
Notes on Complexity
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Narrated by:
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Kaleo Griffith
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By:
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Neil Theise
About this listen
An electrifying introduction to complexity theory, the science of how complex systems behave, that explains the interconnectedness of all things and that Deepak Chopra says, “will change the way you understand yourself and the universe.
Nothing in the universe is more complex than life. Throughout the skies, in oceans, and across lands, life is endlessly on the move. In its myriad forms—from cells to human beings, social structures, and ecosystems—life is open-ended, evolving, unpredictable, yet adaptive and self-sustaining. Complexity theory addresses the mysteries that animate science, philosophy, and metaphysics: how this teeming array of existence, from the infinitesimal to the infinite, is in fact a seamless living whole and what our place, as conscious beings, is within it. Physician, scientist, and philosopher Neil Theise makes accessible this “theory of being,” one of the pillars of modern science, and its holistic view of human existence. He notes the surprising underlying connections within a universe that is itself one vast complex system—between ant colonies and the growth of forests, cancer and economic bubbles, murmurations of starlings and crowds walking down the street.
The implications of complexity theory are profound, providing insight into everything from the permeable boundaries of our bodies to the nature of consciousness. Notes on Complexity is an invitation to trade our limited, individualistic view for the expansive perspective of a universe that is dynamic, cohesive, and alive—a whole greater than the sum of its parts. Theise takes us to the exhilarating frontiers of human knowledge and in the process restores wonder and meaning to our experience of the everyday.
PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.
©2023 Neil Theise (P)2023 Spiegel & Grau by Spotify AudiobooksListeners also enjoyed...
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Critic reviews
“Mind-blowing . . . [There is] a very small amount of people we’ve interviewed who seem to be able to see the entire world in all of its complexity, in one view . . . . Neil might have his arms around perhaps as much of the big picture as one can get their arms around.”—Dax Shepard, Armchair Expert Podcast
“Lucid and accessible . . . This slender work offers a compelling retreat into the exhilarating and oddly reassuring world of complexity.”—Washington Post
“This is an extraordinary book that will change the way you understand yourself and the universe. It will empower you. We should all be indebted to Neil Theise for this monumental contribution to the science behind all reality.”—Deepak Chopra
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Best AudioBook on Math/Physics yet
- By Ryanman on 03-02-11
By: James Gleick
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The Great Ideas of Philosophy, 2nd Edition
- By: Daniel N. Robinson, The Great Courses
- Narrated by: Daniel N. Robinson
- Length: 30 hrs and 11 mins
- Original Recording
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Grasp the important ideas that have served as the backbone of philosophy across the ages with this extraordinary 60-lecture series. This is your opportunity to explore the enormous range of philosophical perspectives and ponder the most important and enduring of human questions-without spending your life poring over dense philosophical texts.
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A Hard Review to Write
- By Ark1836 on 11-20-15
By: Daniel N. Robinson, and others
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What Is Life?
- With Mind and Matter and Autobiographical Sketches
- By: Erwin Schrödinger, Roger Penrose - foreword
- Narrated by: Bob Souer
- Length: 6 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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Nobel laureate Erwin Schrödinger's What is Life? is one of the great science classics of the 20th century. A distinguished physicist's exploration of the question which lies at the heart of biology, it was written for the layman but proved one of the spurs to the birth of molecular biology and the subsequent discovery of the structure of DNA. It appears here together with "Mind and Matter", his essay investigating a relationship which has eluded and puzzled philosophers since the earliest times.
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An extraordinary look at life by a Physicist
- By Philomath on 01-25-19
By: Erwin Schrödinger, and others
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In the Buddha's Words
- An Anthology of Discourses from the Pali Canon
- By: Bhikkhu Bodhi - editor and translator
- Narrated by: Fajer Al-Kaisi
- Length: 18 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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This landmark collection is the definitive introduction to the Buddha's teachings - in his own words. The American scholar-monk Bhikkhu Bodhi, whose voluminous translations have won widespread acclaim, here presents selected discourses of the Buddha from the Pali Canon, the earliest record of what the Buddha taught. Divided into 10 thematic chapters, In the Buddha's Words reveals the full scope of the Buddha's discourses, from family life and marriage to renunciation and the path of insight.
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Poor pronunciation
- By Amazon Customer on 08-27-17
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Proto
- How One Ancient Language Went Global
- By: Laura Spinney
- Narrated by: Emma Spurgin-Hussey
- Length: 9 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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Daughter. Duhitár-. Dustr. Dukte. Listen to these English, Sanskrit, Armenian and Lithuanian words, all meaning the same thing, and you hear echoes of one of history’s most unlikely journeys. All four languages—along with hundreds of others, from French and Gaelic, to Persian and Polish—trace their origins to an ancient tongue spoken as the last ice age receded. This language, which we call Proto-Indo-European, was born between Europe and Asia and exploded out of its cradle, fragmenting as it spread east and west.
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Brilliant research and narration
- By Dr. Krishnendu Ray on 05-16-25
By: Laura Spinney
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Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind
- Informal Talks on Zen Meditation and Practice
- By: Shunryu Suzuki
- Narrated by: Peter Coyote
- Length: 2 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert's there are few. So begins this most beloved of all American Zen works....
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terrific book. Horrible recording.
- By Matthew Wash on 06-29-18
By: Shunryu Suzuki
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The Maniac
- By: Benjamin Labatut
- Narrated by: Gergo Danka, Eva Magyar
- Length: 9 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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Benjamín Labatut’s When We Cease to Understand the World electrified a global readership. A Booker Prize and National Book Award finalist, and one of the New York Times’ Ten Best Books of the Year, it explored the life and thought of a clutch of mathematicians and physicists who took science to strange and sometimes dangerous new realms. In The MANIAC, Labatut has created a tour de force on an even grander scale.
