johnson

Reading Steven Johnson’s “Myth of the Ant Queen” after Davidson’s work is different and Johnson writes in a much more informative and factual fashion. However he does still introduce a theory or concept, that of organized complexity. He explains how things do not need a higher power in order for structure or organization to occur. This sort of self organization is explain in terms of the city of Manchester in the early 1800s where authorities could not keep up with the organization and everything feel into its place. This is present all around the world, everything has its niche that it eventually fits into and takes its form. He then uses the term emergent to explain how something becomes one unit from otherwise unrelated things. The method Johnson describes all of these things makes the topic very relatable and understandable. For instance, he has this concept of organized complexity and essentially describes it in terms of both something simple and more self explanatory to something slightly more complex. He starts out explaining it in terms of an ant colony, how every one within the colony always find his or her place, a seemingly simple and visible concept in terms of how colonies always seem to work together. He then expands it in terms of Manchester and the organized complexity of a city. This is something that is seen once he begins to explain it and elaborate, but is not something readily associated. Humans don’t think of Manchester and immediately see the organized complexity behind it, where it’s easier to see with the ants. Even more so slightly complicated is the organized complexity behind software and computer systems as it applies to the first complex computers designed by Alan Turing and Claude Shannon. Johnson did a good job in expanding and elaborating on an idea from something simpler to something slightly more complicated while explaining the same concept.