Transcript Abbott
Complex Systems Engineering • Complex systems are no longer mysterious. • We have a broad consensus about – what we mean by a complex system, – what their properties are, and – how they operate. • It’s time to put complex systems to work. January 11, 2007 Russ Abbott Characteristics – structure • Multi-scalar, i.e., multiple levels of abstraction – IT systems involve quantum physics, solid-state electronics, gates & logic, software (often many levels), CONOPs, … – Prone to phase transitions/chaos: small change → big effect. – Each level illustrates emergence, sometimes planned sometime unplanned. • If the system involves real physical stuff … – No useful bottom level. Quarks? Quantum waves? Strings? • Hence no good models of evolutionary arms races. – The levels cannot be completely isolated from each other … • or we would have magic, i.e., new sources of causation, e.g., vitalism. • except when implemented in software. • Includes “loosely coupled” components with a certain degree of autonomy, e.g., agents. January 11, 2007 Russ Abbott Characteristics – environment • Intimately entangled with its environment. – Built to interact with its environment—to do something in the world. – Can often be controlled/manipulated by modifying its environment. • Each level of abstraction is often a multi-sided platform. – A shopping center, an operating system, a browser, a standard. – Whoever owns it controls it! (See governance below.) • Boundaries are deliberately permeable and indistinct. – Must extract energy from its environment to persist. (“Far from equilibrium.”) – Societies (of internal and external “agents”); not monolithic structures. • System of systems; the operator goes home; a new president is elected. • Must adapt to a continually changing environment – The environment continually adapts to it. – Simultaneously (a) deployed and (b) under development and self-repair. • e.g., us (you and me), a government, a corporation, Wikipedia. – A social entity; hardware and software are only bones and nerves. – Requires a well thought out governance structure. January 11, 2007 Russ Abbott Our task – to put these ideas to work • To refine, clarify, and formalize them. • To evangelize. – To make them intuitive, commonplace, and everyday—a part of everyone’s vernacular. • To use them to conceptualize our systems. • To make them operational. – To adapt them to practice in building real systems. – To create development processes based on them. – To build tools that allow anyone to use them. January 11, 2007 Russ Abbott Special Issue of Complexity • Wiley’s Complexity is one of the premier journals in Complex Systems. • Alfred Hubler, Executive Editor, is one of our participants. • He has suggested a special issue of papers related to this symposium. • If you want to submit a paper, please send it to me ([email protected]) by March 4. January 11, 2007 Russ Abbott