The Engine of Complexity

This book by John E. Mayfield, professor emeritus of genetics, development, and cell biology at Iowa State University, is an interdisciplinary work of popular science, translated into Chinese by Tang Lu and published by Hunan Science and Technology Press in the "First Push Library · Comprehensive Series." The author seeks to integrate information theory, evolutionary theory, and computation theory into a single framework, proposing an "input—program—output" model to answer an old and fundamental question: how do complex things actually come into being? The book divides complex structures into two kinds: structures that emerge "for free" from the repeated action of simple physicochemical laws, such as crystals, waves, and galaxies; and purposive structures, such as organisms, immune systems, brains, and cultures. The author argues that the core generative mechanism of the latter is a "complex engine": a replicable information carrier, variation in the copying process, and a selection mechanism operating in a cycle, enabling complex things that could not arise by random chance to accumulate step by step. On this basis, Mayfield extends the paradigm from biological evolution to algorithmic evolution, learning and creativity, cultural evolution, and even the technological future, discussing the origin of life, thought, and social order. Taking philosophy and biology as its path, the book explains complex concepts in non-mathematical language, contains no formulas, and lets ordinary readers follow its reasoning. It suits readers interested in complex systems, evolution, and computational thinking as a starting point for study and reflection.