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Science, Computers, and the Complexity of Nature

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2022

Peter Caws
Peter Caws*
Affiliation:
Carnegie Corporation of New York
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Abstract

The relations between simplicity and economy, and between simplicity and complexity, are briefly discussed, and it is suggested that an appearance of simplicity may arise out of the matching of two complexities, e.g. in the perception of a simple color. Following out this idea, it is shown that scientific activity may be regarded as a matching of theoretical complexity against the complexity of nature, which leads to an expectation of an optimum theoretical complexity for successful scientific work. Some senses of “success” in this context are discussed, and the role of computing machines in helping to achieve it assessed.

Type
Research Article
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 30 , Issue 2 , April 1963 , pp. 158 - 164
Copyright
Copyright © Philosophy of Science Association 1963

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Footnotes

1

Read at a meeting of the Missouri State Philosophical Association, Kansas City, October 17, 1959.

References

[1] Ashby, W. Ross, An Introduction to Cybernetics, New York, John Wiley, 1958.Google Scholar
[2] Ashby, W. Ross, “General Systems Theory as a New Discipline,” General Systems, Yearbook of the Society for General Systems Research, vol. III, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 1958.Google Scholar
[3] Maupertuis, de, “Essai de Cosmologie,” Œuvres de Maupertuis, Lyon, Jean-Marie Bruyset, 1768, vol. I.Google Scholar
[4] Newton, Issac, tr. Motte, and Cajori, , Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy, Berkeley, University of California Press, 1947.Google Scholar