Samuel Arbesman.
Overcomplicated: technology at the limits of comprehension.
Penguin. 2016
You don’t understand the software running your car or your iPhone.
But here’s a secret: neither do the geniuses at Apple or the PhDs at Toyota—not perfectly, anyway.
No one, not accountants, engineers, or doctors, fully grasps the rules governing your tax return,
your internet connection, or your hospital’s medical machinery.
The same technological advances that have simplified our lives have made the systems governing our lives
incomprehensible, unpredictable, and overcomplicated.
Complexity scientist Samuel Arbesman offers a fresh, insightful field guide to living with complex technologies that defy human comprehension. As technology grows more complex, Arbesman argues, its behavior mimics the vagaries of the natural world more than it conforms to a mathematical model. If we are to survive and thrive in this new age, we must abandon our need for governing principles and rules and accept the chaos. We will become better thinkers, scientists, and innovators as a result.
Lucid and energizing, this book is a vital new analysis of the world heralded as “modern” for anyone who wants to live wisely.