Trading Chaos: Maximize Profits with Proven Technical Techniques (A Marketplace Book)

Book Description

How to trade the markets by integrating Chaos Theory with market sentiment
In the first edition of Trading Chaos, seasoned trader and psychologist Bill Williams detailed the potential of Chaos Theory-which seeks to make the unpredictable understandable-in trading and it revolutionized financial decision-making. The Second Edition of Trading Chaos is a cutting edge book that combines trading psychology and Chaos Theory and its particular effect on the markets. By examining both of these facets in relation to the current market, readers will have the best of all possible worlds when trading.
Bill Williams, PhD, CTA (Solana Beach, CA), is President of Profitunity.com, a leader in the field of education for traders and investors. Justine Gregory-Williams (Solana Beach, CA) is President of the Profitunity Trading Group and a full-time trader.

Download Description

Customer Reviews:

Great book - very intense.......2007-08-27

I've been looking for a book like this for a while. I first came across Bill Williams through the Metastock indicators and the Expert System. After loading an expert called "PS Fractal Trading System 2" I was amazed at the signals.
Having read through the book - I have the following quibble. There is a huge difference in the parameters of the alligator in what comes with Metastock (v9 and v10) and what the book gives. The book says the green line is 13 bar smoothed average offset 8 bars into future. Likewise the red is 8 bar offset 5, and the green is 5 bar offset 3. However this does not correspond to the Metastock indicator he provides. For the curious, the Metastock ones referred to in page 206 of book have the following values: Green: 9 period EMA of Median offset 3. Red: 15 period offset 5, and Blue 25 period offset 8

It is the right book at the right time.......2007-07-06

This book has methods to get buy signals before the lows and sell signals before the highs. This will help one sell into strength and buy into weakness. It has helped me get my positions off. I have recommended this book to all of my trading friends. It will take careful study to fully understand it. This book is original, all mechanical and all objective. The three wise men make up very powerful trading tools.

Good book.......2007-01-09

Another great book from Bill Williams!
Interesting for trend trading and for good living.

Bill Williams is the REAL DEAL.......2006-12-18

I am a BIG believer in Bill Williams and his body of work.

I have personally met with Bill, taken his home study course and even attended a private tutorial. Bill is the real deal. He is a *highly* profitable trader and Bill trades EXACTLY like he describes in his books (simplified over time, so Trading Chaos, 2nd Ed. is the LATEST and most refined method).

If you just want to trade with no other background information, Buy Trading Chaos, 2nd Edition (not this book) and start with chapter seven. When you get to the end of the book, you'll say, "That's it?!?! Than can't be it!" That's what I said. I then went on to take his home study course (13 weeks) and then went to a private tutorial. 95% of the methodology is IN THE BOOK! The more advanced stuff is for those who are scaling into positions and want more aggressive money management techniques.

Who am I to say this works? I started trading Bill's techniques from scratch. In LESS than 6 months I was up 95% in a medium sized account. I found some like-minded investors and we started our own Hedge Fund (more specifically, a commodity pool). I called Bill personally and he spoke with me at length about how I should flow into and out of my positions, etc. He went far above and beyond the call of duty. I cannot speak to how well my Pool is doing (not legal to disclose - considered solicitation of investors), so I cannot give figures of returns for the Pool.

Buy Trading Chaos 2nd Edition and then buy "New Trading Dim mentions" (his second book) and read chapters 9 - 11. Those chapters will give you more ideas of the SCOPE of just what is possible when you simplify your trading and align it with natural market tendencies (chaos principles).

Good luck and Good Trading!

-- Q

The truth about how to become a successful trader.......2006-09-01

I purchased this book because I was trading with a method that used the awesome oscillator. I figured I should know something about the person who created it. I got much more than that. The book helped me to quit focusing on trading techniques and to start looking at my own mental state for trading. Turning inward has allowed me build better confidence in myself and my method. That in turn allows me to trade with a mindset which successful traders have. The fact that the book also presents a very viable trading method is just an added bonus. This book and "Trading In The Zone" by Mark Douglas transformed my trading career.

Chaos and Fractals: New Frontiers of Science

Average customer rating:

Excellent tutorial on nonlinearity
A good introduction
Simply a fantastic book
Well worth the cost
Excellent for intermediate knowledge of chaos

Chaos and Fractals: New Frontiers of Science
Heinz-Otto Peitgen , Hartmut Jürgens , and Dietmar Saupe
Manufacturer: Springer
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books

Chaos & Systems | Physics | Science | Subjects | Books

General | Science | Subjects | Books

General | Mathematics | Science | Subjects | Books

Look Inside Computer Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

Look Inside Science Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

All Amazon Upgrade | Amazon Upgrade | Stores | Books

Computers & Internet | Amazon Upgrade | Stores | Books

Professional & Technical | Amazon Upgrade | Stores | Books

Science | Amazon Upgrade | Stores | Books

All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Computers & Internet | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Professional | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Science | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
Similar Items:

Accessories:

ASIN: 0387202293

Amazon.com

Fascinating and authoritative, Chaos and Fractals: New Frontiers of Science is a truly remarkable book that documents recent discoveries in chaos theory with plenty of mathematical detail, but without alienating the general reader. In all, this text offers an extremely rich and engaging tour of this quite revolutionary branch of mathematical research.

The most appealing aspect about Chaos and Fractals has to be its hundreds of images and graphics (with dozens in full-color) used to illustrate key concepts. Even the math-averse reader should be able to follow the basic presentation of chaos and fractals here. Since fractals often mimic natural shapes such as mountains, plants, and other biological forms, they lend themselves especially well to visual representation.

Early chapters here document the mathematical oddities (or "monsters") such as the Sierpinski Gasket and the Koch Curve, which laid the groundwork for later discoveries in fractals. The book does a fine job of placing recent discoveries about chaos into a tradition of earlier mathematical research. Its description of the work of mathematicians like Pascal, Kepler, Poincaré, Sierpinski, Koch, and Mandelbrot makes for a fine read, a detective story that ends with the discovery of order in chaos. (For programmers, the authors provide short algorithms and BASIC code, which lets you try out plotting various fractals on your own.)

This is not, however, only a book of pretty pictures. For the reader who needs the mathematics behind chaos theory, the authors in no way dumb down the details. (But because the richer mathematical material is set off from the main text, the general reader can still make headway without getting lost.)

There have been advances in the field since this book's publication in 1992, but Chaos and Fractals remains an authoritative general reference on chaos theory and fractals. A must for math students (and math enthusiasts), Chaos and Fractals also deserves a place on the bookshelf of any general reader or programmer who wants to understand how today's mathematicians and scientists make sense of our world using chaos theory. --Richard Dragan

Topics covered: Overview of fractals and chaos theory, feedback and multiple reduction copy machines (MRCMs), the Cantor Set, the Sierpinski Gasket and Carpet, the Pascal Triangle, the Koch Curve, Julia Sets, similarity, measuring fractal curves, fractal dimensions, transformations and contraction mapping, image compression, chaos games, fractals and nature, L-systems, cellular automata basics, attractors and strange attractors, Henon's Attractor, Rössler and Lorenz Attractors, randomness in fractals, the Brownian motion, fractal landscapes, sensitivity and periodic points, complex arithmetic basics, the Mandelbrot Set, and multifractal measures.

