Abstract
In this first chapter, I will introduce basic ideas, concepts, assumptions, and conjectures related to complex systems. I will take up the idea behind complex systems, as opposed to mechanical (analytical) and random (stochastic) systems. Then I will come back to the problem of prone-to-failure planning, from which I will deduce my working hypotheses, as well as questions to be answered in the course of this work.
How can we have any security or plan anything if everything changes all the time?
Rand 1957, p. 10
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Notes
- 1.
Love locks are padlocks, which are usually engraved with the names of lovers. The lovers then fasten the locks onto the balustrade of a bridge and throw the key into the water. The love-lock trend has changed urban places, including their attraction to locals and tourists, in an unforeseen way. For example, it had a major impact on the image and tourist attraction of the Hungarian city of Pécs (cf. Hammond 2010).
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My translations.
- 3.
Weaver (1948) originally called this ‘organized complexity’ , as opposed to what he called ‘disorganized complexity’ and to what would later be referred to as statistically describable systems. However, in this work, complex systems are those which cannot be adequately modeled analytically or statistically.
- 4.
Weaver’s distinction between three types of systems may not point to ontologically different systems, but only epistemologically different systems. If so, then all systems are in fact complex systems . However, at some aggregate levels, we can observe them as mechanical artifacts, such as a tramway, or as statistical “systems,” such as a population.
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Walloth, C. (2016). Complex Systems and Man’s Desire to Understand and Influence Them. In: Emergent Nested Systems. Understanding Complex Systems. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-27550-5_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-27550-5_1
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