Out of Control: The New Biology of Machines, Social Systems, and the Economic World Paperback – Apr 13 1995

Good points: very readable and thought provoking. Bad points: terrible use of sources and a shallow examination of the book's premises and implications.
Kelley interviewed and quoted scientists on fuzzy subjects outside their expertise, and then quoted marketing and PR folks about the scientists' work. It's as if he interviewed people until someone said what he wanted to hear, and then he used that quote regardless of the speaker's credentials.
Kelley suggests that we'd really like homes filled with "biological" appliances, but never explores the practical implications of having to house train a "biological" washing machine or teach your toaster what "done" means. Perhaps he has never dealt with pets or children. Kelley also loses sight of the difference between the real world and cyberspace: this may be a fashionable literary trick but it's not especially practical when one is cold or hungry. I did my disseration work in robotics and I found his expectations of biological machines to be shallow and downright silly

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The ideas in this book may be thought by some to be radical or far-fetched, but to those readers familiar with the behavior of complex dynamical systems, they seem quite natural. The book emphasizes the theoretical aspects of complex systems, but some natural examples of them are discussed. The author, in spite of his choice of title for the book, is not threatened by the consequences of artifically creating these systems. After all, we live and have evolved in a universe that is even more complex than the author describes. The fact that we humans can now speed up the process of creation of these systems should be a source of wonder instead of fear.
What makes this book valuable reading is that the author emphasizes the collective behavior of dynamical systems. Too often the reductionist trend in Western science obscures how the system works together, how its many parts collectively induce an emergent behavior not at all apparent in the systems "equations of motion".
Since the book is written for a popular audience, the approach is qualitative and allegorical. This purely descriptive approach does however allow a more general overview of complex dynamical systems im many different areas. The author gives a fascinating discussion of swarm systems and their advantages and disadvantages. One of the disadvantages according to the author is that they are "nonunderstandable"; but here he is mistaken, for complex systems can be understood, although such an understanding takes some effort anc computational horsepower. Also, in his discussion of network behavior the author asserts that it is "counterintuitive" and quotes "Braess's paradox" as proof of this. Dietrich Braess discovered that adding routes to an already congested network will slow it down. There are examples of this, but it is not a hard-and-fast rule, as network engineers who employ load balancing can attest to. Adding time-dependent paths can work to reduce congestion, this time-dependence not addressed in Braess's formulation of the paradox.
Some more interesting discussions in the book are allegorical, but they serve to encourage "thinking out of the box":1. The effects of isolation and boredom on the human mind: the need for the physical body to temper unruly constructions of the mind. 2. The chameleon riddle: what color will a chameleon take on if put in front of a mirror? 3.The Prisoner's dilemna. This has got to be the most widely used tool for encouraging cooperation, in spite of its simplicity and impracticality. Computer simulation of the Prisoner's dilemna with 1000 players has revealed phenomena familiar in evolutionary studies, such as parasitism, spontaneously emerging symbiosis, and long-term stable coexistence between species. 4. Physical systems as computational processes; this is the most radical of the ideas in the book, but the author does not expound upon it in any great detail though. 5. The Biosphere experiment; I only read brief news reports of this while it was going on, so it was interesting to read here a detailed account of it. 6. The need for industry to adopt "biological" methodologies: complexity is more efficient, less wasteful, and more robust. 7. Network economics: The "network company" of the 21st century will be distributed (no single location), decentralized, collaborative (outsourcing to competitors!), and adaptive. This chapter is the most practical of all those in the book. 8. The role of encryption in a digital economy, particularly "encryption-metering" and digital cash. 9. The importance of simulation in defense and industry in the 21st century: simulate before you build, simulate before you buy, and simulate before you fight. 10. The evolution machine and its resultant creation of sex; the consequent discussion of genetic/evolutionary programming. The differences between 'Lamarckian' and 'Darwinian" evolutionary programs. 11. Postdarwinism: why have no new species been detected naturally or even in computer simulations? The central thesis of Neodarwinism is that only the environment can select mutations, but not induce or direct them.
Since this book was published in 1994, there have been many advances in the areas that the author discusses. Evolutionary programming has taken off, with many applications in finance, biology, network engineering, and large-scale circuit design. Swarm robots are currently under development, with deployment just years away. Computational/intelligent agents are now managing networks, with autonomous agents just around the corner.Encryption and smart-card technologies have mushroomed along with intelligent computer virus detection. Simulation is now thought of as a "must-do" in every phase of business and industry, and simulations are now thought of as sophisticated enough to model real-world situations without any experimental "validation". Indeed, technological advancement and its application is moving forward at a dizzying rate, and seemingly...out of control?

This is an exceptional collection of scientific ideas and discoveries. This book was a fascinating read for me. I am not a scholar by any means and I admit that some of the information was above me, yet I can say that the information was presented in such a manner that intellectuals, as well as non intellectuals, would get kick out the plethora of information, as well as the various twist and turns the book takes.
It would be nice to have more of this sort of writing available. Kevin Kelly certainly has his own style. I happen to like his unique style of writing and layout. This book takes you on short little scientific journeys. You never quite know where you are going to end up next and I happen to like that.
This book will be enjoyed by readers who are into what is happening in the scientific community, and readers who like ideas about the future of scientific discovery. But, you could say, why not just pick up any of the latest scientific magazines or journals? Well, the information contained in "Out Of Control" follows a specific path. Even though we have scientific snippets, like in magazines, there is an overall theme, a pattern--the direction, our author believes, science will lead us. You also get a vast look at the variety that is science, technology, information and speculation. Why would you ever need to read science fiction with books like this in print regarding the astounding real world?
I would like to recommend this book to people who like science fiction. For me, non fiction is where it's at folks! You just have to be able to get your hands on books like this to know that fiction, ain't go nothin, on non fiction.

This book was groundbreaking in 1994; its insights have been improved upon by more recent writing on the same subjects. If you are interested in this topic, I recommend considering Steven Johnson's EMERGENCE before you buy this book; Johnson discussions some of Kelly's ideas, but offers are more up-to-date analysis of the phenomenon of non-hierarchical/centralized models of organization. Otherwise, this book is valuable for its historical positioning--how things seemed and were seen almost a decade ago.