Rating: 
Summary: Your Antennae Will Twitch
Review: I will not attempt to summarize "At Home" since many other highly rated Amazon reviews have already done so. My main purpose is to offer some additional comments and to add a five star rating. I don't know how completely and totally original Kauffman's ideas are since I am not actively involved in the research areas Kauffman addresses. I do know that he gives effusive credit to many other individuals. And I'm not sure debating the issue of proper and exhaustive attribution, like some prior reviews have done, has much to do with the intriguing and revolutionary ideas Kauffman presents. However, for what it's worth, I suspect that many of the ideas are his own. If not in their entirety, at least in the novelty of their application. I am a popular science junkie and numerous ideas, or at least the way they were discussed, were new and exciting to me. I think they will be to many others readers as well. I say this after having read several other newer, related books. In fact, I plan to read Kauffman's older and more technical book, "Origins of Order", rather than reading more recent but lighter fare from other authors. I was not bothered by Kauffman's enthusiasm or his grandiloquence, as one reviewer put it. Rather, I found his enthusiasm infectious, rewarding, and most of all, legitimate. For example, when Kauffman says to the reader, "Your antennae should be twitching", I found the comment to be both amusing and rewarding. My guess is that Kauffman will make your antennae twitch too. The ideas he presents are revolutionary and may even change your worldview. They have mine. They also touch on the spiritual. An image that sticks in my mind, although I don't remember the source, is of a huge old oak tree surrounded by layers of dead leaves. As we approach the time when we will be one of those dead leaves we may take comfort in the fact that we were instrumental in maintaining the life of the magnificent tree, if even for a short while and in a small way. Kauffman offers a scientific justification for such a view. A justification, I might add, that I find consistent with certain Buddhist notions. And, an apt justification for the book's title.
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