Book Description

The fourteen chapters of this book cover the central ideas and concepts of chaos and fractals as well as many related topics including: the Mandelbrot set, Julia sets, cellular automata, L-systems, percolation and strange attractors. This new edition has been thoroughly revised throughout. The appendices of the original edition were taken out since more recent publications cover this material in more depth. Instead of the focused computer programs in BASIC, the authors provide 10 interactive JAVA-applets for this second edition.

Customer Reviews:

Excellent tutorial on nonlinearity.......2005-09-08

At least 50% of this book can be well understood by any 1st year, exact science student. There are a couple of mathematical issues that are more senior-like, but never mind. With the appropriate teaching or guidance, a lot of practical, advanced tasks can be tackled down. I could use this book all along for giving examples for college (university), undergraduate students of almost every mathematical subject: numerical analysis, calculus, linear algebra, group theory, algorithm theory, visualization in 2 and 3 dimensions, topology...you name it, after reading this book. No fuzzy theory or wavelets or any other advanced statistical method for dynamical systems is formally mentioned, though. However the concept of measure is very well introduced and described with examples. For physics is not bad for dynamical systems theory. Although no Hamiltonian or Lagrangian formalism is mentioned, the description on how to obtain Lyapunov exponents out of a set of differential equations is very good. Engineers get their share too: useful examples are given about, e.g., feedback and control theory (mind you, it is not a book specialized in, say, robotic control using chaos theory, but it is a good start). For philosophers and the layman there are quite a few pages as well. The foreword from Mitchel Feigenbaum, just to give an example, tells us a kind of summary which "warms up" the reader and "exorcises away" the possible fantasies an unprepared reader could have regarding (or against or in favor of) the word "chaos". Nice color plates for those with artistic inclinations and the graphics are just so very well printed, you can practically "follow" their computation. Not a bad book at all for your personal (or institutional) library, I may say.

A good introduction.......2003-10-05

Chaos as a physical theory began essentially in the 1970's, but as a mathematical field it has existed since the early 1900's. This book covers only the mathematical study of chaos, and is addressed to those readers who have a fairly strong background in undergraduate mathematics. A knowledge of dynamical systems and measure theory would help in the appreciation of the book, but are not absolutely necessary. The application of fractals and chaos to finance is now legendary, but other applications, such as to packet networks and surface physics are not so well-known. Current research in chaos is done predominantly in the context of information theory, wherein the goal is to understand the difference between chaos and noise, and develop mathematical tools to quantify this difference. The BASIC code in the book gives away its age, but can be easily translated to one of the symbolic computing languages available now, such as Maple or Mathematica.

This is a sizable book, and space prohibits a detailed review, but some of the more interesting discussions in it include: 1. The video feedback experiment, which can be done with only a video camera and a TV set. This is always a crowd pleaser, at whatever level of the audience it is presented to. 2. The comparison between doing iteration of a chaotic map on two different calculating machines: a CASIO and an HP. The difference is very dramatic, illustrating the effect of finite accuracy arithmetic. 3. The pictures illustrating the Chinese arithmetic triangle and Pascal's triangle as it appeared in Japan in 1781. 4. The space-filling curve and its relation to the problem of defining dimension from a topological standpoint. This discussion motivates the idea of covering dimension, which the authors overview with great clarity. They also give a rigorous definition of the Hausdorff dimension and discuss its differences with the box counting dimension. 5. The many excellent color plates in the book, especially the one illustrating a cast of the venous and arterial system of a child's kidney. 6. The difficulty in measuring power laws in practice. 7. Image encoding using iterated function systems, which has become very important recently in satellite image analysis. This leads into a discussion of the Hausdorff distance, which is of enormous importance not only in the study of fractals but also in general topology: the famous hyperspaces of closed sets in a metric space. 8. The relation between chaos and randomness, discussed by the authors in the context of the "chaos game." 9. L-systems, which are motivated with a model of cell division. 10. the number theory behind Pascal's triangle. 11. The simulation of Brownian motion. 12. The Lyapunov exponent for smooth transformations. 13. The property of ergodicity and mixing for transformations, the authors pointing out that true ergodic behavior cannot be obtained in a computer where only a a finite collection of numbers is representable. 13. The concept of topological conjugacy. 14. The existence of homoclinic points in a dynamical system. These are very important in physical applications of chaos. 15. The Rossler attractor and its pictorial representation. 16. How to calculate the dimensions of strange attractors. 17. How to calculate Lyapunov exponents from time series, which is of great interest in many different applications, especially finance. 18. The Julia set, which the authors relate eventually to potential theory.

Simply a fantastic book.......2002-12-21

I purchased this book when it first came out, during the
initial wave of popularity of fractals and chaos theory.
Although the fadishness of chaos and fractals has died
down, a number of solid applications for this theory have
appeared in areas like computer graphics, finance,
modeling computer network traffic and data compression.

I have purchased a number of books on fractals and chaos and
how these concepts can be applied in a number of areas. I
have yet to see a better introduction to the topic. This is
a core reference and I keep coming back to it again and again.

In the spectrum of popular science books, this is definitely
on the technical end. You do not need an advanced background
in mathematics as you do for some books on chaos and fractals,
but the authors do not shy away from equations. However, the
ideas are clearly presented. I have used this book as a
reference for developing software for fractal brownian motion
and Hurst exponent estimation.

"Chaos and Fractals" covers a great deal of material. On a few
occasions I found that the algorithms or explaination were
difficult to follow. In some cases, like the generation of
Gaussian random numbers, I found better, simpler algorithms.

When this book was written, fractals and chaos were fairly new.
It is difficult to avoid comparing this book to an even thicker
book, "A New Kind of Science" by Stephen Wolfram. Although
cellular automata, the core topic of "A New Kind of Science"
are not exactly new, Wolfram claims new and profound
perspectives. Many, including this reviewer, feel that Wolfram's
claims are overblown and egotistical (he has a bad habbit of
claiming credit for innovation, even as he cites other work).
The authors of "Chaos and Fractals" do not make exalted
claims for this work. Yet without any fanfare, this book
really does deliver profound ideas. This is simply a
fantastic book. I recommend it for anyone in the applied
sciences (e.g., computer science, quantitative finance,
geology, etc...). Even for the mathematically sophisticated it
will provide an valuable overview, which is difficult to obtain
anywhere else.

Well worth the cost.......2002-08-27

This is possibly the best and most thorough of all books on fractals. The discussion is excellent, the illustrations superb. After all, these are the guys who developed the computer art exhibits that toured Europe and parts of the US in the 1980s.

The mathematics is somewhat advanced, but not so advanced that most persons with a thorough background in high school mathematics cannot understand it. After all, I used it as a primary reference for my book Fractals in Music!

