Complexity

Global Complexity…

“Global systems can be viewed as interdependent, as self-organizing and as possessing emergent properties. I suggest that we can examine a range of non-linear, mobile and unpredictable ‘global hybrids’ always on the ‘edge of chaos’.”

— John Urry, “Global Complexity”, p…

Differentiations become…

“Differentiations become generalities from which other differentiations emerge.

In other words, development is an open-ended process, which creates complexity and diversity, because multiplied generalities are sources of multiplied differentiations — some…

Evolve and Adapt Rapidly

“We have never had to deal with problems of the scale facing today’s globally interconnected society. No one knows for sure what will work, so it is important to build a system that can evolve and adapt rapidly.”

— Elinor Ostrom

The fear of diversity is a fear of disorder…

“The fear of diversity is a fear of disorder; if that diversity leads by nature into order, there is nothing to fear.”

— Arlene Saxonhouse, The Fear of Diversity,p. 192

The organism is the cause and effect of itself…

“The organism is the cause and effect of itself, its own intrinsic order and organization. Natural selection isn’t the cause of organisms. Genes don’t cause organisms. There are no causes of organisms. Organisms are self-causing agencies.”

We Thrash About…

“Humanity today is like a waking dreamer, caught between the fantasies of sleep and the chaos of the real world. The mind seeks but cannot find the precise place and hour. We have created a Star Wars civilization, with Stone Age emotions, medieval institutions, and godlike technology. We thrash…

The Building Blocks of Economic Complexity

“As people and firms specialize in different activities, economic efficiency increases, suggesting that development is associated with an increase in the number of individual activities and with the complexity that emerges from the interactions between…

The Nature of Technology

“The whole of a technology and all of its parts develop simultaneously in parallel…. All this activity is going on at many points in the network at the same time. Like the buildout of species in the biosphere, it is a parallel process, and there is nothing orderly about it…. A novel…

Boundary Maintenance Is System Maintenance

“Boundary maintenance is system maintenance.”
 — Niklas Luhmann, Social Systems, p. 17

Conflict is necessary. Violence is not.

Conflict is necessary. Violence is not.

— Paul B. Hartzog