A Brief History of Complexity Theory

            A new scientific discipline, called complexity theory, looks at complex systems and their environments in much the same way as chaos theory. George Cowan founded the Santa Fe Institute, in New Mexico, in May, 1984. Stephen Wolfram began the Center for Complex Systems at the University of Illinois, in 1986. Both organizations were founded to investigate complexity. They have defined complexity as "a chaos of behaviors in which the components of the system never quite lock into place, yet never quite dissolve into turbulence either" (Waldrop, 1992, p. 293).

            The Santa Fe institute is interdisciplinary, making use of economists, physicists, administrators, biologists, and mathematicians. All are working closely together, trying to find order in complex systems.

            Complexity lies at the edge of chaos (the phrase edge of chaos was first used by Norman Packard in 1988) within the fine line that lies between order and chaos. Although this region is thin, it is vast, like the surface of the ocean. The edge of chaos is a transition phase, where life itself is thought to be created and sustained.

            According to Waldrop (1992), Chris Langton at the Santa Fe Institute, proposed the following interesting equation (demonstrated for cellular automata but likely to apply to other areas):

            The arrows in this equation are meant in the sense of phase transitions in the same way as ice can become water and then steam. A complexity phase was found to exist between order and chaos. Langton defined complexity as the line of balance, or transition point, between order and chaos, partaking of both.

            Nicolis & Prigogine (1989), in contrast, define complexity as the ability of a system “to switch between different modes of behavior as the environmental conditions are varied” (p. 218). In other words, complex systems are able to adapt to their environments.