Excellent for intermediate knowledge of chaos.......2002-02-06

This book is a great entertainer for anyone who wants to spend many evenings "playing with chaos". The code in the book is a little dated (BASIC), but you won't have problems to use it as a good reference. The book will guide you through the understanding of the exciting realm of chaos and its hidden monsters.

Chaos and fractals are subjects that sound modern, interesting and eye-catching in the most of the cases. However, the applications and implications of chaos in the real world constitute the great achievement of human knowledge that the concept represents.

The lecture of this book doesn't require an extensive knowledge of math (but it would be helpful), it requires many will and passion for rediscovering your conception of the universe instead.

Book Description

TRADING CHAOS APPLYING EXPERT TECHNIQUES TO MAXIMIZE YOUR PROFITS

Chaos theory now stands at the cutting edge of financial decision-making methods. The product of years of scientific investigation into unpredictable phenomena, it has the potential to offer traders entirely new perspectives on the movements of marketsâand less risky routes to greater, more consistent profitability. Unlike other books on the subject, Trading Chaos takes chaos analysis out of the realm of the abstract and makes complex concepts easy to understand and use. It offers you the most practical, comprehensive guide available to applying chaos theory to the real world of trading and investing.

In this breakthrough work, author Bill Williams gives you the benefit of his unique qualifications: 35 years of successful trading and a PhD in psychology. The instructional techniques used in Trading Chaos have been tested and refined in the workshops, seminars, and private tutoring sessions Dr. Williams has conducted in 12 different countries.

Designed for all tradersâfrom beginner to experienced professionalâTrading Chaos introduces you to the financial applications of chaos in five graduated stages, starting with a clear, nontechnical introduction (Level One: The Novice Trader) all the way to chart analysis, fractals, Elliott wave, and advanced nonlinear dynamics (Level Five: The Expert Trader).

Trading Chaos probes depths of human and economic behavior that other books do not even mention, including:

A detailed examination of the underlying structure of the market
How individual belief systems affect the way we trade
How to determine "what the market wants"
Most importantlyâ"how to want what the market wants"

Numerous charts, trading models, analysis spreadsheets, and review questions reinforce the key concepts and help insure full comprehension of the material.

Regardless of your current degree of expertise, Trading Chaos will take you to new levels of trading confidence and increased profit.

This practical guide to the powerful tools of chaos theory will help you make better, more profitable trades

"Bill Williams brings a unique background and experience to the commodity trading world. His approach to becoming a successful trader includes many fresh and fascinating concepts for traders of all experience levels."âBruce Babcock Editor, Commodity Traders Consumer Report

"Bill Williams has demystified the Elliott Wave. His technical approach is an innovative and effective way to trade markets for novice and expert traders alike."âBob Koppel Skylane Trading Group

"Trading Chaos by Bill Williams is an excellent guide to profiting from a market which is nonlinear in structure. The book is divided into logical levels of trading techniques useful to the novice and expert trader. I was genuinely surprised that the expert can still learn refreshingly new techniques at each level presented."âTimothy C. Slater Managing Director of Dow Jones Telerate Seminars

Trading Chaos takes chaos theory out of the abstract realm and into the real world of practical investment decision-making. Using the techniques in this remarkable book, you will uncover the hidden patterns of what appear to be the random, unpredictable movements of the commodity, futures, and options markets. Regardless of your current level of experience, expert commodity trader and trainer Bill Williams will give you the skills and insights to move to levels of trading ability you would not have imagined possible.

Clear, practical, and nontechnicalâUnlike other books on chaos theory, Trading Chaos is designed to be easy to understand and use

Unique organizational formatâIntroduces the reader to the financial applications of chaos in five graduated stages, from Novice to Expert Trader

Expert advice on avoiding common psychological traps and pitfallsâIncluding such self-limiting afflictions as the "paralysis of analysis," "opinionitis," and the dangers of trading on individual belief systems

A wealth of supplementary materialsâCharts, trading models, trade plans, analysis spreadsheets, and trading diaries illustrate and reinforce key concepts

Customer Reviews:

As Simple as it is Powerful.......2006-12-18

I am a BIG believer in Bill Williams and his body of work.

I will admit, this book is the most confusing of his three. It is also the FIRST book of his three. If you buy this now, buy it to "fill in the blanks" but use his later works as the backbone of your trading.

I have personally met with Bill, taken his home study course and even attended a private tutorial. Bill is the real deal. He is a *highly* profitable trader and Bill trades EXACTLY like he describes in his books (simplified over time, so Trading Chaos, 2nd Ed. is the LATEST and most refined method).

READ THE FIRST CHAPTER OF THIS BOOK (it's free online here, just click on excerpts). This chapter alone is worth the entire book. If you just want to trade with no other background information, Buy Trading Chaos, 2nd Edition (not this book) and start with chapter seven. When you get to the end of the book, you'll say, "That's it?!?! Than can't be it!" That's what I said. I then went on to take his home study course (13 weeks) and then went to a private tutorial. 95% of the methodology is IN THE BOOK! The more advanced stuff is for those who are scaling into positions and want more aggressive money management techniques.

Who am I to say this works? I started trading Bill's techniques from scratch. In LESS than 6 months I was up 95% in a medium sized account. I found some like-minded investors and we started our own Hedge Fund (more specifically, a commodity pool). I called Bill personally and he spoke with me at length about how I should flow into and out of my positions, etc. He went far above and beyond the call of duty. I cannot speak to how well my Pool is doing (not legal to disclose - considered solicitation of investors), so I cannot give figures of returns for the Pool.

Buy Trading Chaos 2nd Edition (not this book) and then buy "New Trading Dim mentions" (his second book) and read chapters 9 - 11. Those chapters will give you more ideas of the SCOPE of just what is possible when you simplify your trading and align it with natural market tendencies (chaos principles).

Good luck and Good Trading!

-- Q

Incomprehensible.......2005-11-07

I am a lawyer and have spent most of my life reading, and had read many books on trading before I read this one. It looked like the holy grail, so the three or four key chapters, I read over and over trying to determine 3 simple things: Where to buy/sell short, where to place the stop loss, where to exit the trade. I confess, I was never able to determine that, from the text, although the author seems to assume that he has made that clear to the reader.

Joke.......2003-10-21

The five stars is only for the cover. However, the content of the book is pathetic. I have read many trading books and several chaos books and I can honestly say this book is neither. I fell for the enlightened self-similar structure cover and wasted my money. Don't repeat my mistake.

If you are interested in chaos and trading, start with Edgar Peters books such as Chaos and the Capital Markets.

The publisher, Wiley, should be ashamed to put out this sort of drivel. Bill Williams is a joke. If you think your trading style is based on your body type, then maybe this book will help you feel better about losing; otherwise skip it and Bill Williams, PhD.'s other lobotomized treatises on trading.

