Elaborateness and Entropy as the Chief Ingredients of Complexity

I don’t think it’s debatable that while most people can accurately identify complexity, they can’t necessarily accurately describe either the phenomenon or the conditions of complexity. In the real world complexity can, of course, manifest in an infinite number of things. As such, there exist in the real world infinite varieties of complexities, the specific elucidation of which requires intimate knowledge of the thing with respect to which the specific sort and stripe of complexity at-hand is an emergent property. For purposes of this blog, we will examine the objective conception of complexity in a most general manner. As it is, a thorough understanding of complexity in general is a prerequisite for understanding a particular or specific form of complexity.

My personal definition of complexity is that it is the entropy that accompanies an increasing degree of elaboration. The condition of numerous parts, pieces, elements, variables etc. constituting something is a sine qua non for rendering something complex. However, the mere existence of a multitude of variables alone does not truly account for the general state of complexity. In other words, a multitude of variables is a necessary, but not a sufficient, quality for rendering something complex. In my opinion, the qualities of intricacy and elaborateness without a sufficient degree of effectuated entropy do not truly amount to something being complex irrespective of the fact that precisely such a thing could or would be regarded as complex in common parlance. Rather, it is the multiple sets of interrelationships, and the incidence of interactions, among the numerous constituent variables that definitively contribute to the inscrutability of any given conglomeration.

Said interrelationships are the relationships that are interwoven throughout the variables constituting a physical or theoretical edifice; they are the assumed forms of the qualities and conditions that associate and connect numerous variables. Thus a reasonable understanding of a complex concept or system requires a thorough understanding of the nature of multiple embedded interrelationships and their underpinning qualities and conditions that conjoin the variables interlocked in such relationships. Moreover, the challenge posed by complexity is that in many instances, at least in functional terms, one often must have not just a deep but also an expansive understanding; one must develop a thorough understanding of a majority, if not all, of these built-in interrelationships. In the absence of an expansive understanding of the constituent variables and their attendant or resultant interrelationships, one would be unable to predict how a modification to, or the elimination or addition of, a variable or interwoven relationship influences the other interacting variables or interrelationships. This high degree of volatility or difficulty in predictability is, in my opinion, appropriately described as entropy.

[As an aside, the personal definition of complexity of one of my philosophy club members is that complexity is a consequence of how definable something is; the easier it is to define something, the more simple it is whereas the more difficult it is to define something, the more complex it is. I liked this definition and based on what we have hitherto discussed, it ostensibly, at least in a loose sense, is accurate.]

As can be seen, the essence of the idea of complexity is the multiplicity of parts, the interconnectivity and interconnectedness of such parts, and the multiplicity of interrelationships forged by such interconnectedness. A concrete, instead of a mere intuitive, understanding of the phenomenon, concept, and conditions of complexity is highly useful to any student of a complex subject because it allows one to deliberately and methodically plan an effective course of study, to isolate the components (i.e., the variables and interrelationships) and then to study them in a targeted manner with an eye toward their totalized resonance. This way, after getting the broad brushstrokes, one can more effectively begin the deliberate process of incrementally moving from the known to the unknown.