Laws of the Game: How the Principles of Nature Govern Chance

by Manfred Eigen, Ruthild Winkler, Robert Kimber (Translator), Rita Kimber (Translator)

Overview

Using game theory and examples of actual games people play, Nobel laureate Manfred Eigen and Ruthild Winkler show how the elements of chance and rules underlie all that happens in the universe, from genetic behavior through economic growth to the composition of music.


To illustrate their argument, the authors turn to classic games—backgammon, bridge, and chess—and relate them to physical, biological, and social applications of probability theory and number theory. Further, they have invented, and present here, more than a dozen playable games derived from scientific models for equilibrium, selection, growth, and even the composition of RNA.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780691025667
Publisher:	Princeton University Press
Publication date:	04/11/1993
Series:	Princeton Science Library , #10
Edition description:	REPRINT
Pages:	368
Sales rank:	1,135,537
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x (d)

About the Author

Manfred Eigen and Ruthild Winkler are scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry. In 1967 Eigen received the Nobel Prize for chemistry.

Table of Contents

Translators' Note

Acknowledgments

Foreword

Foreword to the English Edition

1 The Taming of Chance 1

1 The Origin of Play 3

2 Games People Play 6

3 Microcosm - Macrocosm 19

4 Statistical Bead Games 30

5 Darwin and Molecules 49

2 Games in Time and Space 67

6 Structure, Pattern, Shape 69

7 Symmetry 103

8 Metamorphoses of Order 131

3 The Limits of the Game - The Limits of Humanity 173

9 The Parable of the Physicists 175

10 Of Self-Reproducing Automata and Thinking Machines 178

11 "From One Make Ten..." 199

12 Limited Space and Resources 216

13 From Ecosystem to Industrial Society 236

4 In the Realm of Ideas 249

14 Popper's Three Worlds 251

15 From Symbol to Language 259

16 Memory and Complex Reality 283

17 The Art of Asking the Right Question 298

18 Playing with Beauty 306

List of References 331

Index 339

Editorial Reviews

"Fascinating . . . has the character of the deepest sort of discussion among brilliant friends."

The New Yorker

"Remarkable, fascinating, and very profound."

The New York Times Book Review

"Fascinating . . . has the character of the deepest sort of discussion among brilliant friends."

The New Yorker

"Remarkable, fascinating, and very profound."—The New York Times Book Review

From the Publisher