Themes

There are a number of awesome things that come out of interests and curiosities.

These disagreements result in considerable ambiguities in how concepts are discussed.  Different discourses engaging CAS often employ descriptors that, while intending to describe the same features, are generally not agreed upon. Hence, terms including Manifold, Phase Space, ‘space of possibility’, and The Virtual all essentially refer to the same thing. Crucially, even principle terms such as Emergence and self-organization remain subject to debate. The word ‘complexity’ itself is often conflated with the word ‘complicated’. Meanwhile, some researchers qualify CAS according to governing mechanisms, distinguishing between algorithmic, deterministic, and aggregate complexity. Others use terminology in metaphoric ways – where any decisions become ‘Bifurcations’ point, regardless of whether or not this is a threshold associated with a relevant control parameter. The ever-increasing array of terms and concepts makes it increasingly difficult to gain insights across discourses.

Understanding CAS

The phrase  ‘Complex Adaptive System’ itself has an ambiguous history. In 1967, Sociologist Walter Buckley, informed by systems and cybernetic approaches, introduced the phrase to discuss aspects of the personality. However, the use of the term ‘adaptive’ is deceptive, as it was not intended to describe the nature of the system itself, but rather act as a qualifier on its human element - a cognitive subject possessing ‘adaptive capacity’. By contrast, as early as 1962 Herbert Simon HANDLEBAR FAIL described systems one would now call CAS, but while he speaks both of ‘complex systems’ and their ‘adaptiveness’ he does not employ the phrase nor offer a definition of what such systems would entail.

CAS as understood today can be traced back to the mid-1980s at the newly formed Santa Fe Institute. In the summer of 1986, the Institute announced a workshop on ‘Complex Adaptive Systems’ described as, ‘systems comprising large numbers of coupled elements the properties of which are modifiable as a result of environmental interactions’. Both John Holland and Murray Gell-Mann adopt this usage by the mid-1980s, but no mention of its meaning seems to be circulated until the early 1990s - at which point various definitions of CAS appear outlining its ‘principles’, ‘attributes’ or ‘defining features’.

This is a testing page for sean and it should serve as a way to make sure things are working with the page editor.

I've tried to float a video into the space here, lets see how this works since it is new to me and I am excited about the opportunities it affords.