Murray Gell-Mann was an American theoretical physicist who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1969 for his work on the theory of elementary particles. He is best known for his development of the quark model, which describes the fundamental building blocks of matter. Gell-Mann's contributions to particle physics and his work on complex systems have had a profound impact on the field of science.

"If we look at the way the universe behaves, quantum mechanics gives us fundamental, unavoidable indeterminacy, so that alternative histories of the universe can be assigned probability."



"Enthusiasm is followed by disappointment and even depression, and then by renewed enthusiasm."



"Planets are too dim to be detected with existing equipment, far away, except in these very special circumstances where they're seen by their gravitational effect."



"But I don't actually adopt the point of view that our subjective impression of free will, which is a kind of indeterminacy behavior, comes from quantum mechanical indeterminacy."



"So the old Copenhagen interpretation needs to be generalized, needs to be replaced by something that can be used for the whole universe, and can be used also in cases where there is plenty of individuality and history."



"Now, what that means is that there is fundamental indeterminacy from quantum mechanics, but besides that there are other sources of effective indeterminacy."



"What I try to do in the book is to trace the chain of relationships running from elementary particles, fundamental building blocks of matter everywhere in the universe, such as quarks, all the way to complex entities, and in particular complex adaptive system like jaguars."



"I have been interested in phenomena involving complexity, diversity and evolution since I was a young boy."

