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Bak's Sand Pile: Strategies for a Catastrophic World

Bak's Sand Pile: Strategies for a Catastrophic World

No customer reviews yet ISBN 9780983074502 Agile Research and Technology, Inc

Did the terrorist attacks on the United States in 2001, the massive power blackout of 2003, Hurricane Katrina in 2005, and the Gulf oil spill of 2010 'just happen'-or were these shattering events foreseeable? Do such calamities in fact follow a predictable pattern? Can we plan for the unforeseen by thinking about the unthinkable? Ted Lewis explains the pattern of catastrophes and their underlying cause. In a provocative tour of a volatile world, he guides the reader through mega-fires, fragile power grids, mismanaged telecommunication systems, global terrorist movements, migrating viruses, volatile markets and Internet storms. Modern societies want to avert catastrophes, but the drive to make things faster, cheaper, and more efficient leads to self-organized criticality-the condition of systems on the verge of disaster. This is a double-edged sword. Everything from biological evolution to political revolution is driven by some collapse, calamity or crisis. To avoid annihilation but allow for progress, we must change the ways in which we understand the patterns and manage systems. Bak's Sand Pile explains how.

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BrandAgile Research and Technology, Inc
Pub dateFeb 28, 2011
ISBN-10098307450X
ISBN-139780983074502
LanguageEnglish
Paperback382.0 pages
Dimensions9 × 0.85 × 6 in
Weight1 lb
Last updated 2026-09-07 20:19
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