Rules of engagement

摘要

Chaos, fractals, random graphs and power laws inspire a popular view of complexity in which behaviours that are typically unpredictable and fragile 'emerge' from simple interconnections among like components. But applied to the study of highly evolved systems, this attractively simple view has led to widespread confusion. A different, more rewarding take on complexity focuses on organization, protocols and architecture, and includes the emergent' as an extreme special case within a much richer dynamical perspective.