Critical Mass
by Philip Ball · first published 2004
6mentions
5recommended by
6HN commenters
2009–2024first – last mentioned
83% recommend17% neutral
Affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
In "Critical Mass" by Philip Ball chapter 7 covers "The inexorable dynamics of traffic" which is highly worth a read if this subject matter interests you. There's also some very interesting sections on crowd dynamics and…
on “First rule of ant traffic: no overtaking” ↗…When you have a bulk of interacting particles, it tends to remove the "personality" of the individual, leaving you with how the group as a whole will move. Philip Ball's (former editor of Nature) book Critical Mass[2] is an excellent read about the interesting effects that happen when you look at large number of complex interacting actors. He discusses the effects in traffic, pedestrian models, finance, plant growth…
on “How can one manage thousands of IF…THEN…ELSE rules?” ↗…selling out, or any other psychological explanation. The very act of choosing, spread widely enough and freely enough, creates a power law distribution." For a much bigger look at similar effects, see Critical Mass by Philip Ball https://www.amazon.co.uk/Critical-Mass-Thing-Leads-Another/d...
on “Berners-Lee: WWW is spy net” ↗Critical Mass by Philip Ball has some nice bits on traffic. http://www.philipball.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&vie...
on “Washington, Minnesota officially endorse a “safer, faster” traffic merge” ↗The author of the article, Philip Ball, wrote an excellent book on order almost 20 years ago: Critical Mass https://philipball.co.uk/critical-mass-how-one-thing-leads-t... He also wrote many other interesting books but "Critical Mass" really reviews a lot concerning emerging phenomena in complex systems from…
on “The Puzzle of How Large-Scale Order Emerges in Complex Systems” ↗You can practice economics as a science. For example, the book "Critical Mass" by Philip Ball ( http://www.philipball.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&vie... ) includes a fair amount of economics from a thermodynamics perspective. However most of economics is not approached in…
on “Is Economics a Science?” ↗