I've been reading Philip Ball's award-winning book, Critical Mass. The premise seems preposterous at first: defining a "physics of society" in which science can create predictions of large-scale human behavior. His most redeeming quality so far is that he hasn't made any grand presumptions. He is msotly describing how small perterbations in a complex and seemingly random system can result in certain types of order. So far, so good. It's similar to the ideas so ably described by James Gleick in Chaos and by Mitch Waldrop in Complexity. In sum: the world is made up of many tiny parts and we don't fully understand how they interact.
It's a good read and it made me realize that I tend to choose these books on a similar theme without be aware of it. I picked up Critical Mass because I read about the award it won on the New Scientist website and figured that it can't be all bad if it won an award. It seems from this New Scientist article that I'm not the only one to sense trend in popular science writing. Maybe I need to branch out with my reading. Suggestions?
I'm looking for something that teaches me a new skill or informs me about a perspective/culture/viewpoint/ideology that I know little about. No worthless new-agey chakra energy crap please. Meditating isn't going to solve anyone's hunger problem. Eating organic food isn't going to cause peace in the Middle East. I'll read about eastern philosophy, but if you recommend something that has the phrase "positive energy" anywhere in it's pages I will be the opposite of happy.
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