Deep Simplicity is a popular science book about the theory of chaos. As always, John Gribbin presents the subject in a remarkably accessible way - the educated layperson will be able to tackle this book. However, it is not without drawbacks.


The book starts out with a concise history of mathematics relating to chaos. Gribbin begins with the Greeks and Galileo and moves onto Newton, and the issue of the three-body problem (where it is impossible to use Newton's laws of motion to generate analytical solutions to a situation in which there are three bodies of similar size affecting each other under gravity). He then talks about thermodynamics, and the concept of entropy and how this leads to an arrow of time. Gribbin also introduces an idea which he seems to be very fond of, that life is an example of using energy flow to reduce local entropy.

The next section introduces some of the mathematics behind chaos. Gribbin describes how the iterative approximation techniques used in finding solutions to can never be exactly accurate. The concept of phase space, where a single point completely describes a system using multiple dimensions, is used by Poincare to deal with the problem of the Solar System's stabilty. Gradually, Gribbin brings the reader to the realisation that some systems, such as the weather, while deterministic in principle, are very difficult to predict in practice because of the non-linearity of their progression. Simply, small changes in initial conditions can lead to vastly different outcomes. Indeed, the impossibility of knowing the precise positions or momenta of anything makes such precise prediction unachievable even in principle.

The idea of chaos as deterministic yet unpredictable order comes in the next section with the example of turbulence - a single parameter, the fluid speed, is changing, yet the flow changes from regular to turbulent to laminar. Additionally, the chaotic pattern appears to be fractally self-similar, like the Feigenbaum diagram describing species reproduction. Other fractals such as the Sierpinski gasket and the Cantor set are discussed, as well issues of fractal dimension. However, recognising that completely regular and completely random systems are uninteresting, Gribbin quickly ushers the reader onto the "edge of chaos, where complexity lives."

The rest of the book appears to be satisfying some of the author's own interests, however. He takes many aspects of living development, including abiogenesis, Gaia systems, predator-prey relationships and more and tries to recognise chaotic patterns in them all. He notes that any such system that incoporates feedback will generate chaotic behaviour, but often there seems to be little gained from understanding that the behaviour is chaotic - for example, the idea that Ice Ages are chaotic fluctuations in a punctuated equilibrium appears to be difficult to test!


Gribbin succeeds in conveying the history and principles of chaos in his first sections, as well as their relevance to many areas of science - especially the complexities of life. However, unlike some of his other books on quantum physics, among others, I feel like this topic is one that is best dealt with in greater detail than can be used in a popular science book. Gribbin uses examples well to illustrate the points, but without understanding derivations it is hard to avoid feeling like much of the book is assumed. Additionally, it is possible to see how the book has been structured in hindsight, but while reading I felt disorientated as he jumps from one area to another. Again, understanding more about the principles behind chaos would have remedied this somewhat. An interesting read, but not as engaging as I might have hoped. ( )

This book displays Gribbin's genius as a layperson's guide to scientific complexities. He leads the reader through chaos and complexity theory, evolution (not as simple as we tend to think). By the end of the book you feel he's tied everything together: the very big and the very small, the universe and the quantum. He even makes sense of James Lovelock's Gaia theory, not an easy thing to do. ( )

Bought many years ago and day on the shelf as I don't read many hardbacks. Finally got round to this though and glad I did. 4 stars as some parts are fairly dry and, even in their simple form, are helped out by a bit of a background in maths and other theory.

But there are some points in here which absolutely blew me away, and indeed changed my life. The emergence of order, of systems (planetary, life, intelligence etc) and its *inevitability* turned my world on its head.

So a must read if you're at all interested in systems and complexity, and a reminder I need to read more on this area. ( )

The second half is an OK review of recent work on chaos theory, particularly what happens on the edge of chaos.
The whole first half is a complex review of what the author believes are necessary building blocks needed to understand the second half.
While I think the second half is quite good, this book is not for you, unless you did well in college level math and physics. ( )

This book provides another overview of the development of Chaos Theory and the background to fractals. (See also Introducing Chaos and Introducing Fractal Geometry)
It’s slightly extended description compared to these titles allows the role of some additional contributors to the field to be mentioned, but largely it covers the same ground.

The scene set, the book then focuses on its chosen area of interest, the role of chaos in the development of life and its evolution. In particular it focuses on what it describes as activity at ‘the edge of chaos’, the point where things begin to get interesting - where outcomes are deterministic, but not predictable. It is in this apparent paradox that the fascination of chaos lies.

Though the answer to the question where did life come from still sits a little out of reach of this book and our understanding, the picture created provides an overwhelming case for the presence and importance of chaos not simply in the construction of our world through the shaping of trees or river estuaries for example, but also in the operation of our world. Here we are not simply interested in the ways that trees grow or river estuaries form, but throughout the whole range of processes of how things work from the orbiting of the planets, to the frequencies of electrical interference on telephone lines.

Indeed Beniot Mandelbrot, one of chaos theory’s pioneers, developed many of his ideas attempting to solve precisely this problem whilst employed at IBM, He concluded that interference was inevitable the solution was to detect corrupted data and resend.

Somewhat startlingly this same pattern of inevitability of unpredictable events can be seen throughout the operation of many of nature’s processes. For example the frequency and severity of earthquakes follows the same fractal pattern, as does the pattern of craters on the moon, and thereby on the Earth. This is leading geologists and seismologists to profoundly rethink their understanding.

When we begin to appreciate the universality of these ideas, we realise that they are no less profound for the rest of us. The neatly ordered way in which we perceive cause and effect and attempt to apply this to complex systems has to be rethought.

The book explores how the effects of chaos permeate all aspects of the life of the universe, even to explaining, with deference to Rudyard Kipling, how the leopard gets its spots.

The consequences of chaos create a new way of seeing and demand a new way of understanding. For me they begin to solve the riddle, felt intuitively, that at the heart of the explanation of all of the complexity we experience, is simplicity, or as the book is titled, deep simplicity.
As Einstein said “When the solution is simple, God is answering.”

How does this relate to organisational change? Our desire to see business as in some way special, requiring its own rules, its own language and behaviours is perhaps our defence against what we see as the overwhelming complexity of the business world. If however we really want to understand, we must first be prepared to change our understanding, and begin by changing what we believe understanding to be. This book provides a first step in this process. ( )