What do power networks, transportation nodes, weather patterns, commercial organisations and swarming robots have in common?
For those seeking to understand, manipulate or build these systems, their 'complex' nature often demands approaches going beyond reductionist scientific models or traditional engineering design methods. These complex systems are often considered to be intractable because of their unpredictability, non-linearity, interconnectivity, heterarchy and 'emergence'. Although in many cases these attributes are framed as a problem, there are also cases in which they can be exploited to encourage intelligent, robust, self-organising behaviours.
Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2017-03-solutions-complex-problems-domains-application.html#jCp