Book Review: This Explains Everything: Deep, Beautiful And Elegant Theories Of How The World Works by John Brockman
Published 12:30 pm, Monday, February 4, 2013
This Explains Everything: Deep, Beautiful And Elegant Theories Of How The World Works by John Brockman delves into some very basic principles for how things work in the real world. Brockman provides practical examples and precepts like the law of unintended consequences.
Brockman believes that simplicity attracts and connects other successful ideas because underlying principles are easy for large numbers of people to grasp and apply. The author's explanation of the law of unintended consequences holds true in actual practice. For instance, changes to complex systems with many interacting parts are hard to predict. This is the classic problem with biological processes like DNA, the genetic code and stem cell implantation.
Brockman believes that coincidence is rare in practice. People formulate beliefs
from their own personal experience confirmed by interfacing with the environment within a well defined periphery or frame of reference. A corollary is that reinforced learning is passed down through a complex evolutionary process.
Brockman has a very interesting hypothesis as to how the brain works. He explains that the brain makes decisions through iterative event synthesis based upon experience exceeding a judgmental threshold. In addition, the author shows how species with limited frames of reference concentrate and populate in areas away from the largest numbers of species.
This Explains Everything by John Brockman is an important treatise on how the world works in real terms. The author's explanations are not tautologies; however, the examples he cites comport with classic problem areas in the natural sciences and engineering. The contents of this book could provide for some very interesting scientific and philosophical debates on the nature of how things operate.