Turtles, Termites, and Traffic Jams: Explorations in Massively Parallel Microworlds (Complex Adaptive Systems) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I picked up this book while browsing the Computer Science section. The first line on the back cover drew me in: "How does a bird flock keep its movements so graceful and synchronized?" Unfortunately, this question (and others similar) was never really answered in the book. Rather than an intellectual or philosophical discussion of how organized behaviors develop from non-centrally-controlled systems in real life, the book seems to focus on why it happens in simplified computer simulations. The book is really about looking at organized behaviors from a decentralized perspective - using computer simulations to aid in this perspective. (Termite mounds, for example, aren't created by a "seed or lead" termite, they're in fact created by the behaviors common to individual termites, and the interaction of those termites with the environment, as is demonstrated in a simplified computer simulation.)
The book focuses a great deal on workings of the StarLogo programming language, which is not included but is downloadable (more on this later). The programming language allows users to simulate massively parallel systems. The book includes many code samples, programming notes and descriptions of how the simulations progress at run time. Discussions of resulting organized behaviors lie almost completely within the scope of the software simulations, but are very interesting nonetheless (although it will likely leave you wanting more). After only the first simulation (regarding slime mold), I found myself at the computer to download the software. Which brings me to my next point...
You won't find the software at the location specified by the book. It appears that the original StarLogo language was written for the Mac, and was renamed MacStarLogo. (Substitute "macstarlogo" for "~starlogo" in the URL to find the software.) When you get to the Download page, you'll be able to download the software for PC and UNIX as well as for Mac. The PC version (and version 1.1 for Mac, I assume) seems to use a newer or upgraded set of commands, so you'll have some difficulty getting the code in the book to run. The new Java-based interface, though, is very cool - it allows you to place buttons, sliders and other tools to control the simulation and dynamically interact with the program in real time. Excellent for exploring these microworlds!!!
The book also discusses a lot about the author's interactions with children while developing StarLogo programs. I found these discussions very interesting, but they seemed to focus on how we like to perceive organized behaviors as centrally controlled (versus individually controlled). As a result, much of the book was about why a non-centralized perspective is important rather than how organization is actually formed from non-centralized communities.
Overall it is a very interesting and well-organized book. Only three stars because (1) it wasn't what I expected - perhaps the subtitle would have been more descriptive as "analyzing simple computer simulations where organized behavior results from systems with no centralized control," but I guess that would have been too wordy. And, (2) the software was not easy to find, and it was not fully compatible with the code in the book. (A version of the software compatible with the code in the book shoud be made available - even if it's since been upgraded.) And finally, (3) the book seems to be rushed toward the end. (The last chapter, for example, where the author "looks ahead" is only two pages long.)
Overall, it's a great book, and it inspires a lot of thinking, but it left me wanting a bit more...

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Product Description:
"Mitchel Resnick's book is one of the very few in the field of computingwith an interdisciplinary discourse that can reach beyond the technicalcommunity to philsoophers, psychologists, and historians andsociologists of science." -- Sherry Turkle, Professor, Program inScience, Technology, and Society, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
"Resnick's work provides a rare glimpse of what I am sure will become anew paradigm for research in education." -- Seymour Papert
How does a bird flock keep its movements so graceful and synchronized?Most people assume that the bird in front leads and the others follow.In fact, bird flocks don't have leaders: they are organized without anorganizer, coordinated without a coordinator. And a surprising number ofother systems, from termite colonies to traffic jams to economicsystems, work the same decentralized way. Turtles, Termites, andTraffic Jams describes innovative new computational tools that canqhelp people (even young children) explore the workings of suchsystems--and help them move beyond the centralized mindset.
For a copy of the StarLogo software described in this book, pleasevisit the StarLogo website.

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