Chance and Chaos

This book is fundamentally about the limits of scientific knowledge and prediction. Using a historical retrospective of the discoveries of the laws of nature and the people who described them in combination with the consequences of the laws, Ruelle takes the reader through the concepts of deterministic chaos. The journey involves basic probability, quantum mechanics, the molecular theory of matter, the enormous number of potential states that the matter can have, statistical thermodynamics, Turing machines and the incompleteness theorems of Kurt Godel. Throughout this rather extensive journey through so much of modern scientific thought, Ruelle keeps it all at a level that the reader of the popular science literature can understand. To his credit, Ruelle uses formulas, sometimes rather complex, when they are needed. It is a fundamental reality that some physical phenomena can only be succinctly described using a mathematical formula. If you have an interest in the role chaos has in the universe and in the current methods that the scientific community uses to describe it, you will find this book to be an excellent primer.

This is the best popular book on chaos, dynamic systems, and entropy that I have ever read, by one of the pioneers of this field. I have remarked in my reviews of Gribbin, Kaku, and others that Creative Geniuses in science (unlike Ingenious Followers who are so abundant) inspire others and themselves often by popularizing science in ordinary English. It is a good sign if they do this often, but sometimes they only do it seldom or never. Ruelle, as far as I know, only did it once, in this book, and the reader who loses the opportunity to obtain this book has lost a classic. Ruelle inspired me at an important place in my career (my fields are related to the probability-logic-entropy-physics interface). I am especially fond of recalling his description of how extremely new creations or inventions are typically received in science: journal reviewers will usually contradict each other in their haste to oust the newcomer. There are still journals which do not touch chaos, entropy, dynamic systems, fractals, not to mention my own field of logic-based probability.

It's nice to be hearing how a physicist places chaos theory in its place amongst possible explanations for natural phenomena. He doesn't oversell chaos, and doesn't undersell it. Not too big a tome -- a good read.

I used this audiotape as a supplement to a doctoral seminar in applied mathematics which I taught to business students. Most of them already had some background in Chaos and Complexity Theory and the level of the tape is really just a notch above the layman's understanding. However, it is very entertaining as well as informative for the more sophisticated audience. Basically we played a side of each of the two tapes in each class session. It was very much like having a Nobel Laureate as a guest lecturer (except that there is no Nobel in mathematics because Nobel's wife apparently had an affair with a mathematician!). Thoroughly enjoyable.

David Ruelle provides the reader of any level with an extremely readable overview of his pursuits of chaos theory. As a student of sociology, I found his study of physics captivating, especially with his connections between physical theory and sociology, economics, astrology, theology, and, well, sex. It's a quick and easy read, very understandable with little physics/math background. I recommend it to anyone who likes to think about new ways of viewing and understanding the world