Why did the New York Stock Exchange suspend trading without warning on July 8, 2015? Why did certain Toyota vehicles accelerate uncontrollably against the will of their drivers? Why does the programming inside our airplanes occasionally surprise its creators?
After a thorough analysis by the top experts, the answers still elude us.
You don’t understand the software running your car or your iPhone. But here’s a secret: neither do the geniuses at Apple or the Ph.D.’s at Toyota—not perfectly, anyway. No one, not lawyers, doctors, accountants, or policy makers, fully grasps the rules governing your tax return, your retirement account, or your hospital’s medical machinery. The same technological advances that have simplified our lives have made the systems governing our lives incomprehensible, unpredictable, and overcomplicated.
In Overcomplicated, complexity scientist Samuel Arbesman offers a fresh, insightful field guide to living with complex technologies that defy human comprehension. As technology grows more complex, Arbesman argues, its behavior mimics the vagaries of the natural world more than it conforms to a mathematical model. If we are to survive and thrive in this new age, we must abandon our need for governing principles and rules and accept the chaos. By embracing and observing the freak accidents and flukes that disrupt our lives, we can gain valuable clues about how our algorithms really work. What’s more, we will become better thinkers, scientists, and innovators as a result.
Lucid and energizing, this book is a vital new analysis of the world heralded as "modern" for anyone who wants to live wisely.
- New eBook additions
- New eBook additions for Kids
- New eBook additions for Teens
- Most popular
- Most popular for Kids
- Most popular for Teens
- Available Now
- Available Now for Kids
- Available Now for Teens
- Book Club 2024-2025: Guaranteed Available : Karapu Pukapuka: Wātea Mārika 2024-2025
- Guaranteed Available: Book Club: Literature with a Big L
- Travel Club 2024-2025: Guaranteed Available
- Reese's Pieces
- See all
- New eAudiobook additions
- New eAudiobook additions for Kids
- New eAudiobook additions for Teens
- Most popular eAudiobooks
- Most popular eAudiobooks for Kids
- Most popular eAudiobooks for Teens
- Available now on eAudio
- Available Now on eAudio for Kids
- Available Now on eAudio for Teens
- AudioBook Club 2024-2025: Guaranteed Available
- Guaranteed Available: Book Club: eAudio Classic "Reads"
- Children's AudioBook Club 2024-2025: Guaranteed Available
- See all
- Ngā pukapuka i te reo Māori : Books in the Māori Language
- Tusi Samoa : Samoan Books
- Ngaahi tohi ʻi he lea faka-Tongá : Books in Tongan
- किताबें हिंदी में Kitaaben hindee mein : Books in Hindi
- 中文书籍 Zhōngwén shūjí : Books in Chinese
- 中文杂志 Zhōngwén zázhì : Magazines in Chinese
- Buugaag af-soomaali ku qoran : Books in Somali
- Livres en français : Books in French
- Magazines en français : Magazines in French
- Bücher in deutscher Sprache : Books in German
- Zeitschriften in deutscher Sprache : Magazines in German
- Mga libro ma Filipino : Books in Tagalog
- Boeke in Afrikaans : Books in Afrikaans
- See all