Critical mass : how one thing leads to another : being an enquiry into the interplay of chance and necessity in the way that human culture, customs, institutions, cooperation and conflict arise / Philip Ball.

  • Ball, Philip, 1962-
Date:
2005
  • Books

About this work

Description

According to Donne 'no man is an island' but how exactly are we affected by the behaviour of others? Are there 'laws of nature' that guide human affairs? Have we complete freedom in creating our societies, or are we trapped by 'human nature'? And how, in human affairs, does one thing lead to another?

Publication/Creation

London : Arrow, 2005.

Physical description

xii, 644 pages : illustrations, portraits, charts ; 20 cm

Related material

This item was donated as part of the Godfrey Boyle archive held by Wellcome Collection, reference PP/GBO https://wellcomecollection.org/works/t5pbagvp

Bibliographic information

Includes bibliographical references (pages 615-633) and index.

Contents

Introduction : political arithmetick -- Raising Leviathan : the brutish world of Thomas Hobbes -- Lesser forces : the mechanical philosophy of matter -- The law of large numbers : regularities from randomness -- The grand ah-whoom : why some things happen all at once -- On growth and form : the emergence of shape and organization -- The march of reason : chance and necessity in collective motion -- On the road : the inexorable dynamics of traffic -- Rhythms of the marketplace : the shaky hidden hand of economics -- Agents of fortune : why interaction matters to the economy -- Uncommon proportions : critical states and the power of the straight line -- The work of many hands : the growth of firms -- Join the club : alliances in business and politics -- Multitudes in the valley of decision : collective influence and social change -- The colonization of culture : globalization, diversity, and synthetic societies -- Small worlds : networks that bring us together -- Weaving the web : the shape of cyberspace -- Order in Eden : learning to cooperate -- Pavlov's victory : is reciprocity good for us? -- Toward Utopia? : heaven, hell, and social planning -- Epilogue: Curtain call.

Notes

Copy 1. Donor: Godfrey Boyle.

Languages

Where to find it

  • LocationStatusAccess
    Closed stores
    M30686

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Identifiers

ISBN

  • 0099457865
  • 9780099457862