Browse Books

Reviewer: Allan Louis Lucke

Young futurists (and even we ancient Marshall McLuhan fans) should be highly interested, maybe even enthralled, by Kelly's work. It is a genuine contribution to the basic philosophy and underlying principles of our information age. Kelly's mix of anecdotes, personal experiences, and quotes from his mostly unconventional (or at least unconservative) friends and acquaintances, stirred briskly in with his philosophical musings and technology-based conclusions, cooks up a mentally tasty and engaging potpourri. Do not try to speed-read or quickly browse this tome, even though it is 24 chapters and 521 pages long. Could it be that the author has deliberately formatted and organized his creation in order to thwart skimmers and speed-readers__?__ Never mind—one complete serving of this book holds more than enough meat to chew on. This book is not about computers, per se; it is about the philosophy and metaphysics of modern science, where complex machines, including computers, and bioengineering, from genome tracing to creating altered life forms, hold sway. Starting with the first short chapter, Kelly treats all living things as part of nature's experiments. Moreover, he maintains that living things are actually complex machines built of organic molecular components. It follows, then, that man-made complex machines, such as computers, can be envisioned as living organisms. Consequently, the path of the future will feature the melding of the mechanical and the organic to produce composite biomechanical organisms. It is not until the second chapter that the author introduces the “swarm system” whose major characteristic of totally decentralized control gives the book its title. He contends that swarms of bees, flocks of birds, hills of ants, and similar living collections are self-organizing and generate their own decentralized internal control. I do not believe that the author has given sufficient credence to the possibility that these flocks or swarms simply exhibit rapidly changing leadership. Perhaps they simply pass off control faster than the leader of a flock of ducks changes or the goose at the front of the flying V relinquishes his or her place. Self-organizing systems and complexity theory are the latest rage, so no more need be said concerning these subjects. Another interesting idea, “coevolution,” puts new clothes on an old concept. The contention that a species may not be able to evolve without coincident evolution of symbiotic, parasitic, or otherwise dependent species is presented in new light. It has long been known that the creatures at the top of the food chain depend on intermediaries in the chain. Would you like to try to survive by eating plankton__?__ Not surprisingly, then, Kelly also supports the <__?__Pub Fmt nolinebreak>Lamarckian<__?__Pub Fmt /nolinebreak> evolution hypothesis, but he presents no compelling evidence that any organism's adaptation to its environment is herit<__?__Pub Fmt hyphen-point>able. Consequently, his application of Darwinian and Lamarckian theories to complex machines is interesting but not convincing. With no noticeable respect for infinity or fear of large numbers, Kelly dwells at length on the imaginary “library of Borges” that contains all possible books, presumably in all possible languages. He later refers to “Borgian space” in other large-number combinatoric situations. The implication is that this space is the ultimate in complexity, and somehow represents self-organization. One of the author's principal contentions is that humanity is an experiment of God and, in turn, our destiny is to play God—to generate more new “living creations,” be they organic, mechanical, or both. The next logical step, where those creations then produce their own experimental beings, and so on, is only vaguely hinted at. Finally, in his last chapter, Kelly enumerates his “nine laws of God.” It would be interesting to debate these. Somehow, I doubt they are as immutable as the ten advocated by Moses. This treatise is totally devoid of illustrations. The small intertwining circular icons used to break up the monotony of straight text do not do the job. Only the author's graceful writing style saves the book from monotony. A second annoying item is the misuse of the articles “a” and “an.” <__?__Pub Caret>This is generally an unfortunate result of too much dependence on an electronic thesaurus, used even after careful editing by outside parties. A final criticism may not be shared by others, but I felt that Kelly is trying to view and explain his major themes from so many angles and at such length that the overall result feels labored despite the easy flow of sentences and natural structure of his paragraphs. The list of individuals in the acknowledgments is impressive. The bibliography is extensive and appropriate. The index appears to be complete. If you want to be challenged to think a bit more, be enlightened a bit more, and even be educated a bit more, spend $16 for this book. Then plan on about 60 sessions, each an hour long, of pleasant lectures by Kelly.