Simply complex | Einfach komplex


Feb 28, 2020

The complex put simple?

 

 

 Admittedly, the publications and methods of complexity science with all its formulas are difficult to understand for laymen and -women.

 

But the underlying principles are well communicable: what complexity really is; which properties complex systems have ; and that it is not only worthwhile, but increasingly necessary to understand complex systems.

 

After all, our world with its thousands of parts does not follow a simple if-then logic.

 

The living world is connected, knotted and wired in a variety of ways. The (sub)systems are interdependent, in constant exchange, in ongoing, interactive evolution and change.

 

Geht komplex auch einfach?

 

Zugegeben: Die Publikationen und Methoden der Komplexitätsforschung mit all ihren Formeln sind für Laien und Laiinnen nur schwer zu verstehen.

 

Sehr wohl vermittelbar sind aber die zugrunde liegenden Prinzipien: was Komplexität eigentlich ist; welche Eigenschaften komplexe Systeme haben; und dass es sich nicht nur lohnt, sondern sogar immer zwingender nötig wird, komplexe Systeme zu verstehen.

 

Denn unsere Welt mit ihren tausenden Teilbereichen folgt nun einmal nicht simplen Wenn-Dann-Logiken. Alles Lebendige ist auf vielfältigste Weise verbunden, verknotet, verdrahtet. Die Systeme sind voneinander abhängig, in ständigem Austausch, in laufender, ebenfalls wechselwirkender Entwicklung und Veränderung.

The many challenges humanity faces today make it more and more obvious: With the reductionism we practiced so far, we only insufficiently can approach this complexity. We need entirely new tools, a new way of thinking, to cope with the complex world.

 

Complexity science is about to develop these tools. It wants to find ways to deal with complex systems in “more appropriate” ways than the reductionist approaches have done so far.

 

That’s why it is worthwhile for non-mathematicians and non-physicists too to give complexity a second thought.

Die vielfältigen Herausforderungen, mit denen die Menschheit heute konfrontiert ist, machen es immer deutlicher: Mit dem bisher praktizierten Reduktionismus können wir uns dieser Komplexität nur unzureichend nähern. Wir brauchen ganz neue Werkzeuge, ein neues Denken, um der komplexen Welt gerecht zu werden.

 

Die Komplexitätsforschung ist dabei, diese Werkzeuge zu entwickeln. Sie will Wege finden, “richtiger” mit komplexen Systemen umzugehen, als es die bisherigen reduktionistische Ansätze geschafft haben.

 

Es lohnt sich also auch für Nicht-Mathematiker und Nicht-Physikerinnen, sich mit dem Thema zu beschäftigten.

To facilitate the approach, I have prepared a few “explanatory pieces”:

 

Um den Einstieg zu erleichtern, habe ich ein paar “Erklärstücke” vorbereitet:

 

I would also like to refer to a German article – with the telling title “Everything so terribly complicated” – which I wrote a few years ago as a journalist for “profil Wissen” and which also deals with the principles, basic assumptions and areas of application of complexity research. Incidentally, it cites some of the those complexity researchers who are closely linked to the Hub today.

Ich möchte außerdem auf einen Artikel in deutscher Sprache verweisen – mit dem bezeichnenden Titel “Alles so furchtbar kompliziert” –, den ich vor ein paar Jahren als Journalistin für “profil Wissen” verfasst habe und in dem es ebenfalls um die Prinzipien, Grundannahmen und um die Anwendungsgebiete der Komplexitätsforschung geht. Darin kommen übrigens auch einige jener Komplexitätsforscher und Expertinnen zu Wort, die heute eng mit dem Hub verbunden sind.

I wish you a pleasant read!

Erbauliche Betrachtung und Lektüre wünscht

Verena Ahne

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