A fascinating vision of the world as a kaleidoscope of patterns on the smallest and largest scales.

The intricate dynamics of everything from chemical interactions to elementary schools have deep underlying unities, according to Rasmussen’s searching primer on systems theory.

The author, founder of the Maui Institute and author of Men Are Easy (2007), lays out basic concepts of systems theory and complexity theory from the last half-century and integrates them into a grand framework based on Lenard Troncale’s systems processes theory, uniting physical, biological, and cultural aspects of the world. Rasmussen covers ideas including self-organization, the process by which simple individual actions yield complex, emergent group behaviors (as when individual birds that instinctively follow a few rules on how to position themselves beside each other become exquisitely coordinated flocks); the structure of networks; chaotic systems like weather and financial markets, in which tiny changes in inputs can generate huge, unpredictable storms or sell-offs; nested fractal patterns visible in everything from lightning strikes to broccoli to bitcoin values; and the breakthrough process of “systems ontogenesis,” in which low-level complexity makes a quantum leap to higher-level complexity (as when an assortment of organic molecules assembles itself into a living cell, or farming villages organize themselves into a state). In later chapters, the author applies these notions to higher-order phenomena like consciousness—slime molds, she notes, can do impressive cognitive feats like navigating mazes. Rasmussen’s treatise unfolds in concise, well-organized chapters that contain a wealth of instructive photos and charts. She conveys sometimes abstruse scientific concepts in prose that’s admirably lucid, straightforward, and intuitively appealing. (“Self-organizing criticality is the point of catastrophic change to the system…The sandpile after an avalanche has flattened, and its parameters have changed. A pandemic spreads until enough people either die or are immune, and the pandemic ends. A spark leads to a forest fire, leaving ash and debris.”) The result is a fine introduction for lay readers to systems theory that reveals its fertile insights in many ingenious guises.

A fascinating vision of the world as a kaleidoscope of patterns on the smallest and largest scales.

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