Trader Development.......2003-06-27

This book really is mistitled. Chaos theory for markets is not presented, so look elsewhere for that. The book does present a good theory for the psychology of trading such as "traders differ on value but agree on price" as motivation and explains the development of traders from novice, intermediate, and advanced (skip master and expert level)and the goals for each level. Unfortunately, the methodology for trading with a Chaos background is not touched upon.

Good filler read for background on trading and personal development. Poor on methodology for trading with Chaos. Perhaps Mr. Williams had an epiphany and contends all trades are done in Chaos, so traders should relax. To borrow a line from another author, "some trades will, some trades won't, so what, next trade please."

Donate your money to charity.......2003-03-25

In the first few chapters, he sounds so attractive, after that, you will find the author using new technical analysis words to describe the breakthrough of the resistance/support and claims this a new concept/idea, but he saying nothing on the book and if you are using his method to trade, you are not far from bankruptcy.
Eventually, you waste your money, then why don't send cheque to charities.

Kaplan AP Calculus AB & BC 2007 Edition (Kaplan Ap Calculus Ab and Bc)

Average customer rating:

Kaplan AP Calculus AB & BC 2007 Edition (Kaplan Ap Calculus Ab and Bc)
Kaplan
Manufacturer: Kaplan Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Education | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

General | Education | Reference | Subjects | Books

Testing | Education | Reference | Subjects | Books

General | Test Prep Central | Reference | Subjects | Books

Study Guides | Reference | Subjects | Books

Look Inside Nonfiction Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

Look Inside Reference Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

Look Inside Science Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

Look Inside Teen Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 1419550780

Book Description

-Complete review of essential topics on the AP Calculus AB and BC topic outline

-3 full-length practice tests (2 AB, 1 BC)

-A diagnostic quiz helps students determine which topics they should spend the most time reviewing

-Complete test information and resources

-Kaplan's proven AP score-raising strategies

-A chapter devoted to using a graphing calculator

-Sample free-response questions, answers, and walk-through explanations for all key topics

Book Description

In this book Gary William Flake develops in depth the simple idea that recurrent rules can produce rich and complicated behaviors. Distinguishing "agents" (e.g., molecules, cells, animals, and species) from their interactions (e.g., chemical reactions, immune system responses, sexual reproduction, and evolution), Flake argues that it is the computational properties of interactions that account for much of what we think of as "beautiful" and "interesting." From this basic thesis, Flake explores what he considers to be today's four most interesting computational topics: fractals, chaos, complex systems, and adaptation.

Each of the book's parts can be read independently, enabling even the casual reader to understand and work with the basic equations and programs. Yet the parts are bound together by the theme of the computer as a laboratory and a metaphor for understanding the universe. The inspired reader will experiment further with the ideas presented to create fractal landscapes, chaotic systems, artificial life forms, genetic algorithms, and artificial neural networks.

Customer Reviews:

Great book.......2007-08-13

This is an excellent book. I've been reading it for weeks. The chapters are not long, but the content is amazing. The author combines explanations and equations in a format that is demonstrative and repeatible. This is a very good book to study yielding the understanding necessary to penetrate many other advanced books on complexity theory. The author starts by examining whole numbers and real number problems. Next, he examine Godel's incomplete theory of predicate logic showing that no formal language is complete. Next, he examines fractals, self-similar patterns, low ordered with high compression and high order with low order compression, L-systems, and Juliet and Mandel-brot fractals. Fractals open up an emmense study into the complex pattern from simple rules and recursion. Next, he examines equations of strange attraction, chaos, and demonstrates stability behavior within complexity. Next, he looks at small universes created by running CA. NNs and GAs are examined in the last chapter. I was excited to write down many of the authors processes and run them using OpenGL and C. I believe this book to be an excellent book for college students. The material is easy to understand and the content very demonstratible. Cause and effect are very cohesive in this book. Even though the book seems simple, it covers an vast amount of topics necessary to understanding AI and AL.

Good first book on the subject of simulating natural phenomena.......2006-08-04

This is a good introductory textbook for college undergraduate mathematics and computer science students that attempts to combine the theory of computation with some mathematical concepts and in the end, manages to model virtual life by explaining basic concepts in chaos, adaptation, fractals, and complex systems. There are better books on all of these subjects, but few others do such a good job of tying together key concepts from each discipline into the one theme of this book. However, there is only enough room to outline the included subjects rather than investigate them thoroughly.

Also, the mathematics is elementary enough to be accessible to a mathematically mature high school student. The mathematics is concisely explained as it is needed, with just a page or two for each of calculus, linear algebra, affine transformations, complex numbers, vector calculus, and matrix algebra. Thus, the included mathematics makes a better refresher than a tutorial for the novice even though the author states in the preface that he wrote this book for a younger version of himself. This book teaches its subject matter mainly by demonstrating concepts through simulations that are expressed in dozens of programs which illustrate the points being made. Instructions on using the programs are scattered throughout the book. The source code is available for download on the web, along with selected excerpts from the book.

I would recommend this as a first book for those interested in simulating natural concepts, but it should not be your last if your goal is to truly grasp the concepts presented and produce simulations of your own. However, an even better book on this subject is "Mathematical Models in Biology", although it is an advanced text. A very accessible book that is also more advanced than this text is "Nonlinear Dynamics and Chaos: With Applications to Physics, Biology, Chemistry and Engineering". It clearly explains the mathematics while tying it into key concepts in nature. "Chaos and Fractals" by Peitgen is a good book on the subject for the layperson with a fascination for mathematics presented in some depth. The book also has various Java programs that illustrate key concepts.

Interesting Topics.......2002-03-27

Good book, [X] bucks is a bargain, it's worth twice that easily.

Favorite things about this book
Covers L-systems and also gives the rules for how to make some interesting plants. Also this book touches on some aspects of AI like game-trees and neural nets. The author discuses "boids" and self-organization with autonomous agents that act together, and shows simulations of ants and a flock of birds using this concept.

Real "How Nature Works". Already is "Legend in the Making.".......2001-09-24

I recently became interested a lot in Nature. Especially, being someone in the field of Computer Science, the computational aspect. And this book is by far one of my favourite among all the "How Nature Works" kind of books I've read.

This Computational Beauty of Nature (CBofN) covered a lot of topics. Ranged from brief introduction to Computation Theory, Fractals, Chaos, Complexity, Adaptation. (See the Table of Content for more details).

All topics are written in surprisingly clear and very understandable manner. With as little Math as possible. (From my opinion, these topics cannot be completely understood without Mathematics -- The Language of Nature). Therefore, it is also accessible to layperson.

This book does not, however, go so deep into each subject. (You won't expect it to do that with its less-than 500 pages, don't you? :-) Instead, it does give nice backgrounds, fundamental knowledge, and important ideas for each. So, if you are interesting in any of the subjects presented here, you can go on to the more specialized books on your own.

One of the nicest feature of this book, which can hardly be found in other text, is that the it does show how things work together, where and why. For example, natural phenomena like adaptation, evolution, computation, and some other things else related to each other. How can one view this from that perspective, and vice versa. etc.

