Science, Strategy and War The Strategic Theory of ... - Boekje Pienter

Physical as well as electrical and chemical connections in the brain are shaped by interactingwith the environment. Point: without these interactions we do not have the mentalwherewithal to deal or cope with that environment.Gödel’s Incompleteness Theorems, Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle, and the Second Lawof Thermodynamics, all taken together, show that we cannot determine the character ornature of a system within itself. Moreover, attempts to do so lead to confusion and disorder -- mental as well as physical. Point: We need an external environment, or outside world, todefine ourselves and maintain organic integrity, otherwise we experiencedissolution/disintegration--i.e., we come unglued.Living systems are open systems; closed systems are non-living systems. Point: If we don’tcommunicate with the outside world -- to gain information for knowledge andunderstanding as well as matter and energy for sustenance -- we die out to become a nondiscerningand uninteresting part of that world.Beyond open en chaotic systems: complexity theoryComplex Adaptive SystemsThese concepts return in Complexity Theory. Complexity Theory and Chaos Theory arenow mostly mentioned interchangeably. Indeed, the term chaoplexity has been coined. It isnot so much an organized rigorous theory than a collection of ideas that have in commonthe notion that within dynamic patterns there may be underlying simplicity. It includes andbuilds upon the notions laid out above. In 1987 the publication of James Gleick’s Chaos:Making a New Science introduced this new area of intellectual activity 40 . In the late 1980s andearly 1990s chaos suddenly blossomed as one of the most popular forms of mathematics. Anew research outfit was founded, the Santa-Fe Institute, which focused on chaotic andcomplex systems. Mitchell Waldrop’s account of the emergence (!) of this field of researchand the institute became a bestseller 41 . It marked the neo-Darwinian era which clearly Boydderived inspiration from. Boyd’s work includes several references that support the idea thatadaptability and evolution are key themes in his work.Briefly stated, Complexity Theory examines emergent order in large, interactive,adaptive networks such as neural networks or ecosystems. These Complex Adaptive Systems(CAS) co-evolve with the environment through self-organizing behavior of agents navigating“the fitness landscapes”. The theory includes such ideas as phase change, fitness landscapes,self-organization, emergence, attractors, symmetry and symmetry breaking, chaos and, theedge of chaos 42 . In the brief introduction of Walrop, complexity theory deals with behaviorat “the edge of chaos” where spontaneous organization, life and consciousness can occur,and it thus incorporates insights of chaos theory. Yet it transcends it because complexsystems somehow acquired the ability to bring order and chaos into a special balance (i.e.,the edge of chaos), they never quite lock into place, yet never quite dissolve into turbulence40 Watson, p.747. Watson refers to James Gleick, Chaos, Making a New Science (Penguin Books, NewYork, 1987).41 See Mitchell Waldrop, Complexity: The Emerging Science at the Edge of Order and Chaos (Viking, London ,1993).42 Michael Lissack, ‘Complexity: the Science, its Vocabulary, and its Relation to Organizations’,Emergence, Vol. 1, Issue 1, (1999), p.112.133