In Overcomplicated, complexity scientist Samuel Arbesman offers a fresh, insightful field guide to living with complex technologies that defy human comprehension.
Samuel Arbesmanis Scientist in Residence at Lux Capital, a science and technology venture capital firm. He is also a Senior Fellow of the Silicon Flatirons Center of Law, Technology, and Entrepreneurship at the University of Colorado and a Research Fellow at the Long Now Foundation. His writing on science, mathematics, and technology has appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and Wired. Arbesman's first book, The Half-life of Facts, examines how knowledge changes over time. He lives in Kansas City with his wife and children.
Praise for Overcomplicated:
"[Arbesman] argues convincingly...He is undoubtedly right. The
dream that we can fully understand our complex man-made systems is
just that—a dream."
—The Wall Street Journal
"Acquiring fluency in systems-speak is fast becoming a civic
duty... Arbesman’s freshly elucidated concepts are excellent field
tools: they are the translucent sampling containers you take with
you as you wade through the glitch-infested shallows of an
algorithm."
—New Scientist
“I was shocked [by] this elegant, eye-opening book…Fascinating and
full of new ideas I will use in argument from now on.”
—Financial Times
“Overcomplicated has the scintillating, big-idea premise of an
‘it’ business book, but it's more than a Hudson News read: It
presents a new way to think about the world that makes seemingly
impossible problems approachable. By identifying how tangled our
world has gotten, we can figure out the best ways to undo the
knots.”
—Vox
"How do we navigate a digital world too complex for any individual
to understand? With a sense of wonder and the spirit of a
scientist, as Samuel Arbesman argues in this terrific and
thoughtful book."
—CLIVE THOMPSON, author of Smarter Than You Think
"With humor, insight, and wide-ranging examples, polymath Samuel
Arbesman helps us hack through the tangle of complexity that
defines our world today, and shows us how to cope with it."
—STEVEN STROGATZ, professor of mathematics, Cornell University;
author of The Joy of x
"Why can’t we understand technology anymore? In this consistently
entertaining and insightful book, Arbesman offers a necessary guide
to where we are headed and why everything seems so strange along
the way."
—TYLER COWEN, author of Average Is Over
"Complexity science has unlocked new insights in physics,
seismology, biology, even finance. In Overcomplicated, Samuel
Arbesman makes an original and invaluable contribution to the field
by exploring human interaction with complex systems. This excellent
book is necessary reading for the layman and the expert alike."
—JAMES RICKARDS, author of The Death of Money
"Read this short book to get over the idea that we can make
technology simple. Arbesman will convince you we have only one
choice: to indirectly manage ever increasing complexity."
—KEVIN KELLY, author of The Inevitable
"A powerful, concise argument about how to grapple with the mystery
and wonder of twenty-first-century technology. It's exactly what we
all need."
—CARL ZIMMER, author of Evolution
“Fascinating, alarming, insightful, full of examples and
funny.”
—QI.com
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