Thursday, February 12, 2004
I've finally got round to reading Emergence by Steven Johnson. It's unfeasibly popular with the web community, mostly because Mr Johnson has a blog, and talks a little about blogging. It has languished on my shelf for over a year. Two separate things prompted me to start reading it again.
Firstly my father swore that when he first moved to London, turkeys were still "herded" to market from Norfolk. Turkeys are notoriously poor walkers, and like humans suffer terribly from atherosclerosis and aortic aneurysms. The schooling of fish is obviously an "emergent" behaviour, engendered by a need to remain close together in the open seas, and a possibly unfounded "belief" in safety in numbers. Turkeys on the other hand are only vaguely sociable, and have no natural "schooling" behaviour. Sadly "Emergence" provides no insight into the difficulties of herding turkeys.
The second prompt was the imminent arrival of my bees. My brother and I are becoming apiarists this year. It has taken us the best part of two weeks to construct and paint the hive. It has been extremely enjoyable. The best part for me is the hanging of the wax foundation in the frames. The frames and foundation are very carefully spaced. Between frames is a gap just large enough for two bees to work back to back. This prevents the bees from building any extra comb, (from which you wouldn't be able to steal honey), and prevents the bees from glueing together your fancy carpentry. The prospect of actually filling the hive with our 50,000 new pets made me a little anxious. I had hoped Steven Johnson's book would guide us in understanding the collective "psyche" of the hive.
I've been disappointed on all counts by the book.
I know I'm not quite the average reader, since I boast a degree in experimental pysch, but it's much too simplistic. The only astounding insight is in seeing how to flatter the average reader's intelligence with scientific platitudes. Popular science books have to tread a fine line between readablilty and interesting analysis, but for me at least "Emergence" lacks depth. It skims too lightly across the subject headings of the more scholarly tome I'd like it to be.
Firstly my father swore that when he first moved to London, turkeys were still "herded" to market from Norfolk. Turkeys are notoriously poor walkers, and like humans suffer terribly from atherosclerosis and aortic aneurysms. The schooling of fish is obviously an "emergent" behaviour, engendered by a need to remain close together in the open seas, and a possibly unfounded "belief" in safety in numbers. Turkeys on the other hand are only vaguely sociable, and have no natural "schooling" behaviour. Sadly "Emergence" provides no insight into the difficulties of herding turkeys.
The second prompt was the imminent arrival of my bees. My brother and I are becoming apiarists this year. It has taken us the best part of two weeks to construct and paint the hive. It has been extremely enjoyable. The best part for me is the hanging of the wax foundation in the frames. The frames and foundation are very carefully spaced. Between frames is a gap just large enough for two bees to work back to back. This prevents the bees from building any extra comb, (from which you wouldn't be able to steal honey), and prevents the bees from glueing together your fancy carpentry. The prospect of actually filling the hive with our 50,000 new pets made me a little anxious. I had hoped Steven Johnson's book would guide us in understanding the collective "psyche" of the hive.
I've been disappointed on all counts by the book.
I know I'm not quite the average reader, since I boast a degree in experimental pysch, but it's much too simplistic. The only astounding insight is in seeing how to flatter the average reader's intelligence with scientific platitudes. Popular science books have to tread a fine line between readablilty and interesting analysis, but for me at least "Emergence" lacks depth. It skims too lightly across the subject headings of the more scholarly tome I'd like it to be.
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