Complexity theory is a relatively new field that began in the mid-1980s at the Santa Fe Institute in New Mexico. Work at the Santa Fe Institute is usually presented as the study of Complex Adaptive Systems (CAS). The CAS movement is predominantly American, as opposed to the European “natural science” tradition in the area of cybernetics and systems. Like in cybernetics and systems theory, CAS shares the subject of general properties of complex systems across traditional disciplinary boundaries. However, CAS is distinguished by the extensive use of computer simulations as a research tool, and an emphasis on
systems, such as markets or ecologies, which are less integrated or “organized” than the ones studied by the older tradition (e.g., organisms, machines and companies).
- Serena Chan | MIT ESD.83 Research Seminar in Engineering Systems
October 31, 2001/November 6, 2001