Chaos, Complexity & Economy

Global governance requires new ways of thinking about managing in a complex and interdependent world. A new frontier of research - the emerging science of complexity - may shed light on the interactions of economic, natural and social systems.'Complexologists' like Stuart Kauffman at the Santa Fe Institute argue that Darwinian ideas of competition and random natural selection are incomplete. Computer modeling shows what may be a basic bias of Nature to structure chaos with an underlying pattern of stability. This stability manifests itself through a surprisingly high degree of 'natural order'. Kauffman attributes this to the tendency of complex structures (like cells in a body or genes in a DNA strand) to individually exhibit only a few possible states (open or closed, for instance). The more states, the more chaotic the patterns. Life then appears as a self-organizing system on the "edge of chaos", mutating slowly rather than bursting forth in a near-infinite number of evolutionary states. Some think the theory, rich with intuition and observation, may lead to a rethinking of the 'soft' social sciences because of the light it sheds on the links within and between complex systems. Whether the upshot will be a post-Darwinian brand of economics that goes beyond survival-of-the-fittest models is anyone's guess. The frontier is still hazy, but the potential for a more systems-oriented way of thinking about economies - linked to ecosystems and social systems - remains a distinct possibility. [a science of complexity for economies?]

biological complexity n. the idea that there is a fundamental order underlying natural selection leading to fairly stable patterns of evolution

complexologists n. the new gurus of the emerging science of complexity

Kauffman, Stuart. At Home in the Universe: The Search for Laws of Complexity. New York: Oxford University Press, 1995. 321 p.

Holland, John. Hidden Order: How Adaptation Builds Complexity. Reading, MA: Helix Books, 1995. 185p.

NOT HOT

- Biological Reductionism

Reductionism may finally be finding its natural limits after centuries of dominating scientific and management strategies. A counter-culture of systems theory, complexity and global ecological awareness which has been challenging the notion that the way to understand the whole is to break it down into parts is now coming to the fore. This new emphasis on context may be linked to a growing impatience with existentialist philosophies that wallow in a world of seeming randomness and happenstance. Ultimately, complexologists aren't just selling a theory, they're promoting an attitude about life on earth. By promoting values, their vision is at once more purposeful, poetic, sacred, and yes, sustainable. How Well is the World Press Covering UN Reform? - see DI#1