A reference on the history of chaos theory, told by the pioneers themselves. It also provides a historical introduction to the concepts. There are eleven contributions, and six of them are published here for the first time - two by Steve Smale, three by Yoshisuke Ueda, and one each by Ralph Abraham, Edward Lorenz, Christian Mira, Floris Takens, T.Y. Li and James A. Yorke, and Otto E. Rossler.

Ervin Laszlo, widely regarded as the founder of systems philosophy and general evolution theory, introduces the foundations of a genuine unified theory of the world in this pioneering treatise on the new sciences. In contrast to other unified theories that center mainly on physics, Laszlo's embraces quantum, cosmos, life, as well as consciousness. He delineates the principles of a new physics of universal connectivity and puts forth the corresponding metaphysics, discussing the implications for such philosophical issues as the nature of matter and mind, freedom and morality, and design versus...