Knowledge Matters™

About a month ago I read “Critical Mass: How One Thing Leads to Another” by Doctor Philip Ball , who is a physicist by education and a science writer for Nature . I read it because of my interest in networks and complexity, and this book promised some insights. It was an entertaining read, but was hard going in a lot of places. Despite this the book was well written and flowed naturally.

I did enjoy the first chapter on Thomas Hobbes "Leviathan", probably because I like philosophy! The point of the chapter was that mankind has been trying to discover universal laws of society since at least 1651, and continues to do so. In subsequent chapters at times I was disappointed and found myself saying “So what!” or “Where is the evidence?” – cause and effect where not always clear to me.

What did interest me was the convergence of the hard sciences with the soft arts. By this I mean Ball takes proven examples from physics and applies them to social phenomenon. Sometimes this worked and sometimes it didn’t, but nonetheless is evidence of a growing convergence – see for example my review titled “Pink Noise, Immune Systems, and Knowledge Management ”. This convergence is most evident to me when small worlds and networks are examined.

I always find discussions on phase transitions interesting, particularly when applied to complex human systems, although I must say I am not completely convinced. I am also cautious in applying laws of physics to human behaviour. Particles don’t have conscious behaviours – human’s do! In fairness Ball does caution against blindly taking scientific laws and applying them to situations like crowd behaviour.

All in all it was an entertaining and thought provoking read, providing one approaches the subject matter with an open and sceptical mind. In this case critical thinking skills matter!

Regards, Graham