Williams, Lambert (Author)
Harvard University
Galison, Peter
Edition Details: Advisor: Galison, Peter
Physical Details: 306 pp.
Language: English
This project addresses the messy emergence of two new sciences, nonlinear dynamics ('chaos') and complex systems science, between the 1960s and the early 2000s. This work aims to unearth what sort of call these new sciences answered, and also what was so different about them. Yet writing a history of these fields is to write a history of the inchoate, and the opening chapter is devoted to some of the historiographical challenges this poses, demonstrating the sea of noise from which some signal has to be extracted. Three main ideas are then put forward to recover some historical traction: chaos and complexity science deserve attention of account of differences in modeling (chapter two), in building (chapter three), and in writing (chapter four). With respect to modeling, it is shown that these emerging areas of work were accompanied by surprising innovations in the deployment of computers and modeling techniques. The attention to building, meanwhile, shows that certain modes of organizing knowledge production, largely inherited from the 19 th century, have partially broken down and been replaced by a category called quasi-discipline. Finally, the investigation of writing focuses on the singular role of the popular science book. Often imagined as a downstream vessel that simply reports on some pre-existing corpus, here it is argued that the popular book helped fabricate certain parts of chaos and complexity science. The closing discussion draws these threads together, and suggests some further fields that could be illuminated using the approach fashioned in this work.
...MoreDescription Cited in ProQuest Diss. & Thes. (2012). ProQuest Doc. ID 962411497.
Similar Citations
Article
Fabrizio Li Vigni;
(2022)
Hayek at the Santa Fe Institute: Origins, Models, and Organization of the Cradle of Complexity Sciences
(/isis/citation/CBB101266514/)
Article
Frigg, Roman;
(2003)
Self-Organised Criticality--What It Is and What It Isn't
(/isis/citation/CBB000340894/)
Article
Siddique Latif;
Adnan Qayyum;
Muhammad Usama;
Junaid Qadir;
Andrej Zwitter;
Muhammad Shahzad;
(September 2019)
Caveat Emptor: The Risks of Using Big Data for Human Development
(/isis/citation/CBB326485886/)
Thesis
Lawson, Sean Trevor;
(2008)
Info[at]war.mil: Nonlinear Science and the Emergence of Information Age Warfare in the United States Military
(/isis/citation/CBB001560712/)
Book
Qin, Duo;
(2013)
A History of Econometrics: The Reformation from the 1970s
(/isis/citation/CBB001212957/)
Article
Metlay, Daniel;
(Fall 2013)
Decision Strategies for Addressing Complex, "Messy" Problems
(/isis/citation/CBB934415861/)
Chapter
Hirsh, Richard F.;
Sovacool, Benjamin K.;
Badinelli, Ralph D.;
(2010)
Distributed generation and momentum change in the American electric utility system: A social-science sytems approach
(/isis/citation/CBB001180147/)
Article
Hirsh, Richard F.;
Sovacool, Benjamin K.;
(2006)
Technological systems and momentum change: American electric utilities, restructuring, and distributed generation technologies
(/isis/citation/CBB001180137/)
Thesis
Moritz Ingwersen;
(2018)
All Things Fusible: Media, Science, and Mythology in the Fiction of Neal Stephenson
(/isis/citation/CBB583734163/)
Book
Benci, Vieri;
(2003)
Determinism, Holism, and Complexity
(/isis/citation/CBB000301646/)
Article
Morgan, Mary S.;
Grüne-Yanoff, Till;
(2013)
Modeling Practices in the Social and Human Sciences. An Interdisciplinary Exchange
(/isis/citation/CBB001320394/)
Book
Teun Koetsier;
(2018)
The Ascent of GIM, the Global Intelligent Machine: A History of Production and Information Machines
(/isis/citation/CBB191909360/)
Book
Taylor, Mark C.;
(2002)
The Moment of Complexity: Emerging Network Culture
(/isis/citation/CBB000201619/)
Thesis
Yoshimi, Jeffrey Kazuo;
(2001)
Dynamics of Consciousness: Phenomenology, Neuroscience, and Dynamical Systems Theory
(/isis/citation/CBB001562423/)
Article
Jessica Weinkle;
Roger, Jr. Pielke;
(July 2017)
The Truthiness about Hurricane Catastrophe Models
(/isis/citation/CBB612758874/)
Chapter
Morgan, Mary S.;
(2007)
The Curious Case of the Prisoner's Dilemma: Model Situation? Exemplary Narrative?
(/isis/citation/CBB000900060/)
Article
Dannenberg, Roger B.;
(2014)
Human-Computer Music Performance: A Brief History and Future Prospects
(/isis/citation/CBB001201085/)
Article
Lisa Garforth;
(2019)
Environmental Futures, Now and Then: Crisis, Systems Modeling, and Speculative Fiction
(/isis/citation/CBB582046293/)
Article
Randalls, Samuel;
(2010)
History of the 2ºC Climate Target
(/isis/citation/CBB001221297/)
Article
Janina Wellmann;
(2018)
Gluing Life Together. Computer Simulation in the Life Sciences: An Introduction
(/isis/citation/CBB692492040/)
Be the first to comment!