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The Origins of Order: Self-Organization and Selection in Evolution 1st Edition

4.7 4.7 out of 5 stars 45 ratings

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Stuart Kauffman here presents a brilliant new paradigm for evolutionary biology, one that extends the basic concepts of Darwinian evolution to accommodate recent findings and perspectives from the fields of biology, physics, chemistry and mathematics. The book drives to the heart of the exciting debate on the origins of life and maintenance of order in complex biological systems. It focuses on the concept of self-organization: the spontaneous emergence of order that is widely observed throughout nature Kauffman argues that self-organization plays an important role in the Darwinian process of natural selection. Yet until now no systematic effort has been made to incorporate the concept of self-organization into evolutionary theory. The construction requirements which permit complex systems to adapt are poorly understood, as is the extent to which selection itself can yield systems able to adapt more successfully. This book explores these themes. It shows how complex systems, contrary to expectations, can spontaneously exhibit stunning degrees of order, and how this order, in turn, is essential for understanding the emergence and development of life on Earth. Topics include the new biotechnology of applied molecular evolution, with its important implications for developing new drugs and vaccines; the balance between order and chaos observed in many naturally occurring systems; new insights concerning the predictive power of statistical mechanics in biology; and other major issues. Indeed, the approaches investigated here may prove to be the new center around which biological science itself will evolve. The work is written for all those interested in the cutting edge of research in the life sciences.

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Editorial Reviews

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"Biology is the science of the organizational principles that make living things living. Kauffman's book is a massive attempt to provide the foundations for a theory of such organization. . .The book is as much an explication of a specific style of scientific thinking as it is a book on adaptation, the origin of life, and ontogeny. The style of thinking can be characterized by the assumption that there are deep and simple conceptual structures that will allow us to understand life and not merely describe it. . .I hope that Kauffman's book will be a strong stimulus for many scientists to search actively for the principles that govern the organization of living states of matter." --Science

"This book does a real service in building a bridge between reductionist and holistic ways of thinking about systems. . .Kauffman writes with great intelligence and clarity and is able to bring together a large range of theory and experimental information without getting bogged down in detail." --Whole Earth Review

"For all the recent advances in molecular biology, we still lack a convincing explanation of how self-organising and self-replicating entities originated. Stuart Kauffman enters this arena with a book that seeks to show that self-organising structures of great complexity can assemble themselves much more easily, and much more understandably, than previous intuition suggested. . .Building on recent work in nonlinear mathematics, the idea at the heart of the book is truly important: even in vastly complicated interactive networks, a few simple rules can easily--if amazingly--lead to order and self-organised patterns and processes. This represents a major advance in understanding how the living world works." --Robert M. May, The Observer

"Stuart Kauffman's book. . .is a global representation of a new field, that will greatly enhance our physical understanding of Nature. It treats from a physical standpoint the processes of molecular selfordering, as biologists witness them in the living world, and it does so in a most original and authoritative way. A superb reading, not limited to physicists and biologists, having most important implications in natural philosophy." --Manfred Eigen, Max-Planck Institut für Biophysikalische Chemie

"There are very few people in this world who ever ask the right questions of science, and they are the ones who affect its future most profoundly. Stuart Kauffman is one of these. Read this book." --Philip Anderson, Nobel Laureate, Dept. of Physics, Princeton University

"The conventional concept of Darwinian evolution views populations of organisms as randomly varying systems shaped to adaptation by the external force of natural selection. But Darwinian theory must be expanded to recognize other sources of order based on the internal genetic and developmental constraints of organisms and on the structural limits and possibilities of general physical laws. Stu Kauffman has been exploring these unorthodox sources of order for many years and has now produced an integrative book that will become a landmark and a classic as we grope towards a more comprehensive and satisfying theory of evolution." --Stephen Jay Gould, Harvard University

"Has there been time, since the origin of life on earth, for natural selection to produce the astonishing complexity of living organisms? Kauffman offers a new and unorthodox answer to this question. Given what we know about the way genes signal to one another, he argues that complexity can arise more readily than one would expect. I am not sure he is right, but I am sure that we should take his ideas seriously. --John Maynard Smith, University of Sussex

"Professor Kauffman's book is highly imaginative and provocative." --Lewis Wolpert, University College and Middlesex School of Medicine

"The facile claim that natural selection can accomplish every adaptive change fails to grapple with the problems posed by a highly structured system with its own laws of assembly and interaction. Stuart Kauffman's book, The Origins of Order, returns the problem of evolution to the central issue that evolutionists have been avoiding for too long, the problem of the evolution of a complex, organized system that we call, appropriately, an organism. Evolutionists had better take Kauffman's arguments seriously." --Richard C. Lewontin, Harvard University

