Complex Systems

A quick run through by Wikipedia:

 

A complex system is a system composed of interconnected parts that as a whole exhibit one or more properties (behavior among the possible properties) not obvious from the properties of the individual parts.^{[citation needed]} This characteristic of every system is called emergence and is true of any system, not just complex ones^{[citation needed]}.

A system’s complexity may be of one of two forms: disorganized complexity and organized complexity.^[1] In essence, disorganized complexity is a matter of a very large number of parts, and organized complexity is a matter of the subject system (quite possibly with only a limited number of parts) exhibiting emergent properties.

Examples of complex systems include ant colonies, human economies and social structures, climate, nervous systems, cells and living things, including human beings, as well as modern energy or telecommunication infrastructures. Indeed, many systems of interest to humans are complex systems.

Complex systems are studied by many areas of natural science, mathematics, and social science. Fields that specialize in the interdisciplinary study of complex systems includesystems theory, complexity theory, systems ecology, and cybernetics.

 

Complex Systems in Searching

Well, Stephen Wolfram might have done something that needs further insight and attention. What google has done for the search arena is spectacular, but what Wolfram Alpha is doing is perhaps more praise worthy. Part of the fascination lies in the NKS which Stephen developed. I personally like this notion, and find his thinking and thought pattern as a necessity or a gift for people in the field of system. I mean the reason that we aren’t able to properly solve or tackle a problem is because we’ve exhausted all channels that could be used under the traditional method, but with NKS, well, you are talking about a whole new paradigm.

 

When asked about Wolfram Alpha and Googles difference, Stephen gave the best answer:

"You would probably not use Wolfram Alpha to shop for a new car, find blog posts about a topic, or to choose a resort for your honeymoon. It is not a system that will understand the nuances of what you consider to be the perfect romantic getaway, for example--there is still no substitute for manual human-guided search for that. Where it appears to excel is when you want facts about something, or when you need to compute a factual answer to some set of questions about factual data."

 

Stephen Wolfram

Stephen Wolfram is a distinguished scientist, inventor, author, and business leader. He is the creator of Mathematica, the author of A New Kind of Science, the creator ofWolfram|Alpha, and the founder and CEO of Wolfram Research. His career has been characterized by a sequence of original and significant achievements.

Born in London in 1959, Wolfram was educated at Eton, Oxford, and Caltech. He published his first scientific paper at the age of 15, and had received his PhD in theoretical physics from Caltech by the age of 20. Wolfram's early scientific work was mainly in high-energy physics, quantum field theory, and cosmology, and included several now-classic results. Having started to use computers in 1973, Wolfram rapidly became a leader in the emerging field of scientific computing, and in 1979 he began the construction of SMP—the first modern computer algebra system—which he released commercially in 1981.

In recognition of his early work in physics and computing, Wolfram became in 1981 the youngest recipient of a MacArthur Prize Fellowship. Late in 1981 Wolfram then set out on an ambitious new direction in science aimed at understanding the origins of complexity in nature. Wolfram's first key idea was to use computer experiments to study the behavior of simple computer programs known as cellular automata. And starting in 1982 this allowed him to make a series of startling discoveries about the origins of complexity. The papers Wolfram published quickly had a major impact, and laid the groundwork for the emerging field that Wolfram called "complex systems research."

Through the mid-1980s, Wolfram continued his work on complexity, discovering a number of fundamental connections between computation and nature, and inventing such concepts as computational irreducibility. Wolfram's work led to a wide range of applications—and provided the main scientific foundations for such initiatives as complexity theory and artificial life. Wolfram himself used his ideas to develop a new randomness generation system and a new approach to computational fluid dynamics—both of which are now in widespread use.

Following his scientific work on complex systems research, in 1986 Wolfram founded the first research center and the first journal in the field, Complex Systems. Then, after a highly successful career in academia—first at Caltech, then at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, and finally as Professor of Physics, Mathematics, and Computer Science at the University of Illinois—Wolfram launched Wolfram Research, Inc.

Wolfram began the development of Mathematica in late 1986. The first version of Mathematica was released on June 23, 1988, and was immediately hailed as a major advance in computing. In the years that followed, the popularity of Mathematica grew rapidly, and Wolfram Research became established as a world leader in the software industry, widely recognized for excellence in both technology and business.

Following the release of Mathematica Version 2 in 1991, Wolfram began to divide his time between Mathematica development and scientific research. Building on his work from the mid-1980s, and now with Mathematica as a tool, Wolfram made a rapid succession of major new discoveries. By the mid-1990s his discoveries led him to develop a fundamentally new conceptual framework, which he then spent the remainder of the 1990s applying not only to new kinds of questions, but also to many existing foundational problems in physics, biology, computer science, mathematics, and several other fields.

After more than ten years of highly concentrated work, Wolfram finally described his achievements in his 1200-page book A New Kind of Science. Released on May 14, 2002, the book was widely acclaimed and immediately became a bestseller. Its publication has been seen as initiating a paradigm shift of historic importance in science, with new implications emerging at an increasing rate every year.

Wolfram has been president and CEO of Wolfram Research since its founding in 1987. In addition to his business leadership, Wolfram is deeply involved in the development of the company's technology, and continues to be personally responsible for overseeing all aspects of the functional design of the coreMathematica system.

Wolfram has a lifelong commitment to research and education. In addition to providing software for a generation of scientists and students, Wolfram's company maintains some of the web's most visited sites for technical information. Wolfram is also increasingly active in defining new directions for education, especially in the science he has created.

Building on Mathematica, A New Kind of Science, and the success of Wolfram Research, Wolfram in May 2009 launched Wolfram|Alpha—an ambitious, long-term project to make as much of the world's knowledge as possible computable, and accessible to everyone.

Systems in Obama's World

A couple of months ago, I attended a lecture, where the guest lecture, Jon Wade, was talking about the importance of System Engineering in solving tomorrows problems. It made total sense, a lot of the challenges that America is facing in this new decade and century are systematic challenges.

For example, when the Christmas day suspect terrorist was able to board the plane, Obama said: “ System Failed in a major way”(SILOBreaker). He did not mention a particular agency or entity for the failure, like the CIA or HLS agency, but he mentioned a system level failure. That is because times have changed and true essence of synergy is shaping more as a reality than a myth. As Aristotle once said it, the whole is the sum of its parts, and that is a challenge that we are still facing and where Systems Engineer would have a big impact.

The same goes for the solution to the Health care reform or starting the green technology revolution for the future. As the complexitiy of problems increase, there needs to be a new set of tools and methods to approach these problems, and that is what Systems Engineers need to think about.