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Friday, January 12, 2007

Complexity and Evolving Orders

This line in the Science Journal article in today's WSJ really caught my eye:
Mathematicians, to their dismay, are the first scientists to face the shattering and humbling prospect that the complexities of nature may be beyond the reach of the human mind.
Despite accelerating scientific and technological breakthroughs including in the study of complexity all that we really get to do is chip away at our ignorance. The complexity of an economy or the even greater extended order of human cooperation is beyond anything but the fairly general comprehension of any one mind or small group of minds.

Allowed to evolve through trial and error of both the rules and specific activities, such orders can evolve complexity and useful powers far beyond those derived from any grand plan!

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