Kauffman's explanations of his scientific work are concise and convincing. The prose that surrounds those explanations is less so. Whoever reads At Home in the Universe for its account of Kauffman's insightful models of adaptation and self-organization will find that the scientific results speak for themselves. The most remarkable and eloquent of these four books on complexity is the only one not written by a scientist. George Johnson's Fire in the Mind examines not only how people search for order but why.
Scientists have an unquestioned faith in questioning everything.
But this faith in reason and experiment is as important for science as faith in God is for religion. Both founded on faith, science and religion ask many of the same questions. Fire in the Mind compares point by point the stories that science and religion tell of how the world began, what it is made of, where life came from and what the future holds. Taking the landscape of northern New Mexico as a backdrop, Johnson fills his stage with scientists from the Santa Fe Institute, Indians from San Ildefonso pueblo, bomb makers from Los Alamos and flagellants from the Catholic sect Hermanos Penitentes, then lets them speak, to the extent that their vows of secrecy permit. Johnson's years as a science reporter for the New York Times have made him adept at succinct explanation.