One other nice feature of this book is, you can really play with almost all concepts using a number of computer programs. All the programs are downloadable (with source code, under GNU license) from the book's homepage. So, you can reproduce almost all the figures from the book.

However, for one thing, the homepage address given in the book, in the edition/printing I have is incorrect. Maybe MIT Press had changed the structure of their website or something...

...you can still search for it using your favourite web-search engine.

About the website, all the good things are there as well, including errata. (Of course, Perfect things are very rare in Nature... So, books with some errors are ok. The thing that matter is the authors know it/admit it and tell the readers or not).

Conclusion: If you want to understand "How Nature Works" from the computational point of view. If you interested in Chaos theory, Fractals and Complexity. Then, make no mistake, you can't go wrong with this one. (And, get the hardcover edition, because you will read it, read it, read it again, and keep refering to it. So the paperback edition probably can't endure that :-)

I want to give it more stars if I only could. This book will always get the highest rating possible from me wherever and whenever I review it.

Nature herself is so beautiful. So, it's time to get to know her, to learn about her and to understand her! And this book just did it, in such a way that can hardly be better!

Buy this book and get hooked...........2001-04-11

Great book - will get you hooked to this science. Intuition given more weightage than equations and the result is something a broad range of people can use. Whether you're the curious novice who's dabbling in chaos to see what it is all about or you're the mathematician teaching this stuff, you'd love to have this book on your table. Happy reading :)

Critical Phenomena in Natural Sciences: Chaos, Fractals, Selforganization and Disorder: Concepts and Tools (Springer Series in Synergetics)

Average customer rating:

very complete
One of the best textbooks ever written for graduate students
A must for understanding complexity

Critical Phenomena in Natural Sciences: Chaos, Fractals, Selforganization and Disorder: Concepts and Tools (Springer Series in Synergetics)
Didier Sornette
Manufacturer: Springer
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Science | Subjects | Books

General | History & Philosophy | Science | Subjects | Books

General | Physics | Science | Subjects | Books

Accessories:

ASIN: 3540407545

Book Description

Concepts, methods and techniques of statistical physics in the study of correlated, as well as uncorrelated, phenomena are being applied ever increasingly in the natural sciences, biology and economics in an attempt to understand and model the large variability and risks of phenomena. The emphasis of the book is on a clear understanding of concepts and methods, while it also provides the tools that can be of immediate use in applications. The second edition is a significant expansion over the first one which meanwhile has become a standard reference in complex system research and teaching: Probability concepts are presented more in-depth and the sections on Lévy laws and the mechanisms for power laws have been greatly enlarged. Much material has been added to the chapter on renormalisation group ideas. Further improvements can be found in the applications to earthquake or rupture models.

Customer Reviews:

very complete.......2005-08-11

As I am teaching the statistical mechanics part of a graduate class in mathematics,I was looking for a textbook on complex systems & statistical physics with derivations, intuitions, and some physical examples. I did not realize that I was looking too far --Sornette, with hom I correspond regularly, is well known for his contributions and his prolific output (actually some physicists make fun of the quantity of papers he writes). So his book did not come to mind. I once stumbled on a problem with the derivation of preferential attachments;he recommended his book, which I took with a grain a salt. After spending some time working the derivations on scalable laws, extreme value theory, renormalization groups in this book, I elected to use it as my textbook. There is no equivalent. I have a dozen such yellow manuals; this one is complete and ultimately clearest.
I do not know of a better textbook.

One of the best textbooks ever written for graduate students.......2004-04-09

Didier Sornette who is potentialy nobelisable realises with this book a great present for everybody interested to the recent progresses toward the physics of critical phenomena.
Particularly, it shows the way that some seismologists follow toward the ultimate goal to predict the event of large earthquakes. If this task was impossible yesterday,Didier Sornette shows that it is now became realisable.

A must for understanding complexity.......2001-09-06

Sornette's book is quite an achievement both in quantity and
quality. The presentation remains informal and quite readable; it reads like a physics textbook, not a math textbook. The references are very extensive (a total of 832! altogether) and they are a very valuable component of the book. In fact much of the book is about the reference material. You might choose to read the book instead of the 832 references... I think this is
the point...

There's probably nothing wrong with this book besides the fact that it throws it all at you at a high degree of sophistication and in as terse a way as possible, it seems. It's a unique and beautiful achievement but because it is so dense with information and insight, it seems every word counts for ten and you'll want to read several chapters again and again. Also, even though there is a clear unifying theme from chapter to chapter, the book simply ends almost like in the middle of a sentence. After machinegunning out 392 pages of material at research level spanning quite a few scientific fields, there is absolutely no attempt to put it all together. It's up to you to do it and it almost seems like the author is indirectly suggesting you start reading it all over again to "get it"... So, for the second edition, perhaps the author will be bold and add ten pages of wrap up material at the end so that this will read less like an atlas. Apart from that, it's the best!

Average customer rating:

Great Math Book

For the uninitiated!.--Fun too!

A comprehensive introduction to chaos in two levels

Best book on chaos

Great stuff, not for the uninitiated

Fractals, Chaos, Power Laws: Minutes from an Infinite Paradise
Manfred Robert Schroeder
Manufacturer: W H Freeman & Co (Sd)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Science | Subjects | Books
Fractals | Pure Mathematics | Mathematics | Science | Subjects | Books
General | Mathematics | Science | Subjects | Books
General | Physics | Science | Subjects | Books
Chaos & Systems | Mathematics | Professional Science | Professional & Technical | Subjects | Books
General | Physics | Professional Science | Professional & Technical | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

Chaos Theory Tamed

Chaos and Fractals: New Frontiers of Science

Fractals and Scaling In Finance

The Computational Beauty of Nature: Computer Explorations of Fractals, Chaos, Complex Systems, and Adaptation

Sync: The Emerging Science of Spontaneous Order

ASIN: 0716721368

Customer Reviews:

Great Math Book.......2007-05-30

This is a one of the best semi-technical mathematics books I ever read. What I mean by "semi-technical" is, you need somewhat of a math interest and education to appreciate it, and if you have that, you can read it casually. You don't need pen and paper; it's not a textbook. However, occasionally you will want to grab the pen and paper to verify what the author writes.
For an ex-math person as myself, this book is an eye-opener as to how many areas of life are touched by fractals and chaos theory. Everything from nature, to economic markets, to music, to just plain theoretical stuff is mentioned here. And the writer delivers it in a well-organized, lucid, entertaining, and passionate fashion. And it is well-illustrated, which really helped me understand....
I'm on my 3rd reading of this book since 1992, and if I wear out the book, I'm buying another one! I rank this up there with "Prime Obsession" as the two best non-textbook math books I ever read.

For the uninitiated!.--Fun too!.......2003-02-28

For the uninitiated! --The author combines insight with story telling. He has a story to tell, and does it well! Not only does he know the theory inside out, he has the ability to get accross the central points so it (almost) seems easy, in any case entertaining, using pictures (including cartoons), humor, and equations when they are needed. He further make clear the many fascinating links between chaos theory, algorithms, technology, and areas of pure math, such as number theory. Highly recommended!

