Foundational Papers in Complexity Science pp. 1331–1370
DOI: 10.37911/9781947864542.45
Resilience Redounding
Author: Van Savage, University of California, Los Angeles; Santa Fe Institute
Excerpt
C. S. “Buzz” Holling’s paper touches upon many classics of complex systems in terms of both concepts—interacting agents/species, system-level properties/questions, networks of interactions—and calculational techniques—dynamical systems theory, stability analysis, chaotic dynamics, random networks, evolutionary game theory. Yet its genius lies not in bringing all of these pieces harmoniously together but instead in exposing the tensions between them. In so doing, he questions not the particular choices made by translating a real system into a mathematical framework. Rather, he questions the entire use of that mathematical framework, foundation, and analysis itself. This kind of radical thinking is needed for grappling with the major questions and daunting challenges of complex systems, and this kind of foundational questioning can lead to sea changes within fields. Although the paper is rich in explanations of empirical ecological examples and of mathematical theory, Holling draws few true conclusions. It is better interpreted as a call to arms for ecologists, theorists, and complex-systems researchers to move beyond the current state of the art because the state of the art can’t answer the most pressing questions. Those questions are even more pressing today—with impacts of climate and temperature change on ecological systems being especially relevant to the points made in this paper—and the clarion call for improved theory in this direction is as loud as ever.
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