Scientific American on complexity
Arthur V. Chadwick (chadwicka@swac.edu)
Mon, 12 Jun 1995 10:25:21 -0700Finally, someone has publically substantiated the concerns of those of us
who had reservations about the significance of various computer simulations
of everything from origin of life and evolution to space ants. In the June
issue of Scientific American, a senior staff writer, John Horgan takes on
the dogma of complex systems and considers where they are leading. The
article, entitled "From Complexity to Perplexity" goes a long way toward
revealing the present state of things in Santa Fe and elsewhere. Those of
you who have taken the computer games to have serious implications for
anything, read the article carefully and with an open mind. Horgan was
brave to have written so, and as an editor of a magazine, which has
previously featured articles supportive of the concepts he calls in
question, he displayed courage in so forceably applying the brakes. The
article begins on page 104.
Art