Collapsing the Complicated/Complex Distinction: It's Complexity all the Way Down

Abstract

Several complexity theorists draw a sharp and ontologically robust distinction between (merely) complicated systems and (genuinely) complex systems. I argue that this distinction does not hold. Upon fine-grained analysis, ostensibly complicated systems turn out to be complex systems. The purported boundary between the complicated and the complex appears to be vague rather than sharp. Systems are complex by degrees.

Keywords

• complex systems
• complexity theory
• stuart kauffman
• sandra mitchell
• edgar morin