Complexity and criticality. The laws of physics are simple, but nature is complex ; Storytelling versus science ; What can a theory of complexity explain? ; Power laws and criticality ; Systems in balance are not complex ; Chaos is not complexity ; Self-organized criticality -- The discovery of self-organized criticality. Science at Brookhaven ; Where does 1/f "noise" come from? ; Susan Coppersmith's dog model ; On coupled pendulums ; The philosophy of using simple models on spherical cows ; The pendulums become critical -- The sandpile paradigm. The sandpile model ; Life in the sandpile world ; Can we calculate the power laws with pen and paper?

Real sandpiles and landscape formation. Real sand ; Norwegian rice piles ; Vicsek's landscape experiment : the origin of fractals ; Himalayan sandpiles ; Sediment deposition ; Geomorphology : landscapes out of balance -- Earthquakes, starquakes, and solar flares. Self-organization of earthquakes ; A misprint leads to progress ; Rumbling around stromboli ; The crust of the Earth is critical ; Pulsar glitches and starquakes ; Black holes and solar flares -- The "game of life" : complexity is critical -- Is life a self-organized phenomenon? The Santa Fe Institute ; Sandpiles and punctuated equilibria ; Interacting dancing fitness landscapes.

Mass extinctions and punctuated equilibria in a simple model of evolution. Can we model Darwin? ; A science project for a Sunday afternoon ; Life at a cold place ; Comparison with real data ; On dinosaurs and meteors ; Dante Chialvo's evolutionary game ; Self-organized criticality and Gaia ; Replaying the tape of evolution -- Theory of the punctuated equilibrium model. What is a theory? ; The random neighbor version of the evolution model ; The self-organization process ; The critical state ; Revisiting the game of life ; Revisiting earthquakes -- The brain. Why should the brain be critical? ; The monkey problem ; The brain and river networks -- On economies and traffic jams. Equilibrium economics is like water ; Real economics is like sand ; Simple toy model of a critical economy ; Fluctuations and catastrophes are unavoidable ; Traffic jams.