When is something complex

Posted by Mikhail Gorelkin on
URL: http://friam.383.s1.nabble.com/When-is-something-complex-tp525080p525090.html

Message...let's use this: the minimal description, which "works". ? --Mikhail
  ----- Original Message -----
  From: Phil Henshaw
  To: 'The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group'
  Sent: Tuesday, September 18, 2007 11:10 PM
  Subject: Re: [FRIAM] When is something complex


  ...maybe a definition that to go with Yaneer's riddle, and that fits with all, is that any individual thing is complex beyond
measure and any explanations are all comparatively very simple, differing among them only by whether they work or not.



  Phil Henshaw                       ????.?? ? `?.????
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    -----Original Message-----
    From: friam-bounces at redfish.com [mailto:friam-bounces at redfish.com] On Behalf Of Mikhail Gorelkin
    Sent: Tuesday, September 18, 2007 10:31 AM
    To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group
    Subject: Re: [FRIAM] When is something complex


    It seems I found a more fundamental definition: "So, if you want to characterize the complexity of an object, think about how
much you would have to write in order to describe it. Would it take a sentence, a paragraph, a few pages, a book, or many books?
Count the number of characters in the description. This is complexity." --Yaneer Bar-Yam "Making things works. Solving complex
problems in a complex world", p. 54. So, linear systems have simpler and shorter descriptions than non-linear ones. And the same is
true for centralized vs. decentralized systems. Any thoughts? --Mikhail

      ----- Original Message -----
      From: Alfredo CV
      To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group
      Sent: Tuesday, September 18, 2007 1:42 AM
      Subject: Re: [FRIAM] When is something complex




      To decide if a  phenomena is complex maybe It's necessary to identify patterns of self organization in the "behavior" of the
small units of individual that conform the population of interest. Maybe It's necesary to check the lack of centralized control and
the existence of some stable states.  I think these three features are the diagnostic features of complexity. I guess....

      I don't know what Hayes says but I'll think about these three features for  health insurance, medicare, Social Security and
Pensions in my country... (in fact is not mine, belongs to the richest and the multinationals.... anyhow).

      Regards

      Alfredo CV



health insurance,
Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, and the uninsured

      Mikhail Gorelkin wrote:
+1: I guess that complexity cannot be expressed adequately even in a term of computability. ? --Mikhail

----- Original Message -----
From: "Mikhail Gorelkin" <[hidden email]>
To: "The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group" <friam at redfish.com>
Sent: Sunday, September 16, 2007 6:24 PM
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] When is something complex


  Just two thoughts: 1) it seems that complexity is a more fundamental category than linearity / non-linearity, which are parts of a
sophisticated ***formal*** system; 2) I assume there are types of complexity (and, therefore, many - I mean really many - types)
that cannot be expressed in any formal system (beyond linearity / non-linearity). Something like G?del's theorem. ? --Mikhail

----- Original Message -----
From: "Nicholas Thompson" <[hidden email]>
To: <friam at redfish.com>
Sent: Sunday, September 16, 2007 4:45 PM
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] When is something complex


    Alfredo,

Good question.  In fact, the question of the day, for the Hayes talk.

Mysterious non linear effects in Hayes data leading to the conclusion good
hearted efforts in one direction lead to the opposite result.

I guess "mysterious non-linearity" is a good clue that the phenomenon is
complex.

Nick .





      Message: 1
Date: Sat, 15 Sep 2007 12:12:09 -0500
From: Alfredo CV <[hidden email]>
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] **today ** Lecture Wed Sep 12 12:30p: Jim Hayes -
Hedging Complex and Chaotic Private Health Insurance Markets and the
Uninsured
To: stephen.guerin at redfish.com, The Friday Morning Applied Complexity
Coffee Group <friam at redfish.com>
Message-ID: <46EC1269.7080008 at gmx.net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"


Hi

Of course it?s impossible to me to know details of the speeches you
usually have. In the distance I suppose that the first purpose of each
one of these speeches is to know and evaluate a broad type of cases
where complexity is used to understand phenomena. I wonder what makes
some phenomena suitable to be studied with a "complex" approach. What
must somebody take in consideration to decide that is studying a complex
phenomena?


Regards,


Alfredo CV




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