Well, I've gone and launched a blog on complexity.

Following a terrific presentation by INCOSE on complexity and systems engineering, I've decided to create a web-space where I can publish my ramblings about complex adaptive systems (CAS's).

Complex adaptive sytems are best described by what they are not. The opposite of CAS's are architected or designed systems. I'm a systems engineer. Much has been written and spoken about designed systems. For these traditional systems, we know how to define requirements, establish standards, separate the design process into parts, and create this thing from sheer cloth. (Or steel, or digits--you get the pic). But, many--perhaps most--systems we deal with on a daily basis had no requirements document, no standards committee, and no validation process. They just grew.

'So what?', you might ask. Well, since CAS's make up so much of our daily lives, wouldn't it be nice to have a plan when they break? For when they stop delivering output that we depended on? How about for predicting when and how often they will break?

That's where I come in: I carry an agent-based model. Or some other tool of CAS analysis. In short, I work (academically) at the frontier of a whole new systems science. And, hopefully, I'll be able to send dispaches from the front lines as we all explore this brave, new world.

Redbeard