"Relationships of all kinds are like holding sand in your hand. Hold it loosely with an open hand, the sand remains where it is. The tighter you grasp it, the faster it trickles through your fingers."

If you view 'nature' to be just another word for 'relationships of all kinds' then this quote aptly describes the heart of what Kevin Kelly was getting at in his book "Out of Control'. Bootstrapping Complexity is Andreas Lloyd's remix of that book. I loved the original, and though some have criticized it for being too dense or being haphazardly organized, those 'out of control' qualities were exactly what made the book endearingly consistent with it's own message. That being said, 'Bootstrapping Complexity' does seem to wrangle the complexity of the original book in a fashion that remains true to the original while making it more accessible.

I never wrote a review for the original book, but if I had I would have written something along the lines of Kevin Kelly following in the tradition of Charles Darwin, except casting a wider gaze to include all complex systems, not just biological organisms, and in so doing he is looking for the 'origin of species' of all of complexity regardless of whether it takes the form of inorganic or organic, natural or artificial, dead or alive. There is a grandeur in this view of complexity! ( )