There is a big difference between what is complicated and what is complex.
A machine can be very complicated. As cars have become ever more sophisticated they have become more complicated. It’s not easy to see what’s wrong when your car breaks down, unless you have learned how it works.
Machines are made up of different parts, and there may be hundreds or thousands of parts in a machine but we can still learn exactly how it works and how to fix it by learning bit by bit just how each part works and how it affects any other part.
People on the other hand are complex. We also are made up of many many parts, billions and billions of cells, each of which is an agent acting on many other cells, and each of which, in turn is acted upon by many other cells. In fact, through the multiplicity of interactive connections which exist, it becomes impossible to deal with any single part in isolation, or, indeed, to be able to accurately predict the over all effects of any single change. It’s parts don’t necessarily function the same way in isolation as they do when under the influence of their multiple connections.
This structure makes the organism a complex one, not a complicated one.
Here is the key difference –
A complicated structure can be understood by understanding its individual parts.
A complex one can only be understood as a whole.
Complicated or complex….what’s the difference?
February 13, 2013 by bobleckridge
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