Complexity
From CasGroup
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| + | :"Science has explored the microcosmos and the macrocosmos; we have a good sense of the lay of the land. The great unexplored frontier is complexity." - Heinz Pagels in "The Dreams of Reason" | ||
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A [[System|system]] has high '''complexity''' or is very complex, if there is no simple description or definition, i.e. if it is hard to define or if it can not be described in a simple way. A [[Complex System|complex system]] is difficult to understand, because it can not be fully explained by an understanding of its isolated parts and components. Complexity is the opposite of [[Simplicity|simplicity]] and uniformity. As Sunny Y. Auyang says in her book ''Foundations of Complex Systems Theories'', "simplicity may have a unified form, but complexity has many varieties" (p.9). In this sense complexity can be viewed simply as variety or variation. | A [[System|system]] has high '''complexity''' or is very complex, if there is no simple description or definition, i.e. if it is hard to define or if it can not be described in a simple way. A [[Complex System|complex system]] is difficult to understand, because it can not be fully explained by an understanding of its isolated parts and components. Complexity is the opposite of [[Simplicity|simplicity]] and uniformity. As Sunny Y. Auyang says in her book ''Foundations of Complex Systems Theories'', "simplicity may have a unified form, but complexity has many varieties" (p.9). In this sense complexity can be viewed simply as variety or variation. | ||
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[[Cellular Automata|cellular automaton]] whose outcome can | [[Cellular Automata|cellular automaton]] whose outcome can | ||
be found effectively only by carrying it out explicitly. | be found effectively only by carrying it out explicitly. | ||
| + | This is called [[Computational_irreducibility|computational irreducibility]]. | ||
== Relations and Connections == | == Relations and Connections == | ||
