When we hear about complex systems, chaos and how those systems are models of the domains we work in - software development, people based systems, systems of systems - the paper above may provide somoe insight on the limits of extending these principles into the popularizations of these principles.
- Complex system contain elements that interact nonlinearly
- These elements are interdependent
- The structure of these system spans several scales
- Such systems are capable of emergent behavior
- Complexity involves the interplay between chaos and non-chaos
- These systems involve the interplay between cooperation and competition
This is all restating the obvious, but care is needed in drawing broad conclusions.
Knowing the underlying structure of the system is the starting point. Does the system under study have linear and non-linear interdependencies? Does the system exhibit emergent behavior BECAUSE of these interdependencies or is there some other processes?
Questions like this needs some assessment before broad statements like ...
What we call “systems” are nothing more than figments of our imagination… abstractions in our minds.
The system of river fish in the Gunnison Valley is not a figment of our imagine. It is a system even when our college son is not thereto study it when he is home for Christmas. It's still a system, interacting in a non-linear manner - of water flow from Taylor Reservoir and the November snow fall and melt), through interdependent elements - of rock formations, tree roots, river bottom structure, and the Colorado Department of Wildlife hatcheries, on several scales - from the feeding flies for the trout, to the bears, to the fisherman, exhibited in an emergent behavior, with the complex interplay of chaos and non-chaos, and most of all with competition and cooperation - between the natural habitat to the man made attempts to preserve the river.
