Mark Buchanan
1 It dazzles my mind to comprehend an intangible.
I remember a science fiction movie where `something invisible' moved about like a bull in a china shop. A trap was set. `The invisible' entered the area, the switch thrown and an electric field revealed the outline of an enormous beast. It towered over everyone and everything. Mark Buchanan's masterpiece electrified my view of the world with inviting, non-technical prose that illuminated a beast, so-to-speak. An all-pervasive, `something' called network theory that "appears in the architecture of everything". Buchanan artfully weaves a variety of network examples in the fields of psychology, neurology, biology, ecology, economics, sociology, technology, viruses, the AIDS epidemic, air traffic, food chains, job hunting, sex partners, mathematics, evolution, information highways, regular highways and even the English language, to spotlight `something' intangible.
From the DVD, "Ramtha's Address at Seattle Center November 12, 2004 A Message of Joy and Hope". My mind paused when Ramtha stated, "Here's an idea of what the mind of God is like. It is every entity that has ever lived, not only here but in all of creation, way out into the crab nebulae. It is every entity that has ever lived in your past, it is every entity that lives now and indeed every entity that will hope to live. And every one that was, is a mind. And the collective network of all of that is called the mind of God."
The dazzle comes, not only from the many examples of networks, it comes from Buchanan expressing how a network breathes, how it grows, how it shrinks, when it is powerful and effective and when it is not. The great pianist, Vladimir Horowitz, asked an interviewer, "Have you ever heard a piano sigh?" One chord was struck and a great sigh filled my mind.
Buchanan's book on network theory, Ramtha's concepts of mind, Horowitz's skill, ... brilliant.
2 Excellent account of a difficult subject
Nexus is a truly remarkable book. It is a popular science attempt to present and explain one of the most remarkable scientific discoveries of the last century. And it deliveres what it promises. It manages to keep the delicate balance between intuitive understanding and rigorous analysis; a balance that most popular science books I have read fail to keep. Thus it offers both an intruiging and stimulating read as well as a truly convincing and enlightening scientific argument (beat that you postmodern pseudoscientists!) At the same time the book manages to infuse the reader with a sense of optimism about the future of science and humankind; an important accomplishment given the many attacks that science has received lately by many pessimistic and nihilistic postmodernists. This fact also makes the book the more enjoyable; few people really want to read pessimistic monologues. In conclusion: everybody with an interest in social or physical networks should read it. This is a theory of tremendous explanatory power. A prime nobel prize candidate.
3 Good primer on network theory
I don't usually enjoy popular science books, but this one is an exception. Buchanan's main advantage over other books on network theory is that he combines the findings of Watts & Strogatz, Barabasi and Gladwell and produces a very well written account that serves as a comprehensive introduction to this field. It doesn't get five stars from me only because of several unwarranted references (e.g. to Plato or to Stalin's purges) which do not belong in the book. Readers without math, do not fear. If you want more network math, read Watts' "Small Worlds".
Network theory is fascinating, but I think that its effectiveness will depend on the observational possibilities in different fields (as Buchanan explains, it is a lot more doable to map the internet than e.g. ecological food chains). On the other hand, it seems reasonable to extrapolate the existence of scale-free networks (I am not sure about the egalitarian kind) to almost any complex system, and this is enough to give this theory a lot of attention at this time.
4 Good introduction to a broad subject
The author makes a strong case that many diverse phenomena can be modelled in very similar ways. This book can be summarized as a very brief introduction to network models, followed by numerous examples from the real world.
The level of mathematical sophistication needed to comprehend the matterial is minimal. I do not believe there are any equations in the entire book. There are many easily understood graphs and a few percentages.
The basic concept of the networks is very easy to explain and to understand. The applications are the interesting part. Thoughout the pages are clear and interesting examples that make you want to turn the page to see what is coming next. In my case I often found myself thinking how I would have approached the problem and more importantly what problems could this have been applied to. Any book that can do that is a good one in my book!
Like many good books, this one leaves more questions unanswered than it answers. The subject area is a generic one that allows it's self to be applied in many many different fields. The question becomes not is this model of the world valid but rather how can it be applied.
This was a quick read, certain to change my views on how the world works.
5 It's a small world after all.
I just finished reading Nexus right after I finished Steven Johnson's book, Emergence. Both are great, quick reads. The ideas are fascinating and build upon chaos theory that James Gleick gives a history of in Chaos, which is the last book I read that addressed topics such as complexity. It's a great thrill to receive journalistic reports on what has happened in the small-worlds theory and gaining a cursory understanding of its current and future applications. I also just started reading Harold Morowitz's The Emergence of Everything, which is interesting in its subject matter while the writing is much more austere than in Emergence and Nexus. I look forward to reading everything I can on the small-worlds, complexity theory-type popular science books.
