"From a more general philosophical perspective we can say that we wish to model complex systems because we want to understand them better. The main requirement for our models accordingly shifts from having to be correct to being rich in information. This does not mean that the relationship between the model and the system itself becomes less important, but the shift from control and prediction to understanding does have an effect on our approach to complexity: the evaluation of our models in terms of performance can be deferred. Once we have a better understanding of the dynamics of complexity, we can start looking for the similarities and differences between different complex systems and thereby develop a clearer understanding of the strengths and limitations of different models." (Paul Cilliers,"Complexity and Postmodernism: Understanding Complex Systems", 1998)
"The robustness of the misperceptions of feedback and the poor performance they cause are due to two basic and related deficiencies in our mental model. First, our cognitive maps of the causal structure of systems are vastly simplified compared to the complexity of the systems themselves. Second, we are unable to infer correctly the dynamics of all but the simplest causal maps. Both are direct consequences of bounded rationality, that is, the many limitations of attention, memory, recall, information processing capability, and time that constrain human decision making." (John D Sterman, "Business Dynamics: Systems thinking and modeling for a complex world", 2000)
"The very essence of mass communication theory is a simple but all-embracing expression of technological determinism, since the essential features depend on what certain technologies have made possible, certain technologies have made possible, especially the following: communication at a distance, the multiplication and simultaneous distribution of diverse ‘messages’, the enormous capacity and speed of carriers, and the limitations on response. There is no escaping the implication that public communication as practised in modern societies is profoundly shaped by these general features." (Denis McQuail, "McQuail's Reader in Mass Communication Theory", 2002)
"A characteristic of such chaotic dynamics is an extreme sensitivity to initial conditions (exponential separation of neighboring trajectories), which puts severe limitations on any forecast of the future fate of a particular trajectory. This sensitivity is known as the ‘butterfly effect’: the state of the system at time t can be entirely different even if the initial conditions are only slightly changed, i.e., by a butterfly flapping its wings." (Hans J Korsch et al, "Chaos: A Program Collection for the PC", 2008)
"We are beginning to see the entire universe as a holographically interlinked network of energy and information, organically whole and self-referential at all scales of its existence. We, and all things in the universe, are non-locally connected with each other and with all other things in ways that are unfettered by the hitherto known limitations of space and time." (Ervin László, "Cosmos: A Co-creator's Guide to the Whole-World", 2010)
"Cyberneticists argue that positive feedback may be useful, but it is inherently unstable, capable of causing loss of control and runaway. A higher level of control must therefore be imposed upon any positive feedback mechanism: self-stabilising properties of a negative feedback loop constrain the explosive tendencies of positive feedback. This is the starting point of our journey to explore the role of cybernetics in the control of biological growth. That is the assumption that the evolution of self-limitation has been an absolute necessity for life forms with exponential growth." (Tony Stebbing, "A Cybernetic View of Biological Growth: The Maia Hypothesis", 2011)
"In an information economy, entrepreneurs master the science of information in order to overcome the laws of the purely physical sciences. They can succeed because of the surprising power of the laws of information, which are conducive to human creativity. The central concept of information theory is a measure of freedom of choice. The principle of matter, on the other hand, is not liberty but limitation - it has weight and occupies space." (George Gilder, "Knowledge and Power: The Information Theory of Capitalism and How it is Revolutionizing our World", 2013)
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