What are Complex Systems? A Manifesto

”There's no love in a carbon atom,
No hurricane in a water molecule,
No financial collapse in a dollar bill.”
–Peter Dodds

The Manifesto in one slide

Science forever post reductionism: Understanding, creating, controlling, and managing systems. Reality and universality compel us to do the responsible thing, computational power allows us to.

First, a simple, practical definition of a Complex System:

In Essence:
A complex system is a distributed system with many interrelated (possibly networked) parts, governed by no centralized control, and exhibiting emergent behavior—'More is Different'.

A few optional extras:

  • Explicit nonlinear relationships.
  • Being open or driven, opaque boundaries.
  • Explicit memory.
  • Modular, multiscale structure.
  • Adaptive.

And: Complex is a very good word—Latin: with + fold/weave (com + plex).

Read more of the manifesto on Peter's website

Want to learn more? Here are some great complex systems resources