CAS Research
A diagram illustrating an idealized CAS. Graphic courtesy of Wikipedia |
The study of complex adaptive systems is an offshoot of the larger field of complex systems. Complex systems are any kind of dynamic system that exhibits emergent behavior, which is to say, any behavior that is not obvious from examination of the consitutents of the system.
Besides complex adaptive systems, there are other types of complex systems, notably chaotic systems and non-linear systems. What differentiates complex adaptive systems from these other types is that the elements (or agents) of a complex adaptive system can learn from their experience, and can change over time.
The first step on the road to understanding complex adaptive systems came in the 1950s with the invention of genetic algorithms by Nils Barricelli. Barricelli was a mathematician at the Institute for Advanced Study in New Jersey at the time. His ideas were relatively obscure until they were popularized by John Holland in his 1975 book Adaptation in Natural and Artificial Systems. Holland went on to write several more books about complex adaptive systems, and he still lectures on the subject. Holland is now a professor at the University of Michigan and the Santa Fe Institute, and he still travels and lectures about complex adaptive systems.
Complex adaptive systems research had largely fallen in the realm of computer science until the mid-1990s, when several popular books about complexity were published, including the considerably influential book The Quark and the Jaguar, by physicist Murray Gell-Mann.
Around this time, the study of complex adaptive systems started attracting interest from a wider variety of scientific disciplines. Social scientists have been particularly intrigued by the idea, due primarily to the fact that any kind of social interaction can be described using complex adaptive system models.
Today, reasearch continues and new ways of thinking about adaptation and complexity, as well as new computational models in an increasing number of disciplines, are springing up all the time.
In a 2001 article for Time Magazine, Susan Ballati of the Santa Fe Institute made the point that complex systems will only continue to become more important to understanding the world in the future.
"The bigger story," said Susan Ballati, "is not about Bios Group or SFI or other offshoots; rather, it is how a complex adaptive-systems approach to looking at the world is really what will be driving policy, business, education and research in the 21st century." |
