Chaotics - (Praeger Studies on the 21st Century) by Georges Anderla & Anthony Dunning & Simon Forge (Hardcover)

About the Book

The new discipline of chaotics will alter our thinking about the real forces of change in our society. As presented here, chaotics emphasizes that the real world cannot be understood in terms of conventional deterministic philosophies or standard chaos theory, but that complexity in itself has a powerful but subtle role to play. How does this apply to business and society? To what degree are our lives governed by misguided notions--or do our businesses succeed by chance--because real societal and business forces and their effects are not really understood? Beginning with the foundations of the discipline, this book applies chaotics to business and wealth creation and to society. On the social side, it examines a sea-change in the philosophy of everyday living, be it the concept of employment or our relationship to the environment. The book examines personal identity and its loss in modern society, as well as the search for new contacts and gratification through technology. The authors look at the stunted growth of philosophy against science but emphasize what philosophy has to tell us in a chaotic world. A major new text which will be of interest to professionals and scholars in business, government, and society.

Book Synopsis

The new discipline of chaotics will alter our thinking about the real forces of change in our society. As presented here, chaotics emphasizes that the real world cannot be understood in terms of conventional deterministic philosophies or standard chaos theory, but that complexity in itself has a powerful but subtle role to play. How does this apply to business and society? To what degree are our lives governed by misguided notions--or do our businesses succeed by chance--because real societal and business forces and their effects are not really understood? Beginning with the foundations of the discipline, this book applies chaotics to business and wealth creation and to society. On the social side, it examines a sea-change in the philosophy of everyday living, be it the concept of employment or our relationship to the environment. The book examines personal identity and its loss in modern society, as well as the search for new contacts and gratification through technology. The authors look at the stunted growth of philosophy against science but emphasize what philosophy has to tell us in a chaotic world. A major new text which will be of interest to professionals and scholars in business, government, and society.

Review Quotes

?Chaotics is another in an admirable series of efforts to transfer learning and concepts from branches of the physical sciences to the social sciences, including business and economics.?-Competitive Intelligence Review

?This unusual book describes and promotes a new theory of economics based on two principles: chaos theory and complexity of the modern world. In the authors' view, the new theory of chaotics is drawn from some rather diverse sources: pre-Roman sages, predecessors of Adam Smith, and non-classical economists.?-Choice

"Chaotics is another in an admirable series of efforts to transfer learning and concepts from branches of the physical sciences to the social sciences, including business and economics."-Competitive Intelligence Review

"This unusual book describes and promotes a new theory of economics based on two principles: chaos theory and complexity of the modern world. In the authors' view, the new theory of chaotics is drawn from some rather diverse sources: pre-Roman sages, predecessors of Adam Smith, and non-classical economists."-Choice

About the Author

GEORGES ANDERLA, an economist by training, was head of the EC Information Technology Directorate, where he set up Euronet, an early European academic forerunner of the Internet. He is the coauthor, with Anthony Dunning, of Computer Strategies, 1990-1999 (1987).

ANTHONY DUNNING is Information Resources Manager in the office of the Directorate-General for Telecommunications, Information Market and Innovation of the European Commission.

SIMON FORGE is a director of the Cambridge Strategic Management Group, a telecommunications and information technology consultancy, and is on the board of Futures.