How Nature Works, part II

We will continue our discussion of Per Bak's book, How Nature Works: The Science of Self-organized Criticality, by reading chapters 4-7. One of the remarkable aspects of self-organized criticality (SOC) is that it can arise from very simple rules but lead to highly complex, unpredictable systems. Since this book is an introductory overview of SOC, it follows the same pattern. It explains things with basic, simple ideas, but the consequences can be mind-boggling complex. So if you think you'd like to join us but are worried about not being able to catch up because you'd have to read lots of abstruse, technical concepts, in actuality this book is something that even a member of the MISF Philosophy Study Group can understand. Well, okay, maybe the simple ideas part. But the rest is what's really fun.