p.13-15 Most Complexity researchers would agree that any candidate Complex System should have most or all
of the following ingredients:
The system contains a collection of many interacting objects or "agents"... These objects
behavior is affected by memory or "feedback"... The objects can adapt their strategies according to their history... The system
is typically "open"... The system appears to be "alive"... The system exhibits emergent phenomena which are generally
surprising, and may be extreme... The emergent phenomena typically arise in the absence of any sort of "invisible
hand" or central controller... The system shows a complicated mix of ordered and disordered behavior.
p.17 Complexity looks at the complicated and surprising things which can emerge from the interaction of
a collection of objects which themselves may be rather simple.
p.17 the underlying philosophy behind the search for a quantitative theory of Complexity is that we
don't need a full understanding of the constituent objects in order to understand what a collection of them might
do. Simple bits interacting in a simple way may lead to a rich variety of realistic outcomes - and that is the essence
of Complexity.
Complexity therefore represents a slap in the face for traditional reductionist approaches to understanding
the world.
p.18 we can justifiably think of Complexity as a sort of umbrella science - or even, the Science
of all Sciences.
p.19 One of the tell-tale characteristics that a particular system, such as traffic or a financial market,
is complex is that it exhibits emergent phenomena which are surprising, extreme and self-generated
p.66 it is worth thinking about how we actually observe a complex system... we have to
be careful how we are watching. We must be careful not to add any Complexity which isn't already there, nor must we
miss the Complexity which is actually there.
p.67 The things that we observe around us - such as traffic, financial markets, and even ourselves - tend
to occupy the middle-ground between order and disorder, making occasional forays toward one or the other and back again without
the help of any "invisible hand" or central controller. It is the emergence of such properties that make a Complex
System complex, and sum up what we mean by Complexity. The magic ingredient underlying these remarkable properties
is feedback.
p.103 It turns out that most modern conflicts represent a Complex System.
p.120-121 This brings me to my philosophy... for building models of real-world Complex Systems
in general, which can be summed up in terms of building a paper plane. As we all know, folding a piece of
paper into a paper plane can give something that flies, and which therefore captures the essential ingredients of flight,
i.e. the uplift cancels the downward pull due to gravity. In short, a paper plane flies for the same reasons that
a big commercial jet does. A paper plane is an example of a great model since it is minimal, and yet captures the
key ingredient of flight.
