Out of Control: The New Biology of Machines, Social Systems, and the Economic World

Out of Control is a 1992 book by Kevin Kelly. It explores several contemporary fields of science and philosophy, including cybernetics, chaos theory, complex systems, self-organization, and emergence, which the author argues all point in the same direction.

The book's central thesis is that intelligence is not organized in a centralized structure but works more like a beehive made of small, simple components. Kelly applies this view to bureaucratic organizations, intelligent computers, and the human brain.

Although it received little review attention when first published, the book gained visibility and was widely cited in the following years. Reviewers often read Kelly's hive-mind analogy as a metaphor for the New Economy. Critics have argued that its outlook leaves little room for a critical approach to politics and social power.