----- Original Message -----
Sent: Tuesday, August 17, 2004 2:16
PM
Subject: The short-attention-span
version
John M.
You asked for "short and to the
point", right? I'll give it a try.
Rosennean Complexity
Theory:
1. Rosennean Complexity Theory is
a foundational set of ideas that amount to a new scientific paradigm
based on organization rather than on particulate matter.
2."Based on organization" means based
on the causal impact that organization has on the behavior and properties
of any given system as a whole.
3. Organization implies relationships,
which in turn imply contexts.
4. Of all the types of
organization that exist, the ones we can observe seem to fall
into certain categories, and the categories fall into two main groups: Simple
organization and Complex organization.
5. Simple organization allows a
reductionist approach without loss of information. Simple does not mean
"simplistic" or "uncomplicated", on the contrary; simple systems can be very
complicated and intricate. In this usage, "simple" has a very
specific meaning, as stated, above. Simple systems are systems in
which the causal impact of their organization is not the main feature
and/or the effects of interfering with their organization are
completely reversible.
(Note: There are other diagnostic
tests, which my father developed for both #5 and #6, but I won't list them
here because that would kill the "short and to the point" quality that was
requested.)
6. Complex organization does not allow
a reductionist approach without loss of information. Depending on the type of
complex organization involved, varying degrees of information are lost if the
organization is interfered with or dismantled. Complex organization cannot be
re-established in a system once it has been dismantled.
7. Complexity is a word
that refers to the impact of organization but it is not a quality that
can be measured "by a meter", as my father put it. It's not just "more
complicatedness". Therefore, complex organization cannot be arrived at by
adding simple systems together (accretion). This is true even though
we speak of a single celled organism being "more complex than" an atom, and a
multicellular organism being "more complex than" a single celled organism,
etc. An atom is already complex in its organization, and it spontaneously
self-organized that way via modes or laws that are part of
what my father called
"Natural Law".
8. Because Natural Law creates complex
systems, Complexity can be seen as a general property of this universe.
9. Because complex systems (atoms) are
the "smallest building block in all material things", Complexity should be
studied intensively by any science that wants to consider itself
"general".
That's about as short as I can make it for you.
Judith Rosen