Complexity
From CasGroup
| Line 1: | Line 1: | ||
: "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" | : "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" | ||
| - | 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 | + | 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. Complexity is the opposite of [[Simplicity|simplicity]] and uniformity, complex is everything that is not simple. 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. 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. |
== Definition == | == Definition == | ||