Introduction: Emergence in History 1. The Storm in the Computer 2. Cellular Automata and Patterns of Flow 3. Artificial Chemistries and the Prebiotic Soup 4. Genetic Algorithms and the Prebiotic Soup 5. Genetic Algorithms and Ancient Organisms 6. Neural Nets and Insect Intelligence 7. Neural Nets and Mammalian Memory 8. Multiagents and Primate Strategies 9. Multiagents and Stone Age Economics 10. Multiagents and Primitive Language 11. Multiagents and Archaic States Appendix: Links to Assemblage Theory Index
In his new book, the internationally renowned Manuel DeLanda provides a remarkably clear philosophical overview of the rapidly growing field of computer simulations.
Manuel DeLanda is a distinguished writer, artist and philosopher. He began his career in experimental film, later becoming a computer artist and programmer. He is now Professor of Philosophy in the Department of Architecture at the University of Pennsylvania, USA.
The topic of this clearly written and well-documented text is the
philosophical concept of emergence... Imaginative defences of
philosophical realism are certainly to be applauded, and given the
critical role that mathematical modelling occupies in both
scientific and technical practices today, questioning computer
simulation is undoubtedly important. Philosophy and Simulation does
an interesting job of the former via the latter.
*Radical Philosophy*
There is much fascinating material to chew on.
*The Guardian*
The thirst for knowledge ... is competently soothed by Bloomsbury
with the volume Philosophy and Simulation: The Emergence of
Synthetic Reason, which provides useful material against the
celebration of ignorance.
*Il Sole 24 Ore (Bloomsbury Translation)*
The book offers fascinating material to read ... [and] introduces
numerous thought-stimulating ideas.
*Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Stimulation*
Recommended in The Guardian's 'Books of the Year 2011' article.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/nov/25/books-of-the-year?INTCMP=SRCH
Philosophy and Simulation is a book about affection - the capacity
to affect and be affected by others - an organon for a
non-reductive and emergent Theory of Everything, running from
inorganic matter to the dawn of civilisation. Moving elegantly
between science, history and computer simulation, the book is a
fascinating and enormously wide-ranging introduction to DeLanda's
singular world-view. - Andrew Pickering, Professor of Sociology and
Philosophy, Exeter University, UK
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