6 Networks of sex partners and the Net-Are they really related
The surprising answer is yes. I picked this book up after reading Steven Strogatz's Sync which mentions a great deal about the science of networks. Buchanan explains how networks exist everywhere - the net, the web, the power grid, our circle of friends, our sex partners - and that they are in fact very similar to one another.
The phrase "six degrees of separation" comes from the fact that two randomly chosen people, A and B, will on average be connected by six social links. A knows C who knows D who knows E who knows F who knows G who finally knows B. Considering the world has over 6 billion people, an average separation of 6 seems unbelievable small, but the explanation of this incredible phenomenon lies in the makeup of our social network. Our close friends know each other but our cluster of friends has weak ties to other clusters through acquaintances, people we really don't know that well - that's why when one is looking for a job, it's better to tell an acquaintance rather than a friend so that our inquiry can jump to other clusters. Our social network is essentially highly clustered but enough links exist between these clusters to allow us to jump from ourselves to any other person through just an average of six links. Buchanan shows us how this kind of network exists everywhere as mentioned above although he distinguishes between egalitarian networks where clusters are roughly the same size and aristocratic networks such as the WWW where gigantic hubs like Amazon.com exist that link to millions of websites.
One of the most interesting chapters in the book deals with sexual networks. It turns out that in the network of sex partners, certain people have a great many more links than the average person in the network. Buchanan explains how the structure of the sexual network actually accounts for the rapid spread of HIV. The virus spread quickly because the hubs in the network spread it to their numerous partners. In fact, it turns out that a significant percentage of the inital HIV cases had a sexual relationship with one particular flight attendant.
As I wrote in my review for Strogatz's Sync, we are entering an era of science where disparate fields of study are being linked because many phenomena that we used to regard as unrelated now appear to have very similar underlying bases. It is exciting to read books like Nexus because it illustrates this point. You should definitely read this book if your are interested in the science of networks and want to know how so many different phenomena are being explained by the same underlying principles.
7 Complete and good to read.
In this book, Buchanan introduces to the non-expert audience one of the most recent and stimulating theories in the study of complexity: the theory of networks. The author does so by using a clear and fresh prose, deprived of specialistic mathematical terms. He will guide the reader through this theory and its many practical applications, being they in economy, epidemiology or ecology. The book is not exactly linear, somewhat jumping from one example to another and a few digressions are almost confusing. It is rich in information and very good references, although a couple of imprecisions about Euclid and Pythagoras had me frowning. However, being not too long, this book manages to get the reader to understand the points made and never ceased to surprise and interest me.
I recommend this book to the non-mathematician interested in complexity and theory of networks. The book will be an ideal starting point for further reading.
8 Great Book! The amazing new science of networks made easy.
Buchanan makes the complex seem easy for the layman. The work of Watts and Strogats in discovering the mathematical proof of the the six degrees of separation concept is presented in an eminently readable and exciting way.
This proof, and Buchanan's description of it, is powerful evidence of the value of networking for the majority of us who don't like it or feel it is a waste of time. I recommend Nexus to my audiences in every Power of Positive Networking Seminar I deliver; people who have read it from my classes are truly dazzled. Darcy Rezac: author, The Frog and Prince.
9 HIDDEN DESIGNS
Buchanan points out the hidden networks that tie together both the physical world and the world of consciousness, showing that amongst other things the Internet, electrical grids, the brain and the global economy are all systems with an underlying pattern that shares nature's design.
Physics, biology and other sciences have uncovered a multitude of unexpected connections between the operation of the human world and the functioning of other seemingly unrelated things. Many networks that seemed to be random are turning out to have a hidden order as revealed by the discipline of Complexity Theory.
The most interesting sections are those on the Internet, on the spread of AIDS and on economic systems. The author's conclusion is that many aspects of the world are indeed simpler than they appear on the surface and that there is a hidden and powerful design that binds everything together.
This fascinating book confirms many of the findings that I have encountered in other titles like Beyond Chaos by Mark Ward and Hidden Connections by Fritjof Capra. It concludes with a set of explanatory notes and a thorough index. Small World is a stimulating and thought provoking work.
10 makes you think a little differently
After reading this book, you starting these "small worlds" everywhere in different parts of your daily lives. It's an eye-opener to an emerging field that we will all see a lot more of in the near future.
11 Discomfiture, anger, displeasure
This book is quite an unassuming work, full of redundant repetitions, inadequate citations, examples nothing to do with the subject-matter, incoherent and obscure trains of thought and a lot of uninformative bla-blas and small-talks. Moreover, the text does not construe, not edited properly and literally worthless. A total bust, which can not be salvaged by the freshness and excitement of its issue.
