The Computational Beauty of Nature by Gary William Flake, Paperback, 9780262561273 | Buy online at The Nile
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The Computational Beauty of Nature

Computer Explorations of Fractals, Chaos, Complex Systems, and Adaptation

Author: Gary William Flake   Series: A Bradford Book

Paperback

"This delightful book illustrates beautifully the paradigm shift in physics from writing equations and solving them to computer modeling and experimentation." -- Greg Chaitin, author of The Limits of Mathematics

This book develops the idea that recurrent rules can produce rich and complicated behaviours. From this thesis it explores today's four most interesting computational topics: fractals, chaos, complex systems, and adaptation.

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Summary

"This delightful book illustrates beautifully the paradigm shift in physics from writing equations and solving them to computer modeling and experimentation." -- Greg Chaitin, author of The Limits of Mathematics

This book develops the idea that recurrent rules can produce rich and complicated behaviours. From this thesis it explores today's four most interesting computational topics: fractals, chaos, complex systems, and adaptation.

Read more

Description

Gary William Flake develops in depth the simple idea that recurrent rules can produce rich and complicated behaviors.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.

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Awards

Winner of Honorable Mention, 1998, category of Computer Science, Professional/Scholarly Publishing Annual Awards Competition presented by the Association of American Publishers, Inc. 1998

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Critic Reviews

"This book is a delight." Barak Pearlmutter , University of New Mexico "This delightful book illustrates beautifully the paradigm shift inphysics from writing equations and solving them to computer modelingand experimentation." Greg Chaitin , author of The Limits of Mathematics

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About the Author

Flake is a research scientist in the Adaptive Information and Signal Professing Department of Siemens Corporate Research, Princeton, New Jersey.

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More on this Book

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.

Read more

Product Details

Publisher
MIT Press Ltd | MIT Press
Published
27th January 2000
Pages
520
ISBN
9780262561273

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$171.76
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