"I rarely agree with Stuart Kauffman, but I always enjoy arguing with him. If you are interested in novel theories, buy this book--you will find lots of ideas worth wrestling with." --Leslie E. Orgel, The Salk Institute

Book Description

A challenging and original treatise on the origin of life and the maintenance of order in complex biological systems that addresses questions Darwin could not have known existed.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Oxford University Press; 1st edition (June 10, 1993)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 734 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0195079515
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0195079517
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.2 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.11 x 1.32 x 9.18 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.7 4.7 out of 5 stars 45 ratings

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Stuart A. Kauffman
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4.7 out of 5 stars
45 global ratings

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Top reviews from the United States

  • Reviewed in the United States on April 10, 2022
    If you are interested in complexity, self organization, biology, economies etc. Stu Kaufman is one of the greats. I had been studying these ideas for years in and around MIT, but this book is so clear and rigorous that it took me a while s to get over being unready to have written it. Maybe too intense for laymen, but full of brilliant ideas and analysis. Highly recommended.
    4 people found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United States on September 10, 2023
    Terrific book. Great ideas.
    One person found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United States on October 9, 2011
    What an amazing book. It certainly puts you back in your place in the scheme of things and our position in the order of eveolution. Fantastic loved it.
    3 people found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United States on May 8, 2016
    Awesome book that you need absolutely
    2 people found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United States on March 6, 2015
    it is very good.fast and excellent
  • Reviewed in the United States on August 27, 2015
    excellent!
  • Reviewed in the United States on June 15, 2002
    Stuart Kauffman has an MD and is a generalist. The book deals primarily with theory and understanding of computer simulations of state driven systems of large numbers of connected nodes. It examines how such systems evolve through mutation and gives a clear understanding of the limited role of natural selection in comparison to the self-organizing forces at work within such systems. It examines the meta-interaction of sub-systems of interacting states (attractor basins) that occur within a system. In English: it gives the first theoretical framework for understanding just how it is that cells which all contain identical DNA express themselves as some number of stable cell types. Normally a cell will react to a perturbation in whatever way will return it to its base stable cycle (attractor loop). One type of cell turns into another type when just the right perturbation kicks the system from one attractor basin into a different attractor basin.
    This is heavier reading than his popular science book, At Home in the Universe, but preferable for anyone with the necessary tiny amount of knowledge of genetics and logic operations. There are few equations of any kind. The results apply to more than just biological systems.
    The book is long because instead of just presenting a few principles that you can try to remember abstractly, he leads you through all the important steps of his research and gives you a real feel for how complex systems actually evolve and operate. The book raises more questions than it answers, as it should be for a book of such originality and importance.
    When you fully grok the contents of this book you'll be so excited you'll want to rush and explain it to someone else, which will be utterly impossible, so you'll probably have to lend them your book, buy them the popular version, or face the fact that you are now relatively alone on a higher plane.
    62 people found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United States on April 19, 2016
    The author is in love with the sound of his own voice. Far more language is used to describe even simple things than should ever be necessary.
    4 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

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  • Yuchen LU
    5.0 out of 5 stars un livre inspirant
    Reviewed in France on October 19, 2018
    l'interlocuteur sur ligne est sympa
  • N. Bwts
    5.0 out of 5 stars Superb!
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 28, 2017
    To follow the main arguments put forward in the book you dont need to have a strong background in Biology in my opinion but a techincal background in some area of computational modelling is invaluable. He takes a very geometrical approach which is fine if, like me, you have a visual kind of mind, if not you may struggle. Serioulsy not an entry level book!

    That said it is frankly an amazing piece of work.

    Anybody with serious intent on getting their heads around these issues should definitley consider the commitment needed to read it.
  • Amazon Customer
    5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent
    Reviewed in Australia on July 14, 2022
    Very good
  • Julio
    4.0 out of 5 stars Un libro sugestivo
    Reviewed in Spain on December 31, 2012
    Para interesados en Biología teórica.
    Especulación razonada sobre la aparición del orden en la materia viva, dentro de la teoría evolucionista.
  • ケイ太郎
    5.0 out of 5 stars The Origins of Order: Self-Organization and... Stuart A. Kauffman
    Reviewed in Japan on January 1, 2016
    分厚い書物ですが、毎日ページ数を決め一気に読み通すほど、簡潔で内容が深い。秩序という生命の基本を十分に理解する良い手だてがいっぱいあります。