4 Some concepts related to complexity

4.1 Size

The use of complexity as size is usually casual and not meant as anything more than an ad hoc definition. Examples include "the size of a genome" and "the number of species in an ecology". Here size is an indication of the general difficulty in dealing with the system and the potential for a complex system. To see that this is not a sufficient definition of complexity compare a microprocessor with a chest of nails, nobody would exclaim "My, how complex!" on opening the chest of nails. Here the parts (represented in most normal ways) are not inter-related and hence the size of the system is insufficient for it to be counted as complex. Often there is an assumption that all such parts are inter-related in situations where this definition is used. Making this assumption clear by specifying the language of representation and the relationship of size with complexity would help make this assumption transparent.

To take a biological example: in terms of a language of chemical inter-actions, the genome of a human being may well be more complex than that of wheat, despite the fact that the latter is about 10 times bigger.

What is Complexity? - The philosophy of complexity per se with application to some examples in evolution - 14 JUN 95

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