Spin Control

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

A number of friends and colleagues made contributions to this book that went far above and beyond the call of duty. Heartfelt thanks to the following creative, intelligent, and generous people:

Andy Ilachinski for his poetic musings on science fiction, complexity, and cellular automata… and for writing the real semitechnical primer on nonlinear dynamics, deterministic chaos, and complex adaptive systems.

Lt. Col. Martin E. LaPierre, USMC, for his profound knowledge of expert systems and synthetic weapons design, and his willingness to hear out my wildest speculations and top them.

Tom Seeley and Stephen Pratt for revealing the secret and astounding world of social insects.

Sam Arbesman, Charlie Bennett, Ciro Cattuto, Mavis Dunkor, Lauri Johnsen, Cliff Lasser, Derek Paley, John Smolin, and Steven Strogatz for their willingness to spend otherwise productive segments of their lives on fake science instead of the much more exciting stuff they do.

Kirsten Underwood, Tim Weed, Jim McLaughlin, and Ian McCullough for being the loyal, patient, and insightful readers I have come to rely on.

Anne Groell for remaining her serene self when this book was a year late and running.

And always and above all to Mitchel.