12 Intriguing examples
Buchanan really does as promised by the jacket - discusses networks and their similarities in areas such as social, neural, financial, disease, and information. He focuses mainly on the "small-world" principal that we're all familiar with, (i.e. the Kevin Bacon game) and shows how other successful network type application use the same model, from worm neurons to taxes.
The book is extremely non-technical, and you don't need any prerequisite learning to enjoy it.
13 Elegant, interesting, informative and pleasing to read
Nexus is an excellent introduction to a new science. The author demonstrates how a mathematical network is able to wonderfully model a diverse array of real life systems. From the spread of a disease, the distribution of wealth in a society, or even 'six degrees of seperation' that keeps every human beign connected to each other by no more than six other humans, Buchanan is able to tie it all together. The book could have used a few more pointers to advanced topics but overall an excellent introduction to a new science.
14 A good introduction to an extremely important subject
Networks have become a very hot topic, as shown by the spate of recent books on the subject. Nexus, Mark Buchanan's recent work on "small worlds and the groundbreaking science of networks" is one of the more readable and less sensational takes on the theme.
Buchanan, a physicist, science writer and editor at Nature and New Scientist, has the credentials to know what he is writing about and the ability to present it coherently. He starts with the now famous "small world" or "six degrees of separation" observation, first made in the 1960s and since studied and demonstrated in a variety of important, real-world networks. Buchanan's thesis is that physicists and mathematicians are discovering some remarkably simple laws that describe a huge number of complex systems, quite independently of the elements that make up the system. For example, The linkages that connect everyone in the world with just six steps can be treated the same way as the linkages that connect neurons in our brains or web pages on the internet. "Some of the deepest truths of our world may turn out to be truths about organization," Buchanan writes, "rather than about what kinds of things make up the world and how these things behave as individuals."
Building on this theme, Buchanan systematically explores areas such as the spread of infections diseases, key social and governmental systems, brain organization, protein-based control networks within our cells, and even networks of sexual partners. Similar features, especially the "power-law" distribution, characterize all these systems. Whether the issue is the number of sexual partners, the number of chemical reactions, or the number of connected neurons, a few key elements account for a large percentage of the connections within each system. Buchanan shows how this grows out of a simple common dynamic characterized by the age-old observation that the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.
Buchanan then goes on to trace some important implications of these emerging findings. These include the vulnerability of ecosystems to sudden collaps when a few key plants or animals are lost, the explosive transformation of a slumbering pathogen into a deadly epidemic, as seen in AIDS, and--economists and would-be-reformers take notice--the distribution of wealth. Buchanan shows that, although the exact percentages vary from country to country, the shape of the wealth-distribution curve is the same. And he demonstrates that this distribution can be shown to stem from a few extremely simple assumptions. I was struck by Buchanan's observation that economic polices that foster business and trade, including regressive taxation as a kind of enforced exchange, produce a flatter, more democratic distribution of wealth. On the contrary, an environment that fosters speculation inevitably transfers wealth from the poor to the rich. It turns out that the more volatile the investment markets, the more extreme the transfer. This certainly seems to match what the U.S. experienced during the savings-and-loan bust and the recent dot-com debacle. More people riding around in limos, for sure, but far more people trying to eke out a living flipping burgers. I'd sure like to see our economists and lawmakers pay attention to that finding.
In short, this is a clear, readable and fascinating introduction to the emerging science of networks. Since we are made of networks, and live embedded in them, it's hard to imagine a more relevant subject. Nexus certainly doesn't supply the last word on this complex subject, but it's a rewarding place to start.
Robert Adler, author of Science Firsts: From the Creation of Science to the Science of Creation (Wiley & Sons, September, 2002).
15 journalism
in recent years the Scientific American, once a forum for brilliant scientists to share their excitement, sagged into journalism, with smooth writing that cannot quite conceal the pablum. Buchanan here does a decent job, if a partial one, in the latter genre: his explanations dont quite make it the whole way, lack the sheer intellectual brightness of the people in the field. The book is curious for some omissions, mostly of work associated with the Santa Fe Institute. It is true that some of their expository work has been so-so, but one wonders whether Buchanan is avoiding them or their better journalistic chroniclers (Wardrup, Levin, Johnson), all of whose work is far more thought-provoking than this.
Complexity theory is tolerably established (and networks a topic of great excitement from Waddington to Kaffuman (Buchanan mentions neither). In the social sphere exciting classic work has been extended, and desreves a 'harder' account (Skyrms' book is a good introduction). This would have been a much more useful book a few years ago.
16 Six Degrees of seperation.
Actually, I bought this book with the intention of reading about genetics algorithms although I was pleasantly surprised with the out come of the book.
The book is about how our large world is small and what seems chaotic is actually an organized small network.
