The Institute had explored the behavior of a great variety of complex systems-corporations in the marketplace, neurons in the human brain, enzyme cascades within a single cell, the group behavior of migratory birds-systems so complex that it had not been possible to study them before the advent of the computer. The research was new, and the findings were surprising. It did not take long before the scientists began to notice that complex systems showed certain common behaviors. They started to think of these behaviors as characteristic of all complex systems. They realized that these behaviors could not be explained by analyzing the components of the systems. The time-honored scientific approach of reductionism-taking the watch apart to see how it worked-didn't get you anywhere with complex systems, because the interesting behavior seemed to arise from the spontaneous interaction of the components. The behavior wasn't planned or directed; it just happened. Such behavior was therefore called "self-organizing."
( Michael Crichton )
[ The Lost World ]
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