Dr. Martin Hash Podcast

Newtonian physics is rather simple: action equals reaction; good for building cars and civilizations, but most of nature is incomprehensively complex, so that the only way humans can model them is with statistics, which is the probability that an event will occur times uncountable events. Though there are some complex systems that can be controlled, the vast majority cannot, and no Top Down approach can ever manage them: too many variables to determine the outcome, and it requires perfect knowledge as well as being able to predict the future.

Simple examples of Complex Systems in life are flocking birds, or schools of fish, and other events that look like there's a Grand Design but in reality are the combination of finely granulated autonomous decisions of each of the members. No master force can predict what those fish are going to do, it's better to set back and wait for the time they come under your boat to fish. This simple solution of observe and wait applied to the complexity problem was proposed for economic markets by Adam Smith, followed by social philosopher Friedrich Hayek, as a basis of his political theory. Computer Scientists adopted this idea with Object Oriented programming, and Artificial Intelligence is totally based on the concept of taking a wait-and-see approach, reactionary rather than proactive; adjust rather than try to control; which may seem troubling to some personalities but it's really the only logical way to live a complex life.