The author starts with how networks in nature relate to networks in technology. A very strong case for "6 degrees of separation" for our society and "19 degrees of (link) separation" for the Internet. The rest of the book explains with historical examples how scientists were able to prove the networking concepts through human decision and thought process.
I gave this book 4 star because I did not think that the conclusion had the continuity of the other chapters. I would recommend this book to all individuals who would be interested in reading and understanding the connections and influences of nature in our "connected" world.
Have fun understanding that you closer then you think to the person next door.
17 Complexity Made Clear
From Gleick's "Chaos" on I've read lots of books in this area as one who teaches in the area of religion and science. But this book stands out above most books in the field because of the way Buchanan writes. He makes the complex clear without simplifying through his use of language, his syntax, and his examples.
It reads a little like a "thriller" because you are drawn on to see how it all comes out. I have recommended it to people who ordinarily are not up to reading in this area, and I have recommended it to specialists as well. It is a great read and a stretching learning experience.
18 clear thinking, new ideas
This book is a *great* follow-on to Buchanan's earlier book Ubiquity. The book traces research over the past 4 or 5 years into the "architecture" of complex networks. Networks of friendship hold communities together, much as the Internet links computers all over the world and neurons link together the different parts of the human brain. Species link together into ecosystems, web pages to make the WWW, you name it. Most everything can be viewed as a complex network.
Amazingly, all these networks turn out to have much the same architecture. The author traces the development of this discovery and shows where it is going, and, more importantly, how this way of thinking might be practically useful, whether for helping the efficiency of a company or stopping global terrorist networks.
Some people think "complexity" is going nowhere. But this is "complexity science" at its best and a great read.
19 Terrific book, Fascinating ideas
In Nexus, Buchanan describes the behavior of complex network systems - things like the internet, the nervous system, and human social networks. But what is so intriguing is how he reveals how entirely different kinds of constituent phenomena can naturally develop into systems and networks that evidence very similar kinds of organization. That is, there seems to be a kind of essential architecture that naturally guides the evolution and growth of such structures. Nexus provides the reader with an understanding of the characteristics of this architecture and how it can explicate what would otherwise be considered bizarre and extraordinary events. By understanding the fundamental architecture of these systems, scientists are looking at how to apply it to real world problems- like how to stabilize ecosystems, or protect the internet from attack. The book is engaging, well-written, and informative. The ideas of Nexus will give readers an appreciation of "the big picture", and tip them off to the comparatively simple and elegant rules that guide vast systems and produce seemingly chaotic events.
In short, Nexus succeeds on all counts.
20 Terrific snapshot of a hot new field!
I wasn't sure I would like this book when my brother bought it for me -- but I did! It covers a truly wide range of material. Extremely impressive. Amazingly, as the book shows, strong mathematical links seem to connect the workings of biological cells with the Internet, social networks and many other complex networks, even neural networks and the human brain. The writing is extremely clear and there is little chance of misunderstanding. This is one of those areas of "hyped" research that really lives up to the hype.
From a personal point of view, I especially enjoyed the final chapters on economics and social capital. Something really seems to be emerging here -- a deep link between social patterns and natural patterns in the physical world
21 good account of a connected world
two books on almost the same subject, Nexus and Barabasi's "Linked" both gave a very readable, rich in content
and ideas account of the nascent science of "connected world".
Despite huge difference judged by Amazon popularity contest, Nexus is not lesser to Linked. Mark Buchanan is albeit not a professional, but has a solid grasp on all the areas he covers.
He had a PhD in physics, then went on to become a science editor and writer. This is not necessarily a handicap, he writes with about equal distance to all the areas, therefore gives a more balanced view. I especially liked his telling of the "strength of weak links"; social capital parts.
In short, readers would benefit reading both to have a comprehensive view. As a matter of fact the stories herein should make a reader think, pose more questions. Keep tuned, I heard that more scientists are writting now for general readers in this related field and I hope the good examples set by Barabasi and Buchanan are just beginning of the healthy new trend.
22 great book!
This book is well worth reading. It gives an exciting, non-technical and highly readable account of fascinating recent discoveries in complexity science, this time on the topic of networks, ranging from the human brain to the world's ecosystems. Also explains the famous "small world" effect in the process. One of the best recent books in popular science. Absolutely recommended!
23 Good, but falls short of Chaos and Complexity
This is one of the first books on the groundbreaking discoveries about Small Worlds networks. Author does a great job of introducing the main concepts and succeeds in discussing variety of applications and findings. Topics covered range from graph theory to internet, economy, ecology and power networks.
Small Worlds networks are about simplicity and unity, however, the book itself is not unified. The chapters look more like articles, there is little connection between them. Also, the book does not project the sense of excitement and profoundness that made Chaos and Complexity so popular and interesting.
Despite the shortcomings I would recommend it as an introductoring reading on Small Worlds.
