COMPLEXITY (Unwarranted)
| Collection | International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics |
|---|---|
| Year | 2004 |
| Vol. (num.) | 2(1) |
| ID | ◀ 565 ▶ |
| Object type | Epistemology, ontology or semantics, Methodology or model |
A groundless complexity in modelling codes.
J.L.LE MOIGNE states: “Many phenomena initially perceived as complex (nearly unintelligible or non correctly representable) seem suddenly to become comprehensible when modelizers change the description code… The Martian orbit that KEPLER desperately tried to describe at the cost of 900 pages of calculation, through a peculiarly complex epicycloid… turned suddenly easy to describe and interprete once the Ptolemaic code and the Copernican one of celestial spheres… were replaced by the elliptic code” (1990, p.301).
This type of roadblocks to understanding is quite frequent. It should however be observed that the inverse situation does exist: Hamiltonian models were too simple to explain and modelize chaos, as first demonstrated by POINCARÉ.