Complexity International       /vol09/standi09/ © Copyright 2001     
Volume 09 Received: 
Accepted: 		 14 Feb 2001
28 Sep 2001


On complexity and emergence

Standish, R. K.
Abstract
     Numerous definitions for complexity have been proposed over the last half century, with little consensus achieved on how to use the term. A definition of complexity is supplied here that is closely related to the Kolmogorov Complexity and Shannon Entropy measures widely used as complexity measures, yet addresses a number of concerns raised against these measures. However, the price of doing this is to introduce context dependence into the definition of complexity. It is argued that such context dependence is an inherent property of complexity, and related concepts such as entropy and emergence. Scientists are uncomfortable with such context dependence, which smacks of subjectivity, and this is perhaps the reason why little agreement has been found on the meaning of these terms.


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    Citation Reference
    Standish, R. K. (2001), On complexity and emergence, Complexity International, Volume 09, Paper ID: standi09, URL: http://www.complexity.org.au/vol09/standi09/
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