Emergence: The Connected Lives of Ants, Brains, Cities, and Software by Steven Johnson
This book received a lot of what I think was overly harsh criticism for not providing a significant amount of in depth technical coverage of the cross-functional area of emergence, i.e., cellular automata, self organization, complexity theory, etc. Obviously, one book on single topic can’t be all things to all people. While Emergence is obviously not the most technical of books, I think it serves as a excellent introduction to the related fields. In addition, I think it was particularly strong in pointing out the social implications of specific examples of emergent behavior.
A likely follow up read for me will be Jane Jacob’s The Death and Life of Great American Cities. Johnson frequently refers to her book for descriptions of emergent behavior in vibrant, urban communities. Jacob’s book also came up in the very humorous Bobos in Paradise by David Brooks, which I also recently finished reading.