COMPLEXITY of systems
| Collection | International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics |
|---|---|
| Year | 2004 |
| Vol. (num.) | 2(1) |
| ID | ◀ 558 ▶ |
| Object type | General information |
H. SIMON enumerates the following criteria of complexity in systems:
- “ 1. Systems with many components may be considered complex compared with systems which have few. Thus the cardinality of a set may be considered as a measure of its complexity
2. The systems where there is much interdependence between components are generally considered more complex than those with less interdependence between them
3. Systems which are “undecidable” may be considered complex when compared with deterministic ones
4. Complexity of systems may be measured by their information content, in the sense of SHANNON-WEAVER. By this criterion, systems with many identical components are less complex than systems of similar size whose components are all different“ (1990, p.126).
SIMON also points out that one may also speak of complexity of theories or problems, for example:
- according to the number of parameters or symbols needed in a theory
- according to the number of elementary operations that must be computed in order to solve some type of problem
- in relation with computational complexity.