Complexity

Complexity generally refers to the ability of a system or model whose overall behavior is even then you can not clearly describe when one has complete information about its individual components and their interactions.

The term derives from the Latin complexum, past participle of complecti entwine, ' include ' or ' summarize '. It is a composite of the Latin preposition cum, with 'or' together with ' and plectere, braid ' or ' fit together ' in the sense of intertwined ',' interwoven '.

Definitions

The term is defined differently depending on the author and science area.

The economist Peter Ulrich referred to the complexity of a situation with the complex interaction of factors and the extent of their mutual interdependence and characterizes this as a feature structurable bad decision-making situations. Complexity is a possible form of a counter part of Simplicity, determinability and manageability.

The complexity of a fact is reflected by the amount of details that are different from all the other details of the case so that there is no simplistic abstraction that reduces the level of detail. Complexity is also created by conflicting objectives, dilemmas and not determinierbares behavior of autonomous system units and is an essential feature of social, societal and cultural systems.

• In systems theory, complex systems are described by a number of characterizing properties. The complexity of the system increases with the number of elements, the number of links between these elements as well as the functionality of the links ( for example, non-linearity ).
• Dealing with complexity in business is part of the topic complexity management ( reduction of complexity ).

Assuming that each complexity impression reflects a perception of difficulty in the first instance, there is another approach is to differentiate between two causes: the lack of dependencies and order in the external world ( ontological complexity ) and the excessive demands of human perception means by variety and variety of existing dependencies and order ( epistemological complexity). Closely related opposites pairs of terms of the ontological and epistemological complexity are respectively proposed by Warren Weaver pairs of terms of the " unorganized complexity " and " organized complexity."

• Limits of definability

There are views that the term " complexity " is autologically, that is, that one can relate to him yourself: The concept of complexity is itself complex.

Study areas

Computer science

In theoretical computer science the complexity theory describes an approach for estimating the resource utilization for the treatment of certain algorithmic problems. The complexity is high when on the one hand a lot and the other in the sum very intricate details are to be treated. See also: complexity ( computer science ), Kolmogorov complexity, algorithmic depth.

Products

Due to technical progress, the complexity of technical products has greatly increased, especially through the integration of electronic control units. Then up to 50 control units are installed in a vehicle today that are linked to each other and communicate with each other. This also simultaneously increases the complexity of the technical documentation and has an increased complexity of production planning and control result.