Source: [[Reference Notes/Scale]] A broad scientific field which covers topics such as complex adaptive systems, emergent behavior, self-organization, resilience, and adaptive nonlinear dynamics. When Stephen Hawking was asked the following question: > Some say that while the 20th century was the century of physics, we are now entering the century of biology. What do you think of this? He responded: > I think the next century will be the century of complexity. Complexity is like other concepts whose precise definition still eludes us: life, innovation, consciousness, love, sustainability, cities, etc. But at root, complex systems have the following characteristics: - emergence - has characteristics that were not manifested in, or could be easily predicted from, the properties of the individual components - self-organised - lack of central control - adaptive - can evolve in response to external conditions - basic elements and building blocks remain unchanged as size scales up (eg cells remain similar between an ant and a whale)