The Quark and the Jaguar: Adventures in the Simple and the ComplexFrom one of the architects of the new science of simplicity and complexity comes an explanation of the connections between nature at its most basic level and natural selection, archaeology, linguistics, child development, computers, and other complex adaptive systems. Nobel laureate Murray Gell-Mann offers a uniquely personal and unifying vision of the relationship between the fundamental laws of physics and the complexity and diversity of the natural world. |
Contents
Prologue An Encounter in the Jungle | 3 |
Early Light | 11 |
Information and Crude Complexity | 23 |
RANDomness | 43 |
A Child Learning a Language | 51 |
Bacteria Developing Drug Resistance | 63 |
The Scientific Enterprise | 75 |
The Power of Theory | 89 |
Superstring Theory Unification at Last? | 199 |
Times Arrows Forward and Backward Time | 215 |
SELECTION AND FITNESS | 233 |
Selection at Work in Biological Evolution and Elsewhere | 235 |
From Learning to Creative Thinking | 261 |
Superstition and Skepticism | 275 |
Adaptive and Maladaptive Schemata | 291 |
Machines That Learn or Simulate Learning | 307 |
What Is Fundamental? | 107 |
THE QUANTUM UNIVERSE | 121 |
Simplicity and Randomness in the Quantum Universe | 123 |
A Contemporary View of Quantum Mechanics Quantum Mechanics and the Classical Approximation | 135 |
Quantum Mechanics and Flapdoodle | 167 |
Quarks and All That The Standard Model | 177 |
Other editions - View all
The Quark & the Jaguar: Adventures in the Simple and the Complex Murray Gell-Mann No preview available - 2023 |
The Quark and the Jaguar: Adventures in the Simple and the Complex Murray Gell-Mann No preview available - 1994 |
The Quark and the Jaguar: Adventures in the Simple and the Complex Murray Gell-Mann No preview available - 1995 |
Common terms and phrases
algorithmic information content antiparticles approximation behavior biological evolution biosphere bit string boson called Caltech chance chemical chemistry classical coarse coarse-grained histories complex adaptive systems compressed conservation cultural data stream decoherence described discussed diversity Earth ecological effective complexity Einstein's electromagnetic electron elementary particles energy entropy equations evolve example existence experience fermions field fine-grained histories fitness forest fundamental genes genetic genotype gluons graining grammar gravitation human idea individual initial condition interaction kind language learning length macrostate mass mathematics means measure molecules nature neutrino neutron observation organisms particular patterns phenomena photon physicist physics planet population possible power law predictions principle probability problem quantity quantum field theory quantum mechanics quark quasiclassical domain race random regularities Santa Fe Institute schema schemata scientific selection pressures sequence simple situation species standard model superstring theory theoretical theorists thinking tion universe zero Zipf's law