Out of Control (Kelly book)

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Out of Control: The New Biology of Machines, Social Systems, and the Economic World
File:Out of Control (Kelly book).jpg
AuthorKevin Kelly
PublisherBasic Books
Publication date
1992
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Out of Control: The New Biology of Machines, Social Systems, and the Economic World (Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).) is a 1992 book by Kevin Kelly. Major themes in Out of Control are cybernetics, emergence, self-organization, complex systems, negentropy and chaos theory. The book can be seen as a work of techno-utopianism.[citation needed]

Summary

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The book's central theme is that several fields of contemporary science and philosophy point in the same direction: intelligence is not organized in a centralized structure but is much more like a beehive composed of small, simple components.[1] Kelly applies this view to bureaucratic organizations, intelligent computers, and the human brain.

Reception

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Although the book was not widely reviewed upon its initial release in 1992, it gained visibility, was reviewed, and was extensively cited in subsequent years.[2] Reviews often discussed Kelly's hive-mind analogy as a metaphor for the New Economy.[3]

Reviewers have called the book a "mind-expanding exploration" (Publishers Weekly)[4] and "the best of an important new genre" (Forbes ASAP).[citation needed]

Critics of the book have contended that its position precludes a critical approach to politics and social power.[5]

References

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Further reading

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