Complexity Books

This book is about the philosophy of mathematics and computation. It uses mathematics to analyse it self. I one need to point the most basic tree of research, with no doubt this must be it.

This book covers a whole family of code motion transformations improving on Ruthing et al.'s earlier work on Lazy Code Motion.

I find the "computer science" style of presenting information to make it a rather difficult read. Excessive use of symbols and exhaustive proofs is a contributing factor. The code motion formulations have slightly different boolean logic in some places relative to other works on the topic, such a Morgan or Muchnick's books. This can make keeping track of the novel changes to the algorithms a bit tricky.

However, this book presents some significant improvements to earlier code motion algorithms and as the primary source for some variations (notably including accounting optimally for register pressure) should be considered required reading for anybody working on code motion transformations in a modern optimizing compiler.

A key theme is for managers to find coherence in a complex world. The book offers 29 essays written by gurus, academicians and managers. These essays are clustered into four main sections: management perspectives on complexity theories; managerial insight from complexity science; complexity science in practice; and complexity and management-fad or frontier? The essays present a vast array of ideas, insights and guidance for managers seeking to understand the organizations and environments they must interact with to be successful. The book, as a whole, presents an enormous amount of knowledge but, more importantly, aims to affect how managers think-impacting their perspective and the lens (paradigm) through which they understand and take action. The subject areas covered, and depth of thought of all contributors, make this a unique, very valuable, and absorbing work. Very highly recommended.

This book is mandatory reading for anyone interested in the fascinating and complex world of complexity theory. Circuits represent an interesting approach to complexity since they allow the computer scientist to gain a better mathematical foothold when attempting to investigate the intrinsic complexity of a problem. The book seems concise, well-written, very accessible to advanced students, and covers most of the important circuit complexity results of the last 20 years. A good supplement to this book, however, is Ingo Wegener's famous "blue book" (which is now downloadable from his website) which provides a more historical and classical treatment of the subject. If P not = NP is proved within my lifetime, I'm estimating that the proof will involve an analysis of circuits. Good luck!

If you have cut your teeth on Donald Knuth's classic three volumes, "The Art of Computer Programming", and you want more detail, at a similar level of complexity, then consider Storer's book.

It delves into lists, recursion, trees, graphs, heaps and sets. Like Knuth, Storer thoughtfully supplies an extensive list of questions at the end of each chapter that will greatly deepen your appreciation of the field if you tackle them. Ok, he doesn't give answers, but think of that as greater incentive on your part to solve them. There are almost 400 questions in the book.

The teaching style is similar to Knuth, in that it has all the rigour needed by an algorithm designer like yourself, without drowning you in epsilon-delta ultra rigour like a pure maths text.

Note that the only code fragments are in pseudocode. This should not be a problem for you. I am assuming you are experienced enough that what you need is understanding of an algorithm, and that manually converting it to code is straightforward and a purely secondary issue.

The take home message is that this is excellent for anyone doing serious programming.

Includes not only the classical knapsack problems such as binary, bounded, unbounded or binary multiple, but also less familiar problems such as subset-sum and change-making. The text fully develops an algorithmic approach without losing mathematical rigor. Great for Researchers, Professors and Students in Computer Science and Mathematics. .

I won't write a long review here. Suffice it to say that this is one of the best books on evolutionary theory I have read in a while, and it is a fascinating and detailed look into one of the most fundamental aspects of our living world: mutation... without which there would be no genetic variation and, therefore, no life. Ridley's thesis is that the limit on the evolution of complex life is in overcoming the problem of mutation. This book is engagingly written and convincing. I would think that any evolutionary biologist or geneticist would find this a must read. Truly inspiring.

The Narrative Universe by Gianluca Bocchi and Mauro Ceruti is fascinating to read. It is indeed a remarkable feature of modern science, from high energy physics to chemistry and biology, that we have moved to a different view of nature that emphasises the narrative element levels of observation. Gianluca Bocchi and Mauro Ceruti present a global and impressive view of this narrative aspect starting with mythology and the early history of humanity and going from there to biology, physics, and chemistry. The Narrative Universe is a unique book. It will be of great interest for everyone who cares about the memory of the past as well as humanity's position in the universe.

Ilya Prigogine, Nobel Laureate
Free University, Brussels, co-author, Order out of Chaos

A remarkable work of transdisciplinary scholarship. The Narrative
Universe is a rich and fascinating work that offers a new perspective
on evolution that emphasizes the importance of human choices and
actions, and the possibility for creating a partnership world.

Riane Eisler, author of The Chalice & The Blade, Sacred Pleasure, and Tomorrow's Children

Drawing from biology, complexity science, cultural history, cosmology, linguistics, mythology, anthropology, as well as the history of religions, literature, and twentieth century film, Bocchi and Ceruti have crafted our time's most comprehensive and compact survey of contemporary science. Their choice of scientists is unfailingly accurate, and their presentation is simultaneously thorough and clear. Their book will be most appreciated by individuals who are outside the world of science, but have on occasion wondered what the excitement is all about. Here, in a single volume, is a record of most of our century's greatest scientific triumphs.

Brian Swimme, California Institute of
Integral Studies, co-author, The Universe Story

The Narrative Universe is a wondrous book, whose very title is the message. The authors takes us down the highways and byways of the world of knowledge, to tell us that we live not only in a contingent universe but are engaged in the creation of contingent knowledges (the plural here is
Important). We are forced to think about assumptions we never realized needed to be questioned. It is a resolutely hopeful, creative work about a creative universe. It is at the same time a very rigorous exercise - science at its best.

Immanuel Wallerstein, SUNY Binghampton, author, The end of the world as we know it. Social science for the 21st century

Reading The Narrative Universe was a real pleasure. Ceruti and Bocchi have written a challenging, brilliant book that is required reading for anybody who wishes to participate in the intellectual revolution through which we are now living.

Jerome Bruner, New York University, author, Actual Minds, Possible Worlds

A marvelous book in several senses: I marvel at Bocchi and Ceruti's erudition, and at the grace with which they apply it. Here we have a masterful narrative well told about the history of consciousness, from the earliest dawnings of human awareness to the latest reflections on evolutionary theory about our evolution.

James Ogilvy, Global Business Network, co-author, Seven Tomorrows, author, Living Without Goals

Anyone interested in policy implementation should read this book. This book should be the main text in every education policy class and required reading in some government agencies. The introductory chapter provides a concise and compelling review of what we know about how policies get implemented (and why sometimes they don't). The following chapters demonstrate the lessons highlighted in the first by delving deeply into one or two theoretical lenses for understanding policy implementation, while discussing a contemporary policy case. This structures helps the reader make sense of different theoretical lenses with the context of practice. My only complaint is about how the book is marketed: It is not a companion volumne to the Odden book, but after 15 years, a replacement.

If you were ever at all comfortable with integral calculus and differential equations, for example if you took these in college, then J. Epstein's book is a wonderful breezy read through a smorgasbord of social science and biology. The book covers a series of his mathematical lectures on combat, arms races, revolutions, drug epidemics, ecosystems, etc.. All the while, he weaves threads of connectivity between the topics.

This is not a book of proofs. Rather, it reminds me of what the book Freakonomics might have been like if it had equations. [By the way, I wish everyone in the world could get to page 82 of this book, to gain an insight into the ideas of herd immunity and decentralized totalitarianism.] Although the book does linear and nonlinear treatments throughout, the final chapter/lecture delves more deeply into understanding the issues of nonlinear models. Unfortunately, I am now left with a thirst I cannot slake, the thirst for the next few chapters after I've finished the book. Joshua, when can I get the next one??