Rating: 
Summary: Very much at home
Review: An excellent and original treatment of self-organisation. If ever there was a case for tearing down the functional divides that exist in academia today, then this is it. Consilience and Self-Organisation would appear to go hand-in-hand.
Rating: 
Summary: Absorbing
Review: It's refreshing to see that science is finally breaking away from the dogma and stagnant views of neo-Darwinism, and opening up the door to a wider and deeper perspective of evolutionary science. At the start of this book, Kauffman reflects on the classical neo-Darwinist perspective of reality - "Random variation, selection shifting. Here lies the brooding sense of accident, of historical contingency, of design by elimination. ... Were the tape played over, we like to say, the forms of organisms would surely differ dramatically. We humans, trumped up, tricked-out, horn-blowing, self-important presence on the globe, need never have occurred. So much for our pretensions; we are lucky to have our hour. So much, too, for paradise. ... Since Darwin, we turn to a single, singular force, Natural Selection, which we may as well capitalize as thought it were the new deity. Random variation, selection shifting. Without it, we reason, there would be nothing but incoherent disorder. I shall argue in this book that this idea is wrong." And argues he does, the author backing up his convictions with all the contemporary scientific observations and groundwork, revealing that complexity in nature triggers self-organization, and that the potential of life's beginnings may have already been present in the self-ordering of atomic entities, in the same way that is present in the self-ordering of crystals, snowflakes etc. "Order for free", as Kauffman says it. Certainly, as the dust settles from the bomb-shell of science's momentous discovery of evolution 150 years ago, I believe that more and more people will appreciate the consonance between religious thought and scientific observations. As a Christian, I fully appreciate the depth and grandeur of the evolutionary process and our place in the Universe. When we approach the deeper, metaphysical questions such as: "Why is nature permitted to evolve in a spontaneous, self-creative way in the first place?" and "Why does nature so readily permit the profound arrival of consciousness?", then theology will still provide us with the ultimate explanations. This "ultimate" theological perspective, which sees God as empowering nature from within, in no way interferes with purely scientific explanations of evolutionary events - in this case revealed by Stuart Kauffman in this particular book. A worthy purchase.
Rating:
Summary: a mathematical explanation of life
Review: The basic idea of Kauffman's book is that the complexity we see in nature (including life or technology) is contingent to math, i.e. can be explained and predicted by mathematical reasoning. The same is true of statistical thermodynamics and evolution. He states that Darwin's evolutionary theory explains only how complex life emerged from simple life, but it does not explain how simple life emerged from matter. There is probably a larger jump in complexity from matter to the first simple cell, than from that simple cell to a modern human being. Darwin does not explain that first jump. Kauffman doesn't either even though he is convincing in showing that life must have started through autocatalytic sets of molecules. He points out that these sets are self-organizing, stable and can vary as a reflex to external stimuli. What he mentions, but does not explain, is that autocatalytic sets can (or must) self-reproduce, a necessary step before evolution sets in. On page 66 of the paperback edition he states that "such breaking in two happens spontaneously as such [auto-catalytic] sets increase in volume", but, maddeningly, he does not explain how or why. One has to wonder: if life is such a necessary result of matter (therefore the title "at home in the universe") why then has it proven so difficult to synthesize anything approaching life in the laboratory? He doesn't say. The book is full of incredibly interesting ideas. He explains ontogeny (the transformation of a fertilized egg to a highly complex and differentiated organism) using a simple model of on/off enzymes which allows him to build a Boolean network in which different cell types correspond to different "attractors", which are intrinsic in such a network. He shows that the same relationship that holds between number of attractors and size of a network, also holds between number of cell types and size of DNA of a wide range of organisms. Very impressive. He goes on to discuss things like fitness landscapes and genetic algorithms, the edge between boring order and supracritical instability where the really interesting stuff happens, the co-evolution of coupled systems, the structure of efficient companies or countries, and more. The only criticism I have is about his poetical language that does indeed resemble fluff; anyone who even partly understands his ideas would be excited enough without all that sauce. Also I missed a deeper development, the book does point into one interesting direction and then jumps into another matter, leaving one hungering for more. But maybe this is the author's intent. This is an excellent book even though it resembles more a symphony of ideas than a theorem. Very highly recommended: a mind opener.
