602
15 Ordering Theory
29. Actions to alter self: Genetic engineering
30. Spread of conscious systems across galaxies
31. Artificial life created by biological life systems
32. Ability to influence the evolution of our Universe
33. Ability to create new Universes
15.4 Complexity
Complexity in an open system is distinguished from disorder. We will introduce a
calculable measure of complexity: The ‘degree of complexity’ of a system is the
minimum number of ‘emergent’ relationships to describe the dynamics of ‘agents’
within that system. An ‘emergent principle or relationship’ (‘Specificity Rule’) is
a rule or propensity that is not simply an elaboration of microscopic dynamics,
but rather the result of a statistical likelihood for how a large number of entities
interact within the system or a subsystem, with that likelihood resulting from the
prior adaptive abilities of the system. For statistics to apply, the subsystems must
be capable of ‘passing through’ many possible alternative microscopic pathways. 7
In the evolution of a complex system, quasi-stable substructures can be created that
have the ability to make the system better adaptive to external pressures and to better
optimize the utilization of power flowing through the system. These substructures
are referred to as ‘agents’. As time evolves, agents can change as new pathways
for more rapid or more efficient activity are spontaneously ‘discovered’. Also, new
agents at a larger scale may develop. This makes the system hierarchical, with agents
at each level of complexity.
As external pressures and power flow conditions change, the agents can change
in response. As these responsive reconfigurations make a feedback system, such
complex systems have non-linear behavior, and can exhibit and even take advantage
of chaotic states. They also are subject to ‘cascading failure’, wherein conditions
are reached that make all entities at a given system level unstable.
It has been shown that as extended open systems evolve, they naturally approach
a phase change, producing a dramatic increase of order within. 8 Natural systems
spread over a region of space evolve complexity all by themselves, with adaptive
changes occurring simply from the advantages adaption gives to effectiveness and
7 On the speculative side, it is even possible that the ‘laws of physics’ are emergent properties
of our current Universe. This view arose from a physics discussion group organized by Prof. Ali
Eskandarian in the late 1990s. A cogent proponent in the group was Congressional Science and
Technology Committee consultant Anthony Scoville, who had become enamored with the related
ideas of John Archibald Wheeler, and invoked Gödel’s Theorem to say physical relationships can
be discovered without having antecedents. As new substructures are created, we should expect that
new emergent relationships also evolve.
8 P. Bak, C. Tang and K. Wiesenfeld, Self-organized criticality: an explanation of 1/f noise, Phys
Rev Lett 59, 381 (1987) and Self-organized criticality, Phys Rev A 38, 364–374 (1988).
15 Ordering Theory
29. Actions to alter self: Genetic engineering
30. Spread of conscious systems across galaxies
31. Artificial life created by biological life systems
32. Ability to influence the evolution of our Universe
33. Ability to create new Universes
15.4 Complexity
Complexity in an open system is distinguished from disorder. We will introduce a
calculable measure of complexity: The ‘degree of complexity’ of a system is the
minimum number of ‘emergent’ relationships to describe the dynamics of ‘agents’
within that system. An ‘emergent principle or relationship’ (‘Specificity Rule’) is
a rule or propensity that is not simply an elaboration of microscopic dynamics,
but rather the result of a statistical likelihood for how a large number of entities
interact within the system or a subsystem, with that likelihood resulting from the
prior adaptive abilities of the system. For statistics to apply, the subsystems must
be capable of ‘passing through’ many possible alternative microscopic pathways. 7
In the evolution of a complex system, quasi-stable substructures can be created that
have the ability to make the system better adaptive to external pressures and to better
optimize the utilization of power flowing through the system. These substructures
are referred to as ‘agents’. As time evolves, agents can change as new pathways
for more rapid or more efficient activity are spontaneously ‘discovered’. Also, new
agents at a larger scale may develop. This makes the system hierarchical, with agents
at each level of complexity.
As external pressures and power flow conditions change, the agents can change
in response. As these responsive reconfigurations make a feedback system, such
complex systems have non-linear behavior, and can exhibit and even take advantage
of chaotic states. They also are subject to ‘cascading failure’, wherein conditions
are reached that make all entities at a given system level unstable.
It has been shown that as extended open systems evolve, they naturally approach
a phase change, producing a dramatic increase of order within. 8 Natural systems
spread over a region of space evolve complexity all by themselves, with adaptive
changes occurring simply from the advantages adaption gives to effectiveness and
7 On the speculative side, it is even possible that the ‘laws of physics’ are emergent properties
of our current Universe. This view arose from a physics discussion group organized by Prof. Ali
Eskandarian in the late 1990s. A cogent proponent in the group was Congressional Science and
Technology Committee consultant Anthony Scoville, who had become enamored with the related
ideas of John Archibald Wheeler, and invoked Gödel’s Theorem to say physical relationships can
be discovered without having antecedents. As new substructures are created, we should expect that
new emergent relationships also evolve.
8 P. Bak, C. Tang and K. Wiesenfeld, Self-organized criticality: an explanation of 1/f noise, Phys
Rev Lett 59, 381 (1987) and Self-organized criticality, Phys Rev A 38, 364–374 (1988).