Editing Out of Control (Kelly book)

{{short description|1992 book by Kevin Kelly}}{{Infobox book
| image = Out of Control (Kelly book).jpg
| author = [[Kevin Kelly (editor)|Kevin Kelly]]
| isbn = 978-0201483406
| pub_date = 1992
| name = Out of Control: The New Biology of Machines, Social Systems, and the Economic World
| publisher = Basic Books
}}

{{italic title}}
'''''Out of Control: The New Biology of Machines, Social Systems, and the Economic World''''' ({{ISBN|978-0201483406}}) is a 1992 book by [[Kevin Kelly (editor)|Kevin Kelly]]. Major themes in ''Out of Control'' are [[cybernetics]], [[emergence]], [[self-organization]], [[complex systems]], [[negentropy]] and [[chaos theory]]. The book can be seen as a work of [[techno-utopianism]].{{Citation needed|date=September 2020}}

==Summary==
The book's central theme is that several fields of contemporary science and philosophy point in the same direction: intelligence is not organized in a centralized structure but is much more like a beehive composed of small, simple components.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Mitchell |first1=Melanie |title=Mystifying the Net |journal=[[MIT Technology Review|Technology Review]] |date=October 1995 |volume=98 |issue=7 |page=74 |id={{ProQuest|195337887}} }}</ref> Kelly applies this view to bureaucratic organizations, intelligent computers, and the human brain.

==Reception==
Although the book was not widely reviewed upon its initial release in 1992, it gained visibility, was reviewed, and was extensively cited in subsequent years.<ref>{{Cite book| publisher = University of Chicago Press| last = Turner| first = Fred
| title = From counterculture to cyberculture: Stewart Brand, the Whole Earth Network, and the rise of digital utopianism
| location = Chicago| date = 2006| page=285}}</ref> Reviews often discussed Kelly's hive-mind analogy as a [[metaphor]] for the [[New Economy]].<ref>{{Cite book| publisher = University of Chicago Press| last = Turner| first = Fred | title = From counterculture to cyberculture: Stewart Brand, the Whole Earth Network, and the rise of digital utopianism
| location = Chicago| date = 2006| page=204}}</ref>

Reviewers have called the book a "mind-expanding exploration" (''Publishers Weekly'')<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Stuttaford |first1=Genevieve |title=Nonfiction -- Out of Control: The Rise of NeoBiological Civilization by Kevin Kelly |journal=[[Publishers Weekly]] |date=June 6, 1994 |volume=241 |issue=23 |page=53 |id={{ProQuest|196996078}} }}</ref> and "the best of an important new genre" (''Forbes ASAP'').{{Citation needed|date=September 2020}}

Critics of the book have contended that its position precludes a critical approach to politics and social power.<ref>{{Cite journal
| volume = 12
| issue = 2
| pages = 141–162
| last = Best
| first = Steven
|author2=Douglas Kellner
| title = Kevin Kelly's Complexity Theory The Politics and Ideology of Self-Organizing Systems
| journal = Organization & Environment
| date = 1999-01-06
| doi = 10.1177/1086026699122001
| s2cid = 144781438
}}</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist | 2}}

==Further reading==
* [http://kk.org/books/out-of-control/ The book's homepage] (includes the complete book online)

{{DEFAULTSORT:Out Of Control: The New Biology Of Machines, Social Systems, And The Economic World}}
[[Category:1992 non-fiction books]]
[[Category:1992 in the environment]]
[[Category:Systems theory books]]
[[Category:Works about technology]]
[[Category:Futurology books]]
[[Category:Collective intelligence]]


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