What is complexity?
A system that has many interacting and adapting parts that change in response to their environment can show complex behaviors. There are many such systems found in Nature. Examples are:- weather and climate
- the Internet
- the nervous system
- protein networks in the metabolism in cells
- ecosystems
- financial markets and economies
- social systems
- cities
System-wide behaviors cannot be understood or predicted from the study of a single part since each part adapts to its environment and interacts with other parts of the system. Completely new behaviors at a system level can occur - such systems show emergent behaviors.
Complex systems as listed above are found in many different domains. The study of complexity science aims to find the underlying mechanism of complex systems indepenently of their respective scientific domain - be they in physics, biology, social systems, or technological systems.
Complexity science looks at the world in a new way and studies commonalities of systems in completely different scientific domains.
