COMPLEXITY AND CONNECTIVITY:BAR-YAM AGAIN

Preface:

I’ve been pondering the relationship between complexity and connectivity ever since I was prompted by a post and an email from Dave at Thoughts Illustrated. Due to time constraints, I was not able to give the insights Dave offered in his email the proper attention they deserved then but I’m returning to the subject today.

The background here is a short paper on civilizational complexity, ” Complexity Rising:From Human Beings to Human Civilization, A Complexity Profile” by Dr. Yaneer Bar-Yam that I forwarded to a number of thoughtful people, some of whom also were bloggers. My take on Bar-Yam’s paper at the time had to do with ” The Resilience of Civilizations“; Steve DeAngelis at ERMB responded with “Networked Civilization Revisited“; Curtis Gale Weeks at Phatic Communion put these ideas in the context of the theories of John Boyd with “Rule Sets and the Revised OODA” and Dan of tdaxp followed Curtis with “Comments on Verticalization and Progress“. Dr. Von, who introduced me to the ideas of Dr. Bar-Yam in the first place, offered some verbal commentary in person but helpfully pointed to an older post of his, “Our Universe:Continual Emergence“as well.

The Relationship of Complexity and Connectivity in Civilization:

Civilizations are long enduring, complex adaptive social systems that remain distinctive from their neighbors. Differences between civilizatons are visible even to casual observers in the form of culture, language, religious belief, social customs and economic productivity. The origin or causation of civilizational differences have been hotly debated for dozens of centuries and at various times, climate, geography, divine favor, chance or superiority in terms of culture, genetics, martial prowess, political, economic or moral systems have all been offered up as explanations and all have met with fierce criticism.

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