing magazine articles, and sometimes the book lacks a coherent thesis, but that is more than made up for with wonderful prose, and an unbridled excitement for his subject.

This book attempts to dissect the study of the unpredictable. From biological evolution to artificial intelligence to economies, it examines how and why complex, unpredictable systems form, and how they can be managed and created.

This book was written in 1994, but it very rarely feels dated. The problems and concepts that technology was dealing with have become, if anything, more embedded and more interesting now. This book is a wonderful guide to anyone trying to navigate today's networked world.

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Chris Anderson
Perhaps the most important book of the 90s
Reviewed in the United States on August 23, 2006
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Why are the three most powerful forces in our world--evolution, democracy and capitalism--so controversial? Hundreds (in the case of democracy, thousands) of years after they were first understood, we still can't quite believe these three phenomena work. Socialist Europe resists capitalism, the religious right in America questions evolution and the Middle East makes a mockery of democracy. When you think about it, it's easy to understand why: all three are radically counterintuitive. "One person, one vote?" What if they vote wrong?

But that's the problem--we're thinking about it. Our brains aren't wired to understand the wisdom of the crowd. Evolution, democracy and capitalism don't work at the anecdotal level of personal experience, the level at which our story-driven synapses are built to engage. Instead, they're statistical, operating in the realm of collective probability. They're not right--they're "righter". They're not predictable and controllable--they're inherently out of control. That's scary and unsettling, but also hugely important to understand in a world of increasing complexity and diminishing institutional power (mainstream media: meet blogs; military: meet insurgency).

Fortunately, this book that makes sense of all of this. Out of Control was first published in 1994, well before its time, but it's one of those rare books that sells better each year it gets older. That's because Kelly recognized that the messy markets of natural selection, enlightened self-interest and invisible hands all anticipated the Internet and the delights of watching peer-to-peer cacophony create the greatest oracle the world has ever seen. Some of the examples may be a bit dated a dozen years later, but the message has only become more true: "There is no central keeper of knowledge in a network, only curators of particular views," he writes. The emergent mob wisdom of the blogosphere and Wikipedia were unimaginable then, but somehow Kelly imagined them all the same. This may be the smartest book of the past decade.

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boomdork
Offers a valuable perspective
Reviewed in the United States on February 25, 2022
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I read this book several years ago, and I continue to be amazed at how much it influenced my thinking about the ecology of EVERYTHING.

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Dr. Lee D. Carlson
Interesting and provocative
Reviewed in the United States on October 10, 2001
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The ideas in this book may be thought by some to be radical or far-fetched, but to those readers familiar with the behavior of complex dynamical systems, they seem quite natural. The book emphasizes the theoretical aspects of complex systems, but some natural examples of them are discussed. The author, in spite of his choice of title for the book, is not threatened by the consequences of artifically creating these systems. After all, we live and have evolved in a universe that is even more complex than the author describes. The fact that we humans can now speed up the process of creation of these systems should be a source of wonder instead of fear.
What makes this book valuable reading is that the author emphasizes the collective behavior of dynamical systems. Too often the reductionist trend in Western science obscures how the system works together, how its many parts collectively induce an emergent behavior not at all apparent in the systems "equations of motion".
Since the book is written for a popular audience, the approach is qualitative and allegorical. This purely descriptive approach does however allow a more general overview of complex dynamical systems im many different areas. The author gives a fascinating discussion of swarm systems and their advantages and disadvantages. One of the disadvantages according to the author is that they are "nonunderstandable"; but here he is mistaken, for complex systems can be understood, although such an understanding takes some effort anc computational horsepower. Also, in his discussion of network behavior the author asserts that it is "counterintuitive" and quotes "Braess's paradox" as proof of this. Dietrich Braess discovered that adding routes to an already congested network will slow it down. There are examples of this, but it is not a hard-and-fast rule, as network engineers who employ load balancing can attest to. Adding time-dependent paths can work to reduce congestion, this time-dependence not addressed in Braess's formulation of the paradox.
Some more interesting discussions in the book are allegorical, but they serve to encourage "thinking out of the box":1. The effects of isolation and boredom on the human mind: the need for the physical body to temper unruly constructions of the mind. 2. The chameleon riddle: what color will a chameleon take on if put in front of a mirror? 3.The Prisoner's dilemna. This has got to be the most widely used tool for encouraging cooperation, in spite of its simplicity and impracticality. Computer simulation of the Prisoner's dilemna with 1000 players has revealed phenomena familiar in evolutionary studies, such as parasitism, spontaneously emerging symbiosis, and long-term stable coexistence between species. 4. Physical systems as computational processes; this is the most radical of the ideas in the book, but the author does not expound upon it in any great detail though. 5. The Biosphere experiment; I only read brief news reports of this while it was going on, so it was interesting to read here a detailed account of it. 6. The need for industry to adopt "biological" methodologies: complexity is more efficient, less wasteful, and more robust. 7. Network economics: The "network company" of the 21st century will be distributed (no single location), decentralized, collaborative (outsourcing to competitors!), and adaptive. This chapter is the most practical of all those in the book. 8. The role of encryption in a digital economy, particularly "encryption-metering" and digital cash. 9. The importance of simulation in defense and industry in the 21st century: simulate before you build, simulate before you buy, and simulate before you fight. 10. The evolution machine and its resultant creation of sex; the consequent discussion of genetic/evolutionary programming. The differences between 'Lamarckian' and 'Darwinian" evolutionary programs. 11. Postdarwinism: why have no new species been detected naturally or even in computer simulations? The central thesis of Neodarwinism is that only the environment can select mutations, but not induce or direct them.
Since this book was published in 1994, there have been many advances in the areas that the author discusses. Evolutionary programming has taken off, with many applications in finance, biology, network engineering, and large-scale circuit design. Swarm robots are currently under development, with deployment just years away. Computational/intelligent agents are now managing networks, with autonomous agents just around the corner.Encryption and smart-card technologies have mushroomed along with intelligent computer virus detection. Simulation is now thought of as a "must-do" in every phase of business and industry, and simulations are now thought of as sophisticated enough to model real-world situations without any experimental "validation". Indeed, technological advancement and its application is moving forward at a dizzying rate, and seemingly...out of control?