Rating:
Summary: Fascinating ideas
Review: This book has some really fascinating ideas - new ways to look at evolution and complex systems (or at least, new to me). Also it describes some cool computational experiments that motivate the biological theory pretty well. My one gripe is that he gets off on philosophical tangents too much - I think ever since Godel Escher Bach, science writers have tried to be poets and philosophers also and it just gets in the way. I found myself skipping big chunks that looked like fluff.
Rating:
Summary: Life as an auto-catalytic network
Review: A completely different approch on evolution and what life is. Life is seen as an auto-catalytic network of reactions spontaneously emerging when a sufficiently diverse mix of molecules interact. Even if it is only to understand that idea and see what surrounds it, the book is worth reading.
Rating:
Summary: Hmmmm...
Review: Not exactly what I was expecting, but a worthwhile read. Did it live up the hype generated by the shouts below? Yup - in a way. If Kauffman is right, materialists have a lot to answer for. So do the creationists. Maybe there's meaning to it all after all. Hmmmm.
Rating:
Summary: Let's not get carried away...
Review: ...in either direction, for or against this book. Extremely high variance reviews are a good sign that reviewers are posting their own preconceptions, rather than reactions to this book. There is a lot of good stuff in here. The descriptions of the patch procedure and simulated annealing, for instance, are very nice. This book can be useful to the motivated general reader, and to a scientist who wants to see the very basics of some novel ideas. It can also be useful for those familiar with complexity as an account of how different pieces fit together. It's important to remember that the book is not a text in, say, biochemistry. Rather, it's about a way to see the world. At this stage of the idea development life cycle and in a basic treatment like this, it would be counterproductive to insist that these modeling tools reproduce everything we know or start at the level of complication of a mature science. If the book deals in toy examples that relate to a different view for pieces of the world and how they relate, it has done most of its job. On the other hand, the book definitely has the mildly unpleasant tenor of a popularization. So, for example, any new idea is dressed up as revolutionary. Kauffman is actually better about this than many authors, especially in this field, but it's still palpable. It is also written with all the mid-'90s euphoria over complexity. It is not clear that it will take as far as the gurus envision, but it is fun to think about -- and this book is a good way to start.
Rating:
Summary: Compelling science
Review: It seems to me that people are getting too caught up in the argument as to whether God exists or not, but this has nothing to do with Kauffman's work here. I'm not fussed whether an almighty Creator is responsible for nature, but I am interested in what science is revealing about evolution. To give this book 1 star and to throw it away as "a heap of rubbush" is a somewhat immature and is frankly uncalled for. There are many implications of Kauffman's work here which cannot be disregarded frivolously. Reaction systems in nature known as 'catalytic cycles' are now becoming established as 'fact' by biologists and chemists, and catalytic reactions are crucial processes in the chemistry of life. The most common and most efficient catalysts are the 'enzymes' which are components of cells promoting metabolic processes. (Kauffman shows in his other book 'The Origins of Order' that a catalyst is a substance that increases the rate of a chemical reaction without itself being changed in the process). Kauffman shows clearly that these catalytic cycles are at the core of self-organising chemical systems, and they play an essential role in the metabolic functions of living organisms. I noticed a previous reviewer say that "Every cell biologist will tell you that Kauffman discussion of cell cycle is plain nonsense". This is, in fact, plain nonsense. The laws of thermodynamics was also mentioned. The second law of thermodynamics contradicts ALL notions of inherently progressive complexity - yet progressive complexity is a fact of nature, (see the origins of life; see the human brain; consciousness may be telling something deeper still about reality, but I'll leave that to the philosophers). Stephen Jay Gould said of this book: "Kauffman has done more than anyone else to supply the key missing piece of the propensity for self-organisation that can join the random and the deterministic forces of evolution into a satisfying theory of life's order." It's foolish to rubbish cutting edge work like Kauffman's and to throw it away as a "heap of rubbish". Such attitudes only prevents science from progressing. Kauffman's book returns the problem of evolution to the central issue that evolutionists have been avoiding for too long - the organised system that we call life, self-organisation, - and the origin of the beast itself.
Rating: 
Summary: Heap of rubbish
Review: This book is based on ridiculous assumptions and simply ignoring complete branches of science. Few examples: 1) It assumes that the probability of a molecule to catalyze a reaction is 1 in million. Any biochemist tell you that is nonsense. 2) Every cell bilogist will tell you that Kauffman discussion of cell cycle is plain nonsense. 3) Kauffman puysicst can tell you that kauffman idas are in contardiction to thermodynamics laws.