A comprehensive introduction to chaos in two levels.......2002-03-17

This book can be read in two different ways:

The first one is intended for the uninitiated who wants to get an introduction to chaos and fractals; the way Schroeder guides you into the chaotic phenomenae that occur everywhere around us is clear, elegant and funny. He plays with chaos and makes the reader part of this game.

The second way to read this book includes a warning for scholars: This is not a textbook! The mathematical background used to explain this game is strong. Shcroeder lets the committed reader to work with the maths by himself, so you must have paper, pencil, and computer near to you in order to enjoy the book's whole potential, in this case Shcroeder has all the experience and knowledge on the matter to guide you through "this infinte paradise" in a very firm way.

The only thing I'd wish from this book was a new hardcover edition, I've read it so many times that my copy is getting very spoiled.

If you are still interested after reading this book, but you want a little help with your maths then I'd recommend "Chaos Theory Tamed" by Garnett P. Williams. It will do the trick. However if you just want to fall in love with chaos without complications, then you should read "Chaos: The Making of a New Science" by James Gleick.

Best book on chaos.......2001-01-28

This book is a complete guide of all possible situations in science where you may encounter chaos. It provides for every situation an intuitive as well as very formal view of every problem and the corresponding solution. The main drawback concerns its relative inaccessibility for non-scientific people, it requires a quite important scientific background to understand the formal part. Anyway, even for the lay-man, it can be interesting to read, in order to understand the widespread of chaos and non-linearity in real-life situations, not just the purely scientific-related ones.

However, the treatment is terrific, with excellent description and explanations of the how's and why's, at an intuitive level as well as a very rigorous one ! I don't think i've ever read a book of such a high quality...

This book is worth its price, and without a doubt deserves the time you'll need to go through it.

Great stuff, not for the uninitiated.......2000-12-31

If you've had some background in this kind of mathematics, or are otherwise familiar with concepts like limits and Lebesgue measure, you should thoroughly enjoy this well-written and good-humored introduction to fractals, chaos, and related topics. Do not, however, undertake to read this book as an easy introduction to those topics, because Schroeder uses a number of terms without bothering to define them, and covers a lot of ground in each chapter, from the perspective of a non-mathematician/physicist, at least.

Book Description

The latest developments in chaos theory - from an industry expert

Chaos and Order in the Capital Markets was the first book to introduce and popularize chaos as it applies to finance. It has since become the classic source on the topic. This new edition is completely updated to include the latest ripples in chaos theory with new chapters that tie in today's hot innovations, such as fuzzy logic, neural nets, and artificial intelligence.

Critical praise for Peters and the first edition of Chaos and Order in the Capital Markets

"The bible of market chaologists." - BusinessWeek

"Ed Peters has written a first-class summary suitable for any investment professional or skilled investor." - Technical Analysis of Stocks & Commodities

"It ranks among the most provocative financial books of the past few years. Reading this book will provide a generous payback for the time and mental energy expended." - Financial Analysts Journal

This second edition of Chaos and Order in the Capital Markets brings the topic completely up to date with timely examples from today's markets and descriptions of the latest wave of technology, including genetic algorithms, wavelets, and complexity theory.

Chaos and Order in the Capital Markets was the very first book to explore and popularize chaos theory as it applies to finance. It has since become the industry standard, and is regarded as the definitive source to which analysts, investors, and traders turn for a comprehensive overview of chaos theory. Now, this invaluable reference - touted by BusinessWeek as "the bible of market chaologists" - has been updated and revised to bring you the latest developments in the field.

Mainstream capital market theory is based on efficient market assumptions, even though the markets themselves exhibit characteristics that are symptomatic of nonlinear dynamic systems. As it explores - and validates - this nonlinear nature, Chaos and Order repudiates the "random walk" theory and econometrics. It shifts the focus away from the concept of efficient markets toward a more general view of the forces underlying the capital market system.

Presenting new analytical techniques, as well as reexamining methods that have been in use for the past forty years, Chaos and Order offers a thorough examination of chaos theory and fractals as applied to investments and economics. This new edition includes timely examples from today's markets and descriptions of cutting-edge technologies-genetic algorithms, wavelets, complexity theory-and hot innovations, such as fuzzy logic and artificial intelligence.

Beyond the history of current capital market theory, Chaos and Order covers the crucial characteristics of fractals, the analysis of fractal time series through rescaled range analysis (R/S), the specifics of fractal statistics, and the definition and analysis of chaotic systems. It offers an in-depth exploration of:
* Random walks and efficient markets - the development of the efficient market hypothesis (EMH) and modern portfolio theory
* The linear paradigm - why it has failed
* Nonlinear dynamic systems - phase space, the Henon Map, Lyapunov exponents
* Applying chaos and nonlinear methods - neural networks, genetic algorithms
* Dynamical analysis of time series - reconstructing a phase space, the fractal dimension

Tonis Vaga's Coherent Market Hypothesis - the theory of social imitation, control parameters, Vaga's implementations

Plus, Chaos and Order now contains a Windows-compatible disk including data sets for running analyses described in the appendices.

Written by a leading expert in the field, Chaos and Order in the Capital Markets has all the information you need for a complete, up-to-date look at chaos theory. This latest edition will undoubtedly prove to be as invaluable as the first.

Customer Reviews:

Poorly explained.......2004-02-04

I have a university maths degree and found the book very obvious and drawn out for the first few chapters. In spite of this I looked forward to what was going to be explained later. Suddenly from a very simple and easy to understand explanation on the EMH he starts to use mathematics in his equations that I had a lot of difficulty following. There was very little or no explanation of how these equations were arrived at and a lot of mathematics and statisics is assumed. This book does not apply the theory in ny meaningful way to the markets let alone the capital markets in my opinion. I found that I took very little away from this book and would not recommend it to anyone who has basic mathematics like myself or is looking for some deeper insight into the markets. I would hate to have Mr Peters as a teacher based on his book.

A very good introduction.......2004-02-01

I read this book, the 1991 version, years ago. Around 1980 my own attempts to crack share prices statistically convinced me that all share prices behaved like a Gaussian random walk meaning that all speculation was comparable with playing roulette and I am not one of those guys who usually wins when gambling. This view was strengthened when the option pricing model came up, meaning that even the real pro's in the field assume that share prices are nothing but a random walk. This book has opened my eyes to the fact that there is much more to randomness than just the Gaussian curve. Share prices are not fully random. Impressive is the demonstration that an RS analysis on the real data is different when applying the same RS analysis on scrambled data. So there is information hidden in these time series, somewhere. Since then I have picked up the subject of cracking time series again with great pleasure. I think this book is exceptionally well written and without it I doubt if I would have been able to follow Mandelbrot's book "scaling and fractals in finance" that I bought later. The book is about understanding a subject, not about learning a simple formula to apply on a time series.