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Crayfisk
Excellent!
Reviewed in the United States on March 22, 2015
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Really enjoyed this book from 1994... And I just read it in 2015! Made me think about biology, evolution, machines and the future in completely new and fresh ways. A little repetitive at times, but that is the author's way of making sure the ideas are fully fleshed out. The book also introduces many great scientists and scientific projects ranging from Biosphere 2, the Los Alamos complexity/chaos scientists and even combat simulators that led to a speedy war in Iraq. Quite a smorgasbord!

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Isaac Gonzalez
Mal estado
Reviewed in Mexico on May 30, 2019
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Me llego con paginas despegadas sin romperse, parece que no se hizo bien el libro

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Kyle Muraca
A great book, ahead of its time!
Reviewed in Canada on March 30, 2019
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I love this book, it is enjoyable and easy to read, keeps me fascinated, and not twisted and turned by big wordy words. It talks of new technology in our lives, helping us along our ways. Talks about our minds working together as one “hive mind” that allows to make group decisions, and so much more.

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HeuteLachtKeinerMehr
Die digitale Zukunft gesehen: Vor 30 Jahren
Reviewed in Germany on July 17, 2020
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Eine phänomenale, fachlich abgesicherte Vision des digitalen Zeitalters. Zusammen mit Kevin Kelly’s “Ten laws” eine Art Bedienungsanweisung für die digitale Industrie und unsere Zukunft mit ihr. Der Titel ist Programm – und das Buch reicht weit über 2020 hinaus. Kelly’s Problem: Er war kein Wissenschaftler, sondern (nur?) WIRED- Editor- und ist von der gesamten Universitäts- bzw. Business School- Landschaft vor 20 Jahren in Europa nicht wahrgenommen worden. Andere haben das Buch nach Erscheinen gelesen – wie Elon Musk, der auch eine kurze Widmung in “Ten laws” geschrieben und mit dem Wissen Karriere gemacht hat. Wir haben uns hierzulande auf akademische Hochmütigkeit à la Cluster RTHW Aachen verlassen und stehen als Land jetzt digital nur im Mittelfeld. So geht’s

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Kevin Kelly
Spotting Convergence
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 24, 2018
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A well thought out read by a man who's opinions are based on the available facts- a rarity in the FB age

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that
群れの知能が将来像？
Reviewed in Japan on December 20, 2005
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H.G.ウェルズ以来、似たような路線で大胆な理論に突っ込む度胸を持っていた別のポピュラーな科学者はいないかもしれない。

ケリーは進化論、人工知能、バーチャルリアリティ、市場経済学などの広範囲にわたって話を進めていきます。

「人工知能学」はまだまだ発展出来る新しい分野だと思う。
筆者はどうも、私たちの将来像は産業技術で出来上がる鉄鋼の都市ではなく、テクノロジ＋バイオで構成された新生物学的な文明が来る話が続く。マシンらが一点に集中するさまは、ボトムアップのシステム群れによって特徴付けられるようだ。

これらの傾向が集中制御の終わりを意味すると信じてる。社会的で経済の未来は、分散されて、本質的にはout of controlになるという。
セオリーもロジカル的にも良く出来ているが、巨大なシステムになってしまいコントロールを失う疑いを持たないところに少し不安を感じる。

どうやってコントロールをしていくか？と言うことは難しい話だが、群集知能の話なら　Eric Bonabeauの Swarm Intelligence: From Natural to Artificial Systems の方が理解が深まると思う。

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