As a level of chaos
“A complex system that works is invariably found to have evolved from a simple system that worked. A complex system designed from scratch never works and cannot be patched up to make it work. You have to start over, beginning with a working simple system.” John Gall
2008
Complexity is the level of chaos brought together to create a uniform design working as one. When complexity is created throughout a design, it conveys a simplistic meaning of efficiency and order. A system of interacting elements can have a deeper meaning as the structure/system moves together within itself. Though the interactions of the parts in a “disorganized complexity” situation can be seen as largely random, the properties of the system as a whole can be understood by using probability and statistical methods. In the sense of how complicated a problem is from the perspective of the person trying to solve it, limits of complexity are measured using a term from cognitive psychology, namely the hrair limit. “The concept of the hrair limit is illustrated by imagining the six faces of a die used tp play dice. It is easy for many people to visualise each of the six faces. Now imagine seven dots, eight dots, nine dots, ten dots, and so on. At some point it becomes impossible to visualise the dots as a single pattern, and one thinks of, say, eight as two groups of four. The upper limit of your visualisation of a number represented as dots is your hrair limit for that exercise.”( neohumanism.org ) Complexity coexists with the chaos theory, which is the study of a system that appears to be random but in theory could be a system of complex networks.
References:
John Gall, What is Culture?
http://www.37signals.com/svn/posts/1414-a-complex-system-that-works-is-invariably
Image:”Live Modern” (Image adapted)
http://livemodern.com/everglades_house1_small.jpg
Hrair limit
http://neohumanism.org/h/hr/hrair_limit.html