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Gergo Danka and Eva Magyar are excellent narrators
- By Barbara S on 11-04-23
By: Benjamin Labatut
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Your Deceptive Mind: A Scientific Guide to Critical Thinking Skills
- By: Steven Novella, The Great Courses
- Narrated by: Steven Novella
- Length: 12 hrs and 39 mins
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No skill is more important in today's world than being able to think about, understand, and act on information in an effective and responsible way. What's more, at no point in human history have we had access to so much information, with such relative ease, as we do in the 21st century. But because misinformation out there has increased as well, critical thinking is more important than ever. These 24 rewarding lectures equip you with the knowledge and techniques you need to become a savvier, sharper critical thinker in your professional and personal life.
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Same Material Different Title
- By rkeinc on 09-21-14
By: Steven Novella, and others
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The Experience Machine
- How Our Minds Predict and Shape Reality
- By: Andy Clark
- Narrated by: Andy Clark
- Length: 8 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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For as long as we’ve studied human cognition, we’ve believed that our senses give us direct access to the world. What we see is what’s really there—or so the thinking goes. But new discoveries in neuroscience and psychology have turned this assumption on its head. What if rather than perceiving reality passively, your mind actively predicts it?
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About halfway through, it became propaganda
- By Jesse Helton on 08-13-23
By: Andy Clark
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Inner Engineering
- A Yogi's Guide to Joy
- By: Jaggi Vasudev - Sadhguru
- Narrated by: Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev
- Length: 9 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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The practice of what is commonly known as hatha yoga is but one of eight branches of the body of knowledge that is yoga. Yoga is a sophisticated system of self-empowerment that is capable of harnessing and activating inner energies in such a way that your body and mind function at their optimal capacity. It is a means to create inner situations exactly the way you want them, turning you into the architect of your own joy. A yogi lives life in this expansive state, and in this transformative book Sadhguru tells the story of his own awakening.
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A Profound Exploration of Life!!!
- By Joe on 02-02-18
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Steve Jobs
- By: Walter Isaacson
- Narrated by: Dylan Baker
- Length: 25 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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Based on more than 40 interviews with Jobs conducted over two years—as well as interviews with more than a hundred family members, friends, adversaries, competitors, and colleagues—Walter Isaacson has written a riveting story of the roller-coaster life and searingly intense personality of a creative entrepreneur whose passion for perfection and ferocious drive revolutionized six industries: personal computers, animated movies, music, phones, tablet computing, and digital publishing.
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Good Biography, Fine narrator
- By Chris on 10-27-11
By: Walter Isaacson
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Thinking in Systems
- A Primer
- By: Donella H. Meadows
- Narrated by: Tia Rider Sorensen
- Length: 6 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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In the years following her role as the lead author of the international best seller, Limits to Growth - the first book to show the consequences of unchecked growth on a finite planet - Donella Meadows remained a pioneer of environmental and social analysis until her untimely death in 2001. Thinking in Systems is a concise and crucial book offering insight for problem-solving on scales ranging from the personal to the global. Edited by the Sustainability Institute's Diana Wright, this essential primer brings systems thinking out of the realm of computers and equations and into the tangible world....
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Skip to the Middle
- By John Chambers on 06-20-20
 The perspective I have been looking for to bring together science, philosophy, and spirituality.
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Mind expanding!
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While I chose this book for its attempt to draw the lines between this Complexity of The Universe to the Consciousness we employ to experience it. Here is where I was disappointed. Any discussion of the study of Consciousness must include the Masters of Philosophy, Logic, Physics, and Cosmology who spent their lives tracing its roots. We are treated to the History of this effort and this too is mostly well done. Unfortunately, as we get closer to the Present, the Author’s Zen bias injects itself.
He dismisses any validity to a Materialist Theory of The Brain/Sensorium’s ability to conjure up Consciousness, instead assigning Godel’s Theories the task of limiting Science’s capabilities. To fill in the gaps caused by these shortcomings he elevates the role of “Metaphysics”.
Ignoring the fact that this word is usually used to introduce Theology and The Spirit World into any Philosophic discussion, he reduces his theory to a very cliched and Woo-Woo statement that since “there are more things on heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy”, those things must be found in Intuition, Spirituality or Meditation. He devotes the rest or the book to arguments for this theory because of its similarity to Buddhist, Kabbala, Vedanta, et al practices.
I completely agree that Today’s Science has yet to trace all the roots of Consciousness but it gets closer every day. I also agree that any Scientific approach should be supplemented by Inspiration drawn from everyday experience. But only a combination of the two will lead to a valid, provable explanation. Meditation may be a useful tool but resorting to outdated and debunked Theologies will only lead to dead ends!
All in all though, I enjoyed hearing his mind work and Notes was a good read. Four Stars for the writing. ****
Excellent Definition of the Levels of Complexity
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I will listen to this again.
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Theory of everything so well-explained!
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Fantastic read!
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Finally someone combined quantum physics, Vedic philosophy and complexity theory!
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Incredible book!
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Connected tissue pealing back the meaning of life
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For Complexity to persist,
we need Non-linearity, Open systems, and need to eliminate Reductionism in order to begin to understand Complexity.
The earth will survive and thrive without humans.
Imagine a world without Homo sapiens …
Thanks Neil, it was fun!
If we Eliminate all Humans …
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