What is complexity?
type: Item
instance of: scholarly article
title: What is complexity?
zbMATH Open document ID: 0881.00006
author: Murray Gell-Mann
published in: Complexity
publication date: 1998-02-22T00:00:00Z
review text: One of the most useful advantages of careful philosophical looks at difficult and novel concepts such as ``complexity'' is that they can significantly clarify the intuitive ideas of concepts we believe we already understand. E.g., they prompt reevaluations of ``computational complexity'' or ``algorithmic information content'' with careful examinations of processing time and storage space. I.e., they motivate the study of the geometry of logic in the context of the geometry of (storage) space and (processing) time. In this brief popularized discussion of complexity and simplicity the author, a Nobel laureate, condenses and summarizes many notions from his outstanding book ``The Quark and the Jaguar'' (1994; Zbl 0833.00011). One gets the impression that the author is reinventing physics with far more emphasis on the world of entropy than on the world of energy. But he has not found the complementary equation to \(E= mc^2\), yet! Indeed, only time will tell whether such a thing is done at the author's Santa Fe Institute, the Center for Complex Systems at the University of Illinois or elsewhere.
Mathematics Subject Classification ID: 00A99
zbMATH DE Number: 1038589
zbMATH Keywords: complexity theory
zbMATH Keywords: information theory
zbMATH Keywords: computational complexity
reviewed by: Albert A. Mullin
MaRDI profile type: Publication
full work available at URL: cplx.6130010105
OpenAlex ID: W2043559349
DOI: 10.1002/CPLX.6130010105
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description: scientific article; zbMATH DE number 1038589