Lots of cool ideas but a fairly advanced read. For a faster and less complicated introduction to Kauffman I highly recommend "At Home in the Universe" ( )

Kauffman here presents a brilliant new paradigm for evolutionary bio
FROM THE PUBLISHER
Stuart Kauffman here presents a 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 widely observed throughout nature. Kauffman here argues that self-organization plays an important role in the emergence of life itself and may play as fundamental a role in shaping life's subsequent evolution as does 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 remain 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 biologicalscience itself will evolve. The work is written for all those interested in the cutting edge of research in the life sciences.
FROM THE CRITICS
Booknews
The author is a biophysicist at the U. of Pennsylvania and is associated with the Santa Fe Institute, a leading complexity theory "think tank." He applies complexity theory to our understanding of evolution, explaining the incompleteness of Darwin's theory of natural selection as the driving force for order in nature and setting forth the key concept of self organization. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com) ( )