"Electrical networks, flocking birds, transportation hubs, weather patterns, commercial organisations, swarming robots... Increasingly, many of the systems that we want to engineer or understand are said to be ‘complex’.
These systems are often considered to be intractable because of their unpredictability, non-linearity, interconnectivity, heterarchy and ‘emergence’.
Such attributes are often framed as a problem, but can also be exploited to encourage systems to efficiently exhibit intelligent, robust, self-organising behaviours.
But what does it mean to describe systems as complex? How do these complex systems differ from the more easily understood ‘modular’ systems that we are familiar with? What are the underlying similarities between different systems, whether modular or complex?
Answering these questions is a first step in approaching the design and science of complexity. However, to do so, it is necessary to look beyond the specifics of any particular system or field of study.
We need to consider the fundamental nature of systems, looking for a common way to view ostensibly different phenomena."
The document can be accessed here
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