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The terms complexity, complex adaptive systems,
and sciences of complexity are found often in recent scientific
literature, reflecting the remarkable growth in collaborative
academic research focused on complexity from the origin
and dynamics of organisms to the largest social and political
organizations. One of the great challenges in this field
of research is to discover which features are essential
and shared by all of the seemingly disparate systems that
are described as complex. Is there sufficient synthesis
to suggest the possibility of an overarching science of
complexity? This report describes current views on this
subject held by various eminent scholars associated with
the Santa Fe Institute.
The physical sciences have traditionally
been concerned with "simple" systems whose dynamics
can be described in mathematical terms with precision and
certainty. In contrast, the biological and social sciences
are inevitably concerned with self-organized or social "complex"
systems whose detailed behaviours appear to be unpredictable.
The two categories differ greatly in size and diversity,
prompting the late mathematician Stanislaus Ulam to remark
that research on complex systems might be compared to the
study of non-elephants. Nevertheless, certain integrative
themes have begun to emerge.
Rising activity in this field of research
runs completely counter to the trend toward increasing fragmentation
and specialization in the sciences. It has stimulated a
resurgence of interest in a broad synthesis involving mathematics,
computational science, physics, chemistry, biology, neuroscience,
and the social sciences. The growth of effort in this very
extended field has been greatly stimulated by the development
of new computational tools that are capable of dealing with
vast, interrelated databases. Many of the participants in
complexity research feel that it is now time to reintegrate
the fragmented Interests of much of the academic community.
The reader is encouraged to consider whether such views
are sparking an historic renaissance of scholarship or represent
a passing scientific diversion.
George A. Cowan is Founding President
Emeritus of the Santa Fe Institute and chaired the program
committee for the meeting whose proceedings are reported
in this volume. He is Senior Fellow Emeritus at the Los
Alamos National Laboratory where he directs research in
the physical and biological sciences. He has served on numerous
national advisory groups, including the White House Science
Council, and is a recipient of the Enrico Fermi Award.
David Pines is Center for Advanced Study
Professor of Physics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
and a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American
Philosophical Society, a foreign member of the Russian Academy
of Sciences, a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and
Sciences, and of the American Association for the Advancement
of Science. Professor Pines is also a cofounder of the Santa
Fe Institute and past chairman of the SFI Board of Trustees
and of the SFI Board.
David Meltzer is a visiting assistant
professor of Physics at Southeastern Louisiana University
in Hammond. He received his Ph.D. in Theoretical Physics
from S.U.N.Y. at Stony Brook in 1985. His post doctoral
appointments include participation in the Quantum Theory
Project at the University of Florida in Gainesville.
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