Complexity is one of the most promising fields of modern science, and this book explores the new perspectives opening up when we consider systems made up of many similar or identical constituents.

Helmut Satz is Professor Emeritus of Theoretical Physics at the University of Bielefield in Germany and has been with the university since 1971. From 1989-1996, he was Staff Member, European Center for Nuclear Research CERN, Geneva. During his career he has been the author of around 250 scientific papers and books, his most recent being The Rules of the Flock: Self-Organization and Swarm Structure in Animal Societies.

• Preface


• 1: Introduction


• 2: The Flow of Time


• 3: Global Connections


• 4: The Nature of Forces


• 5: The Formation of Structure


• 6: The Energy of Space


• 7: Critical Behavior


• 8: Self-Organized Criticality


• 9: Fractal Dimensions


• 10: Bifurcation and Chaos


• 11: Brownian Motion


• 12: Turbulence and Convection


• 13: Intermittency


• 14: Words and Numbers


• 15: Quantum Complexity


• 17: Conclusions