Symposium on Complex Systems Engineering/Wolpert notes
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--George McC 02:08, 11 January 2007 (PST)
Hi David,
Wow! Of all the papers that I've read for this symposium I have to categorize yours as the most dense - that is in no way meant to be derogatory, simply there is so much in there that I need to go away and spend much more time to get the full benefit.
I will therefore not comment directly on your paper, rather I have a question that relates to the subject matter.
In your view, why should we be worrying about quantifying complexity? It is something that has always struck me as being of 'academic' interest to worry about how complex something is, but with little practical value. I guess that in engineering terms there would always be a desire to reduce complexity, however
- I'm not sure that for that you need more than gut-feel (i.e. you understand it better therefore it is less complex - and yes I know that understanding and complexity are not always related as simply as that, but for most engineering needs they could be seen as such)
- reducing complexity may not necessarily be a good thing.
Meanwhile, I will re-read you paper.