Rating:
Summary: Deeply insightful
Review: What an incredible book. This is certainly the most insightful, lucid and significant book on the mechanisms and processes of biological and cosmic evolution that I have ever read. Kauffman is well aware that a far more dynamic, creative process is needed other than natural selection alone if all the phenomena of nature is to be explained. This book puts to bed Michael Behe's clinical thesis of 'irreducible systems', and also wrecks creationist's analogies of "tornadoes sweeping through junk yards assembling Boeing 747s". Kauffman says: "In our search for hints that the order of the biosphere is shaped by laws deeper than natural selection alone, we now seek to understand the wellsprings of this stunning molecular diversity. The striking possibility is that the very diversity of molecules in the biosphere causes its own explosion. ... This rush ... has its source in the same kind of phase transition to connected webs of catalysed reactions that we found may have pushed molecules into living organisation in the first place." In his chapter 'The Origins of Life' Kauffman refutes the old-hat clique of a tornado sweeping through a junk yard assembling a Boeing (To Richard Dawkins' delight): "The problem, I believe, is that Hoyle, Wickramasinghe, and many others have failed to appreciate the power of self-organization." ... "Metabolic networks need not be built one component at a time; they can spring full-grown from a primordial soup. Order for free, I call it." ... "the motto of life is not 'We the improbable', but 'We the expected'." Kauffman's investigations and conclusions are most certainly not "pure guesswork" as was stated by a previous reviewer. I have just been reading a book called 'Our Cosmic Origins' by Armand Delsemme. He writes "Chemical hyercycles have now been discovered in the laboratory ... Recent researches imply that the emergence of life comes from the collective properties for the polymers that show catalytic features. This explains the recent interest in the fact that RNA is autocatalytic." Contemporary research implies that once biospheres such as Earth's is in place, then beings very similar to ourselves are the inevitable outcome. This makes it very probable that sentient beings other than ourselves exist in other parts of the Universe. With regard to life on Earth, if we didn't happen, something every bit as complicated as us would have happened. Obviously, the Theistic implications of this is immense. In short, science is revealing that the whole cosmos is essentially and inevitably directed towards producing fully self-knowing and self-controlling beings, who can orient themselves to the pursuit of truth, beauty and goodness. Indeed the existent conscious states of 'intrinsic value, love, friendship, spiritual creativity' etc, are worthwhile states which could rationally be seen as a reason why God would create in the first place. Appeals for the "natural laws of science" are the inevitable cries from atheists, yet this merely begs the question "What kind of blind, purposeless force gave rise to a wonderful, profound cosmos such as ours here?" It seems to me that 'materialists' really cannot see the wood for the trees. Indeed there really is no reason to expect the existence of anything at all, let alone a material cosmos as wonderful and profound as ours, which happened to become aware of itself. If nothing existed before the Universe existed, then nothing would exist now, but not only did an unprecedented amount of physical energy appear from 'somewhere', but it all started obeying deeply profound and mathematical laws. Consider the following mathematical statement: 2 + 2 = 4. This statement is a mental construct. It is an 'idea' that transcends any kind of physical construct, yet 2 + 2 = 4 is a 'mathematical fact'. On the level of any kind of 'materialism', the mathematical fact that 2 + 2 = 4 is meaningless. But mathematics has become 'incarnate' in our cosmos (i.e. atoms exist which are governed by laws which exhibit mathematics - see the 'inverse square law of gravity' which enables scientists to predict solar eclipses, to the minute, a millennium in advance). The best place for 'mathematical ideas' to exist before our Universe existed, would be in the mind of God. Theists assert that an intelligent mathematician (God) authored these laws and gave them the opportunity to become incarnate. Kauffman is revealing that the whole cosmic process is essentially and inevitably directed towards producing sentient beings similar to ourselves. Therefore, the rational explanation is that some mind would already exist to give it that direction, and oversee the process. Theists assert that God, as a knowing agent, already exists, apart from the Universe, to direct it towards its goal. The goal must, after all, be consciously envisaged and events must be wisely ordered to produce it - both of which require a vast intelligence already in existence. It seems that our evolutionary understanding of reality is getting closer and closer to 'ultimate truth'. As Stephen Hawking stated, "For then, we will know the mind of God".
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