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COMPLEXITY SCIENCE
Complex Systems
Complexity science is the study of complex systems, but the definition of complexity has changed from time to time and still differs to some degree among various disciplines. A great deal has been written about complexity and the application of the idea of complexity, often as metaphor, to many systems in the physical and social sciences. The following web site[more info]is a good introduction to the field of complexity science and chaos theory.
The definition of a complex system as used in complexity science is not just a very complicated system or a difficult system or a chaotic system. Specifically, a complex system is capable of producing emergence. Emergence occurs from the bottom up with no top down direction. Emergence results in something new and different, a difference in type or kind of system. A complex system is creative in this sense and we observe that the whole is much more than the sum of the parts. We are made up of many cells but the individual is much more than just a large group of cells. The resulting individual is different in kind from the component parts. Complex systems exhibit self-organization.
Again, we as human beings often exhibit complex behavior. The emergence of living things from genetic material is an example of complex behavior. For social systems such as cities or business organizations, new structures and new ways of system operation can emerge.
We propose, based on studies of virtual systems, that a complex system may be in any of four states: chaotic at one extreme; two kinds of order at the other end, and in the complex state between chaos and order. Although a complex system can exist in any one of the four states, it exhibits complex behavior, that is, emergence, only when in the complex state. The question for all complex systems is: what determines the state of the system? We discuss this on this web site at differentiation and centrality.
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