Abstract
In 1962 Herbert Simon articulated the nature of complexity of both natural and artificial systems. A system, he said, is complex if it is composed of a large number of components that interact in nontrivial ways. I will label Simon’s notion as systemic complexity. However, in the case of artifacts – things produced or conceived in response to some need or desire – there is another type of complexity which is especially relevant. This is the richness of the knowledge embedded in an artifact. I call this epistemic complexity. It comprises of the knowledge that both contributes to the creation of an artifact and the knowledge generated as a result of that creation.
Insofar as artifacts are what the sciences of the artificial are about, we might hope that the study of epistemic complexity might deepen our understanding of the sciences of the artificial and the nature of artifact creation.
In this paper I use examples from the history of technological artifacts to analyze aspects of epistemic complexity and its relation to systemic complexity.
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Notes
- 1.
Herbert A. Simon, “The Architecture of Complexity”, in: Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, 106, 1962, pp. 467-482; Simon, The Sciences of the Artificial. Cambridge (Mass.): The MIT Press 1996.
- 2.
Simon, The Sciences of the Artificial, op cit.
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Subrata Dasgupta, “Computer Design and Description Languages”, in: Marshall C. Yovits (Ed.), Advances in Computers, vol. 21. New York: Academic Press 1982, pp. 91-155; Dasgupta, Design Theory and Computer Science. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 1991; Dasgupta, Technology and Creativity. New York: Oxford University Press; Janet Elias and Subrata Dasgupta, “A Cognitive Model of the Engineering Design Mind”, in John S. Gero and Nathalie Bonnardel (Eds.), Studying Designers ’05. Sidney: Key Centre for Design Computing and Cognition 2005, pp. 101-116.
- 4.
Dasgupta, Technology and Creativity, op cit.
- 5.
Albert E. Musson and Eric Robinson, Science and Technology in the Industrial Revolution. Manchester: University of Manchester Press 1969.
- 6.
Michael Polanyi, Personal Knowledge. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press 1962.
- 7.
Walter G. Vincenti, What Engineers Know and How They Know It. Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press 1992.
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Ibid.
- 9.
Ibid., p. 7.
- 10.
David C. Brown and Balakrishnan Chandrasekaran, “Knowledge and Control for a Mechanical Design Expert System”, in: Computer, 19, 7, 1986, pp. 92-100.
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Michael A. Arbib and Mary B. Hesse, The Construction of Reality. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 1986; Roy C. D’Andrade, The Development of Cognitive Anthropology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 1995; George Mandler, Cognitive Psychology: An Essay in Cognitive Science. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates 1985.
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Elliot I. Organick, The Multics System: An Examination of Its Structure. Cambridge (Mass.): The MIT Press 1972.
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Fernando J. Corbato, Jerome H. Saltzer and Charles T. Clingen, “Multics – The First Seven Years”, in: Peter Freeman (Ed.), Software System Principles. Chicago: SRA 1975, pp. 556-577.
- 14.
Thomas P. Hughes, “The Evolution of Large Technological Systems”, in: Wiebe E. Bijker, Thomas P. Hughes and Trevor J. Pinch (Eds.), The Social Construction of Technological Systems. Cambridge (Mass.): The MIT Press 1987, pp. 51-82.
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Maurice V. Wilkes, Time Sharing Computer Systems. London: Macdonald and Janes/ New York: American Elsevier 1975.
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Peter J. Denning, “Virtual Memory”, in: Computing Surveys 2, 3, 1970, pp. 153-190.
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Jack B. Dennis, “Segmentation and the Design of Multiprogrammed Computer Systems”, in: Journal of the ACM 12 4, 1965, pp. 589-602.
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Corbato, “PL/1 as a Tool for System Programming”, in: Datamation 5, 1969, pp. 68-76.
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Corbato and Clingen, “A Managerial View of the Multics System Development”, in: Peter Wegner (Ed.), Research Directions in Software Technology. Cambridge (Mass.): The MIT Press 1979, pp. 139-158.
- 20.
Dasgupta, Technology and Creativity, op cit., p. 37.
- 21.
Nathan Rosenberg and Walter G. Vincenti, The Britannia Bridge: The Generation and Diffusion of Technological Knowledge. Cambridge (Mass.): The MIT Press 1978; Dasgupta, “Testing the Hypothesis Law of Design: The Case of the Britannia Bridge”, in: Research in Engineering Design 6, 1, 1994, pp. 38-57.
- 22.
John T. Bonner, The Evolution of Complexity by Natural Selection. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press 1988.
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Daniel W. McShea, “Complexity in Evolution: A Skeptical Assessment”, in: Philosophica 59, 1, 1997, pp. 79-112.
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Dasgupta, Computer Architecture: A Modern Synthesis, Volume 1: Foundations. New York: John Wiley 1989.
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Dasgupta, Computer Architecture, op. cit., pp. 108-109.
- 26.
David A. Patterson, “Reduced Instruction Set Computers”, in: Communications of the ACM 28, 1, 1985, pp. 8-21; Manoli G. H. Katevenis, Reduced Instruction Set Computers for VLSI. Cambridge (Mass.): The MIT Press 1985.
- 27.
Pier L. Nervi, Aesthetics and Technology in Building. Cambridge (Mass.): Harvard University Press 1966.
- 28.
Bonner, Ibid.
- 29.
L.A. Belady and M.M. Lehman, “Characteristics of Large Systems”, in: Peter Wegner (Ed.), Research Directions in Software Technology. Cambridge (Mass.): The MIT Press 1979, pp. 106-138.
- 30.
Alfred V. Aho, John E. Hopcroft and Jeffrey D. Ullman, The Design and Analysis of Computer Algorithms. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley 1974.
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Robert M. Harnish, Minds, Brains, Computers. Malden, MA: Blackwell 2002.
- 32.
Dasgupta, Technology and Creativity, op. cit., pp. 69-74, 152-156.
- 33.
Dasgupta, “Testing the Hypothesis Law of Design: The Case of the Britannia Bridge”, op. cit.
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Dasgupta, S. (2013). Epistemic Complexity and the Sciences of the Artificial. In: Andersen, H., Dieks, D., Gonzalez, W., Uebel, T., Wheeler, G. (eds) New Challenges to Philosophy of Science. The Philosophy of Science in a European Perspective, vol 4. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-5845-2_25
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