A dated overview, with little real meat.......2003-02-10

The second edition of this book was published in 1996. The book
seems to be largely based on Feder's 1988 book "Fractals". The
dated nature of this book means that it is missing later work
on long memory processes, which Peters estimates using the Hurst
exponent.

As one reviewer already noted, don't assume that this book will
provide much in the way of useful equations. For anyone who wants
more than an overview, this book is a disappointment. Peters does
a poor job of explaining the equations and I did not find enough
detail to implement the algorithms discussed (I turned to Feder's
book and various journal articles). The book does come with a
"floppy" disk containing the Visual Basic algorithms. This is
a poor choice, since C is pretty much the lingua franca for
algorithms.

The various chaos and fractal techniques are applied to a handful
of financial data sets, but this is far from even a solid
suggestion that these techniques might be useful to anyone
developing real market models.

Some of the conclusions that Peters draws (cycles in financial
data) do not seem to be supported the evidence he presents.

In summary, if you are looking for something beyond an overview,
save your money. Feder ("Fractals") has a better description of
RS calculation. "A Non-Random Walk Down Wall Street" by Lo
and MacKinlay has a chapeter on the application of the RS
statistic and long-memory processes which is much better than
Peters. For those who need to simulate fractal brownian motion
(data sets with a particular Hurst exponent) "The Science of
Fractal Images" by Barnsley et all is a good reference.

Good overview, bad balance.......2001-03-22

If you're looking for a purely conceptual introduction to how chaos theory can be applied to financial markets, this book is as good a source as any. Peters's discussion of R/S statistics and the graphical examples drawn from the markets are clear and intuitive (Ch. 7-8). The key point demonstrating long-term memory effects in the market is well made.

However he spends an inordinate amount of time attacking the foundations of the efficient market hypothesis (EMH) to the point of being boring, yet the argument boils down to "it has errors when compared to reality". Duh, so does every other theory, including fractal. The real issue is "for the error in theory A, how bad are the results X, and is theory B much better at it?" If you're not going to do that, don't spend 40 pages (Ch. 1-4) on it. This is misleading to those not familiar with EMH, and boring to those who are.

Don't look to this book for good math. In my edition (1991), careless and erroneous notations abound. Also, the equations are written in BASIC notation which is notoriously hard to visualize, but this is probably the fault of the editor/publisher. Peters makes frequent and unannounced jumps between the apparent rigor of math and loose conjectures. The math is distracting to a qualitative reader, and the conjectures irritating to the quantitative one. Better to cater to one audience, and do it well.

Still, I would recommend this book as a good conceptual introduction to the subject. But if you're planning to go deeper, use the equations in this book at your own perils. Go to the source.

Commit it to the flames.......2001-01-04

For those of you intrigued by chaos versus the financial markets, I would suggest you get the basic knowledge in Garnett P. Williams "Chaos Theory Tamed" (if you don't mind being explained in the first twenty chapters things like the laws of exponents and logarithms), or the Devaney books, for people with some maths. By the time you finish these honest, carefully and painstakingly written books, you will have a fair understanding of what chaos theory is about, and you will also see that while it is interesting stuff, it is hard to imagine it having any practical relevance to finance, since finance is the realm of stochastic, not deterministic phenomena.

Mr. Peters' readers will not have the chance of gaining such a perspective on chaos or on finance, alas. Mr. Peters hasn't produced a clear, comprehensible text, but rather a imprecise and frustrating piece, presumably written in a very short time, filled with a huge number of graphs having epsilon informational content. It is also full of conceptual mistakes - Mr. Peters most probably doesn't have a good grasp of what he's speaking about, but to be fair, it is hard to tell since the implicit message of the book is: "Hey, like I'm going to give out all my secrets...! Forget it, baby!", so the readers are never given all of the story. Readers therefore have to decide whether they believe that the author has found a meaningful and secret way to use chaos, that unfortunately will not be revealed, or whether the author should be put in the same category as those who write about Crystals or Financial Astrology.

Can smart people make profit with chaos theory? Certainly! However, the only way to do so is by writing books about it...

Book Description

Chaos theory is a revolutionary approach to understanding and forecasting the behavior of complex systems. The theory, which utilizes nonlinear mathematics to identify the underlying rules of evolving systems, provides extraordinary insights into the dynamics of the financial markets. In so doing, Dr. Chorafas explores a variety of new approaches that provide an entirely new perspective on financial market analysis and forecasting. Topics include: the concepts and mathematics of chaos theory; using nonlinear equations and fractals to forecast the currency market; genetic algorithms and neural networks.

Customer Reviews:

Gross misrepresentation.......2005-03-08

This book is not by Robert L. Trippi. There may be no Robert L. Trippi, but there is a Robert R. Trippi, and he did not write this book. The book in fact is by one Dimitris N. Chorafas. The book is listed as being published by Macmillan. The actual publishing house is Irwin Professional Press. The book, when it arrives, does not have the advertised 400 pages, but rather 374. The index ends abruptly at that point with Dawkins. It is impossible to say what is going on here, but it is not good. The book itself, as I glanced through it, appears to be insultingly simple-minded and probably misguided. By all means save your time, your money, and your anger.

Don't waste your time........2000-05-01

A much better title for this book would have been "Interesting Financial Concepts That Hopefully Some Other Book Will Teach You"

As an engineer, I saw this as a very shallow treatment of Chaos Theory that will do NOTHING for those who actually wish to apply it to financial markets. Chapter after chapter poses questions to the reader but fails do deliver the answers. One can only assume that the few diagrams and examples presented are not explained because the author just does not fully understand them.

The reviewer who claims that the book was a good starting point may have been partially right. It asks so many questions that now I must find a text with at least one or two answers.

worthless, overpriced.......2000-04-04

Although math is mentioned in the desciption, you won't find any in this book. This book is written for junior high school economics students who have never heard the terms chaos or fuzzy logic before. With a background in non-linear dynamics, I found this text insulting for its price. Application of the current trendy concepts to any market whatsoever was completely lacking. It is essentially a 300+ page version of Webster's dictionary definition of chaos. For the amount of information present in this book, it should be priced in the five to ten dollar range.

Compendium of Slide Projector Chapters.......1999-12-02

Something of a disappointment. There is almost nothing of a truly technical nature. A lot of chalk board drawings but nothing you can feed to a computer to test any ideas. It would have been worth the price if it had included a few real world models, perhaps implemented as spreadsheets. Otherwise, it's just a b-r-o-a-d overview.

Excellent base for developing profitable market strategies........1999-06-02

Apparently a book's value is in the eyes of the beholder. The Oregonian writer of the negative comments about the Chorafas book reached a far different conclusion than I did. I think that person must have been looking for an elementary cookbook that would make him rich by following a few simple rules and not having any work to do. Personally, the Chorafas book was exactly the launching point I needed, and I used my engineering background to develop Chorafas' concepts and apply them directly to the stock market, and I am making a lot of money.

