Complexity Analytics and Public Policy : Cautions and Opportunities Going Forward
muscle , for example ). Social scientists need to look to their own rich history ; resurrect and reexamine some of their own problem definitions , datasets , and analyses and retrofit them to the new understanding of social dynamics . If this is done from inside a framework established to accommodate the analysis of complexity , as a beginning strategy , this might help us build our intuition about what operating from inside such a framework means .
Complexity science is conceptually huge , but we have some guideposts going forward . I believe these are the self-similarity of nature ( e . g . the inverse square law ), nature ’ s preference for certain modus operandi ( e . g . clusters , orbits , networks ... ), and the power and consistency of mathematics in revealing both ( e . g . the standard equation of particle physics ). Witness the fact that network scientists have defined a quantity which they call the “ network energy .” On this quantity , they have further defined the “ network Hamiltonian .” The Hamiltonian in physics is the total system energy . This mathematical sleight of hand brings together in one concept , the Hamiltonian , unimaginably distant scales — one at the human scale and beyond ( I say beyond because there are networks of telescopes in space ), and the other at a scale so small that interactions occur at speeds faster than the speed of light . At this scale , signals can be transmitted galactic distances at speeds that can only be measured as simultaneous — that is , no time passes between the initiation and the reception of the signal ( and given the space – time equivalency of general relativity , that can also be read as there being no space between them !). This is the realm of quantum entanglement . What is important about this is the identity of the mathematical formalisms . We have learned that that implies scaling of a natural phenomenon . This helps to solidify the ground beneath us as we continue to examine the role of networks in shaping space .
In responding to the upheavals in economics , we must be careful not to throw the baby out with the bath water . Leading economists caution against this very thing in discussing the future of economics education ( Rosser , 2000 ). Quantum mechanics is a very different paradigm from Newtonian mechanics , and from the perspective of quantum mechanics , there is much about Newtonian mechanics that is wrong ; however , in growing physicists , we don ’ t start them out on a diet of quantum mechanics . The pabulum of classical mechanics nourishes them for years and it ’ s not until they have Newtonian mechanics , optics , and electro-magnetism under their belts that they are introduced to solid food . We are in a very exciting period of massive scientific dislocation . It is exciting because just as many citadels are being challenged , so also are many new ideas emerging ( Gell-Mann , M ., 2009 ; Gleick , 1987 ; Kaku , 1994 ). However , just as now happens with Newtonian mechanics , the correction of the ways in which the old thinking is incorrect can happen in the context of higher learning as we gradually adjust the pedagogies of inculcating in the discipline ’ s professionals the issues , language , methodologies , and culture of the social sciences .
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