Life as a COMPLEX SYSTEM (Part 2)

To form a basis for this post lets first understand what is a complex system...

From Wikipedia,the free Encyclopedia
A complex system is a system composed of interconnected parts that as a whole exhibit one or more properties (behavior among the possible properties) not obvious from the properties of the individual parts. A system’s complexity may be of one of two forms: disorganized complexity and organized complexity.^[1] In essence, disorganized complexity is a matter of a very large number of parts, and organized complexity is a matter of the subject system (quite possibly with only a limited number of parts) exhibiting emergent properties. Examples of complex systems include ant colonies, human economies, climate, nervous systems, cells and living things, including human beings, as well as modern energy or telecommunication infrastructures. Indeed, many systems of interest to humans are complex systems.

Complex system science and Chaos Theory have always been fascinating realms of science since they challenge the usual human approach of reductionism.
We as human beings till now have been trying to simplify each and every aspect of life for better understanding but in this process we actually loose the actual essence of that aspect.
Each and every aspect is covered by a separate realm of science which again is divided and subdivided which ultimately results in a progressive narrow vision towards life systems around us.

http://www.csiro.au/resources/AboutComplexSystems.html

New computer modelling approaches are revealing the common features of systems as diverse as the weather, economies and ecosystems and improving our understanding of the unexpected emergent behaviour that these complex systems exhibit.

Genomes, ecosystems, stock markets, the weather and society are all examples of complex systems – large aggregations of many smaller interacting parts. These parts may be species, investors, air particles or individuals.

Complex or just complicated?

Two properties set a complex system apart from one that is merely complicated:

• emergence
• self-organisation.

Emergence is the appearance of behaviour that could not be anticipated from a knowledge of the parts of the system alone.

Cyclones, tornadoes or weather systems are emergent features of the motion of air particles on the spinning Earth. Financial recessions and booms are emergent features of national economies.

Complicated artefacts like motor cars or power plants also have emergent features in this sense so a further property is needed to distinguish complex systems.

This is self-organisation.This means that there is no external controller or planner engineering the appearance of these emergent features. They appear spontaneously.

It has recently been realised that there are general laws and rules governing these processes which apply equally to the weather, to society and to life itself.

A key feature of real systems that has proved to be essential in the appearance of rich emergent features is local interaction. In other words, elements of a system only interact with their neighbours.

These interactions can be represented by simple rules that describe how the state of any element in the system is dependent on the state of its neighbours. For example, transmission of a disease usually depends on contact between individuals. Simple models of epidemics that assume a 'well-mixed' population often fail to predict the rate of spread and resistance to eradication of many diseases.

Scientists are now developing computer models of complex systems based on local interaction rules. In the social domain, the resulting computer models are reshaping our understanding of social and economic processes including phenomena like societal resilience and collapse.

[contd...]