Out of Control: The Rise of Neo-Biological Civilization

Kelly, Kevin

ISBN 10: 0201577933 / ISBN 13: 9780201577938

Published by Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, Reading, MA, 1994

About this Item

Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. [6], 521, [1] pages. Annotated Bibliography. Index. DJ has slight wear and soiling. DJ front flap creased From Wikipedia: "Kevin Kelly (born August 14, 1952) is the founding executive editor of Wired magazine, and a former editor/publisher of the Whole Earth Review. He has also been a writer, photographer, conservationist, and student of Asian and digital culture. Kelly's writings have appeared in the New York Times, Esquire, The Economist and other periodicals in addition to the books he has authored and the magazines he either edited, founded, or helped to found. In 1981, Kelly founded Walking Journal. With Whole Earth's founder, Stewart Brand, Kelly helped found the WELL, a highly regarded online community. He has been a director of the Point Foundation, which sponsored the first Hackers Conference in 1984 (before the word "hacker" had its current negative connotation). In 1994, Wired Magazine, (Kelly was executive director) won the National Magazine Award for General Excellence. Kelly is editor at large for the magazine. He is noted as a participant and observer of "cyberculture". Kelly's writing has appeared in many other national and international publications such as The New York Times, The Economist, Time, Harper's Magazine, Science, Veneer Magazine, GQ, and Esquire. His photographs have appeared in Life and other American national magazines. Kelly's most notable book-length publication, Out of Control: The New Biology of Machines, Social Systems, and the Economic World (1994), presents a view on the mechanisms of complex organization. The central theme of the book is that several fields of contemporary science and philosophy point in the same direction: intelligence is not organized in a centralized structure but much more like a bee-hive of small simple components. Kelly applies this view to bureaucratic organisations, intelligent computers, and to the human brain.".

Seller Inventory # 69817

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Out of Control: The Rise of Neo-Biological Civilization
• Publisher: Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, Reading, MA
• Publication Date: 1994
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0201577933
• ISBN 13: 9780201577938
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: First edition. First printing [stated].
• Condition: Very good
• Dust Jacket Condition: very good

About this title

Synopsis

Looks at a new approach to technology that follows the model of living organisms, and discusses complexity, closed systems, networks, e-money, prediction, and digital anonymity

From the Author

Why you should read this book
This is a book about how our manufactured world has become so complex that the only way to create yet more complex things is by using the principles of biology. This means decentralized, bottom up control, evolutionary advances and error-honoring institutions. I also get into the new laws of wealth in a network-based economy, what the Biosphere 2 project in Arizona has or has not to teach us, and whether large systems can predict or be predicted. And more: restoration biology, encryption, a-life, and the lessons of hypertext. Yes, it's a romp, in 520 pages. But the best part, my friends tell me, is the 28-page annotated bibliography. If you have suspected that technology could be better, more life-like, then this book is for you.