Beyond Chaos: The Underlying Theory Behind Life, the Universe, and Everything

Average customer rating:

Irritating and pointless
Lots of speculation, no substance
Know it's place
Long, empty, boring, not worth the time
Muddled, inaccurate, overblown, and poorly written

Beyond Chaos: The Underlying Theory Behind Life, the Universe, and Everything
Mark Ward
Manufacturer: Thomas Dunne Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Chaos & Systems | Physics | Science | Subjects | Books

Acoustics & Sound | Physics | Science | Subjects | Books

General | Physics | Science | Subjects | Books

System Theory | Physics | Science | Subjects | Books

General | Science | Subjects | Books

Look Inside Science Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books
ASIN: 0312274890

Book Description

We are surrounded by order that-until now-physics has been unable to explain.

The spread of veins in the back of our hands mirrors the spread of branches on a tree; fern fronds bear a resemblance to the outline of fjords; the best-loved classical music echoes the patterns of our heartbeats.

The theory of Universality is using fractal patterns to explain much of the world around us. Could it be that the same laws that govern systems in their critical states also govern some of the most unpredictable events such as earthquakes, avalanches, the growth of cities and stock market crashes-even the way businesses are run and the way fashions come and go? Is there a common principle, a universal affinity that binds us to the forces of nature?

A consensus is emerging on how complex structures grow and sustain themselves; phenomena that were once thought to be unique now appear to have a great deal in common. Mark Ward examines these theories, explores how they fit into an age-long quest to discover how the universe works, delves into their possible limitations and asks what we can do with this new knowledge.

While identifying patterns does not mean that we can always predict what will happen next, some of the trends scientists are noticing prove that life is not a series of random events. Universality deepens our understanding of natural phenomena and our place in the physical world.

We are surrounded by order that-until now-physics has been unable to explain.

The spread of veins in the back of our hands mirrors the spread of branches on a tree; fern fronds bear a resemblance to the outline of fjords; the best-loved classical music echoes the patterns of our heartbeats.

The theory of Universality is using fractal patterns to explain much of the world around us. Could it be that the same laws that govern systems in their critical states also govern some of the most unpredictable events such as earthquakes, avalanches, the growth of cities and stock market crashes-even the way businesses are run and the way fashions come and go? Is there a common principle, a universal affinity that binds us to the forces of nature?

A consensus is emerging on how complex structures grow and sustain themselves; phenomena that were once thought to be unique now appear to have a great deal in common. Mark Ward examines these theories, explores how they fit into an age-long quest to discover how the universe works, delves into their possible limitations and asks what we can do with this new knowledge.

While identifying patterns does not mean that we can always predict what will happen next, some of the trends scientists are noticing prove that life is not a series of random events. Universality deepens our understanding of natural phenomena and our place in the physical world.

Customer Reviews:

Irritating and pointless.......2004-05-23

After reading the first three pages of the introduction, I thought "this must get better". I skipped to chapter 1 and read two more pages of vague, disconnected repetition. So I turned to Amazon reviews to see if it was worth my while to persist. It isn't. On to the next book...

Lots of speculation, no substance.......2004-03-14

The book is disjointed and speculative so that it is hard to take any of the arguments seriously. It is strange to find this in a book about science, but then perhaps it is not a science book! Some remarks comparing scientific research today with demonology several hundred years ago make you wonder. It is almost as bad as `The Web of Life' by Fritjof Capra (conversely if you liked that book, you will like this one too). Oddly enough, although the book claims not to be about Chaos but about `Universality', it is Chaos that appears in the title. I am fairly familiar with the research into chaos theory, but having read this book I still cannot really tell you what `Universality' is, other than that it seems to involve everything (!). In any case, the book presents even the better data on the subject poorly.

On a general note, in thinking of fractals (discussed extensively but loosely in the book) I wonder if we are not over-interpreting the data. After all, mathematicians have known all along that mathematical models can represent a variety of natural processes and yet have no causal relation to them. Similarly, when we see fractals in a wide variety of biological structures and processes, is it because fractals are fundamental to them, or because, as I suspect, a fractal can be used to model anything? Is it the chicken or the egg?

Know it's place.......2003-11-23

Understanding why you're reading this book makes all the difference. I used this book as a carefree nightly read around an interesting topic, and it worked! Using this book to solve problems would be a mistake. There's not enough detail and it won't work.
The author approached Universality from enough angles to brighten my world to possible unexplored connections. Unfortunately, the author's light dimmed a bit when he didn't stay "on-message" 15% of the time, wherein I skipped forward some pages. Hense, the 3 stars.
Overall, read this book as an intro, and lighten up!

Long, empty, boring, not worth the time.......2003-05-31

One would think that 300 pages discussing science theory would have some substance but this book could have been edited down to an eight page magazine article with little loss of content. And not a "heavy" magazine for scientists but a "popular" type magazine. I forced myself to stay with it hoping that the author would eventually get serious but the book stayed chatty and anecdotal to the end. According to the bio Mr. Ward is a science writer for the BBC and I did get the feeling of a TV narration purposely kept light in order not to scare off any viewers.

I found myself rereading series of pages because I had the feeling that I had missed something and then finding that I hadn't missed a thing, there was simply no content to retain. This happened repeatedly and made this book a real chore to finish and ultimately unrewarding. A shame too because the premises Mr. Ward teases the reader with are intriguing but the book fails miserably to live up to the promises made on the dust cover. Budding authors should seek out his agent however, that individual is well worth his fee!

Muddled, inaccurate, overblown, and poorly written.......2003-05-15

British journalist Mark Ward's exposition of the theory of Universality and self-organized criticality (SOC) is little more than breathless hype purporting to show that fractal patterns and SOC are present in virtually every aspect of the biological and physical world. While this may or may not be true, Ward's largely anecdotal presentation, with its at times almost-mystical (although nonreligious) tone, unfortunately arouses the suspicion that the theory rests on a shaky scientific foundation. It should also not be too much to expect that a book devoted to the theory of Universality actually give an explicit definition of Universality, which Ward consistently fails to do. The book is introductory and nontechnical, so it is perhaps unfair to expect him to give a solid theoretical foundation to the theory, but the reader is left with an uneasy feeling that the gentleman "doth protest too much." Those interested in chaos theory, emergent phenomona, and SOC would do much better to read the books of Stuart Kauffmann and John Holland or the older nontechnical classic "Chaos: Making a New Science" by James Gleick.

The book is also plagued with numerous factual errors. (His reference to Beethoven's Eroica Symphony as a late work, produced in the same general period as the Ninth Symphony and the Diabelli Variations, has been cited in another review.) Additionally, Mr. Ward's writing style and his many lapses in grammar, syntax, and punctuation make the book irritating to read and make one wish that a good editor had taken the manuscript firmly in hand. Awkward shifts in tense within a single sentence, lack of subject-verb agreement, and Mr. Ward's apparent disdain for commas make what is actually a simple book a chore to read.

Books:

Books Index

Books Home

Recommended Books