Textbook Discounter: Computer: The Computational Beauty of Nature: Computer Explorations of Fractals, Chaos, Complex Systems, and Adaptation

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The Computational Beauty of Nature: Computer Explorations of Fractals, Chaos, Complex Systems, and Adaptation
	Author: Gary William Flake Publisher: The MIT Press Category: Book List Price: ~~$42.00~~ Buy New: $30.50 You Save: $11.50 (27%) New (25) Used (8) from $24.98 Rating: 15 reviews Sales Rank: 59019 Media: Paperback Pages: 514 Number Of Items: 1 Shipping Weight (lbs): 2.1 Dimensions (in): 8.8 x 7.8 x 1.2 ISBN: 0262561271 Dewey Decimal Number: 005 EAN: 9780262561273 ASIN: 0262561271 Publication Date: January 31, 2000 Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Shipping: International shipping available Condition: Brand new item. Over 4 million customers served. Order now. Selling online since 1995. Few left in stock - order soon. Code: M20081113105712T


Editorial Reviews: Product Description Honorable Mention, 1998, category of Computer Science, Professional/Scholarly Publishing Annual Awards Competition presented by the Association of American Publishers, Inc. In this book Gary William Flake develops in depth the simple idea that recurrent rules can produce rich and complicated behaviors. Distinguishing "agents" (e.g., molecules, cells, animals, and species) from their interactions (e.g., chemical reactions, immune system responses, sexual reproduction, and evolution), Flake argues that it is the computational properties of interactions that account for much of what we think of as "beautiful" and "interesting." From this basic thesis, Flake explores what he considers to be today's four most interesting computational topics: fractals, chaos, complex systems, and adaptation. Each of the book's parts can be read independently, enabling even the casual reader to understand and work with the basic equations and programs. Yet the parts are bound together by the theme of the computer as a laboratory and a metaphor for understanding the universe. The inspired reader will experiment further with the ideas presented to create fractal landscapes, chaotic systems, artificial life forms, genetic algorithms, and artificial neural networks.