Abstract
I would like in this presentation to explain why the study of complexity has become so interesting today. The idea of studying complex systems is, of course, by no means new. Some 2,000 years ago, Aristotle had already studied domains as varied as marine biology and the political organization of towns. But, it is our present situation, rather, which is, in a sense, unique. When one thinks of complex phenomena, one immediately thinks of biology, society, economics, or areas of this kind, and when one thinks about simple phenomena, the repeatable experiments of physics and chemistry and the domain of planetary motion are what spring naturally to mind. The remarkable feature of our time is that the gap between these two sets of phenomena has narrowed dramatically.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
G. Nicolis and I. Prigogine, Self-Organization in Non-Equilibrium Systems: From Dissipative Structures to Order through Fluctuations (Wiley Interscience, New York, 1977 ): I. Prigogine and I. Stengers, Order Out of Chaos (Bantam Books, Toronto, New York, London, Sydney, 1984 ).
D. K. Kondepudi and G. W. Nelson, “Chiral Symmetry Breaking in Non-Equilibrium Systems,” Physical Review Letters, vol. 50, no. 14 (1983): 1023–1026.
E. Baras et al., “Stochastic Theory of Adiabatic Explosion,” J. Stat. Phys., vol. 32, no. 1 (1983).
C. Nicolis and G. Nicolis, Nature (in press).
P. Grassberger and I. Procaccia, “Characterization of Strange Attractors,” Phys. Rev. Let., vol. 50, no. 5 (1983): 346–349.
S. Pahaut (paper in progress).
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1991 Springer Science+Business Media New York
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Prigogine, I. (1991). New Perspectives on Complexity. In: Facets of Systems Science. International Federation for Systems Research International Series on Systems Science and Engineering, vol 7. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-0718-9_33
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-0718-9_33
Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA
Print ISBN: 978-1-4899-0720-2
Online ISBN: 978-1-4899-0718-9
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive