Reality and the world feel naturally quite complex, unpredictable, and confusing to human beings, and this has always been a source of stress. This has been treatable for years through many forms of psychotherapy and stress management training. However, this complexity and unpredictability that is found in the world around us is now being studied directly by scientists. Ironically, they are finding that these qualities are actually inherent in reality, and that they are not just the reaction of our limited minds to a world and reality that is just too vaste for it to grasp completely.
The structures and processes of change found in individual human beings and communities naturally follow the laws of complexity, as does any complex system, as described in Complex Systems Theory. Complex Systems Theory is actually the systematic scientific and mathematical study of complexity itself as it is found throughout the natural world.
Since it's early beginnings before the birth of Christ, science has been trying to describe the physical world in terms of formulas and theories that reduce, simplify, and generalize. But by practicing this kind of reductionism, the theories were always noticeably incomplete. But scientists really had no choice because the instruments for measuring, recording, and analyzing data were themselves so severely limited compared to the vaste subjects they were attempting to study.
But with the advent of powerful, portable, easy-to-use computers, reductionism has begun to give way to the study of the complexity of systems, structures, and processes because those computers have the capacity, which scientists simply have never had before, to handle large amounts of data. Thus the study of complexity itself has begun.
The study of complexity has yielded some basic characteristics which are found in all Complex Systems:
1. Self-Organization: This means that change naturally occurs which leads automatically toward increasing the overall functioning of the complex system by making parts and sub-processes that work well become stronger and more dominant, and parts and sub-processes that don't work so well become weaker, less influential, and less involved so that they eventually die out. This process resembles natural selection in the evolution of organic systems. Scientists are now finding this process working in non-organic systems as well.
2. Non-Linearity: This means that all parts of the system affect many other parts throughout the system (which then affects them back) including the surrounding environment (which in turn also influences all those parts) in an endlessly complex web of cause and effect and feedback. Thus change and cause and effect are not due to a single one-way sequential line of events, but reflects interactive influence through feedback loops from all over the whole system, and with the surrounding environment.
3. Chaos Theory: This theory describes how results inherently become less predictable as you get farther from the original conditions being investigated. Thus all processes of change are inherently unpredictable (while still being logical).
4. Emergent Properties: This is the extreme of Chaos Theory which describes how completely unpredictable results can emerge from their original conditions even when there is advanced understanding of those original conditions.
This kind of pervasive unpredictability and non-linearity is very difficult for most people to handle emotionally. Thus they spend most of their time and energy trying to create order and control in their lives. In fact researchers have extensively verified how uncertainty and complexity increases stress. This is ironic when you consider that scientists are now finding that the basic, essential nature of reality itself may follow the rules of Complexity, which includes inherent and unavoidable chaos, confusion (non-linear lines of influence), and unpredictability.
Researchers, using the Complex Systems approach, have also studied the mind itself, it's relationship to the brain, and the emotional processes within. Some of their ideas and findings are:
1. The analytical mind and consciousness itself may be Emergent features that arose from their original causes in a totally unpredictable fluke of nature. But this potential to create the unexpected is inherent in systems which are more complex.
2. Motivation and decision-making are both influenced by past successful productiveness toward pursuing those same more productive avenues in the future. In contrast motivation wanes, and decision-making looks elsewhere in relation to plans that do not succeed. This dynamic reflects principles of Self-Organization.
3. Knowledge decreases unpredictability, but the more knowledge that is required, the greater the unpredictability. This dynamic is described in Chaos Theory, and in turn also influences motivation and decision-making. Thus, as unpredictability increases, motivation then decreases, and decision-making tends to look for solutions where there is greater predictability.
Thus, Complex Systems Theory has been used to describe states of motivation and decision-making in relation to unpredictability. In this paper we will begin to examine the response of the emotions to the chaos, complexity, etc. that we now know is inherent in reality.
The individual mind is inherently a very limited instrument, as well as an emotional instrument. The limits of the mind are created by the structural and bio-chemical limits of the physical brain which thus limits the capacity of the mind to handle and analyze large quantities of information. For example, short-term memory can only hold seven pieces of information at a time. And yet the mind is also an emotional instrument ruled by emotions such as fear, happiness, anger, etc. Thus, when the limits of the mind are experienced, then the corresponding emotions are unpleasant (such as frustration and fear), and complexity is naturally the thing that most easily exceeds the limits of the mind. As described earlier, it was the limited capacities of the mind that kept science focused on reductionist approaches to analyzing data and theorizing.
Thus often individual minds, and by extension, community groups (reflecting the limits of their individual members), often do not do what is best for the community (or even what is really best for themselves) but will just do whatever reduces it's own short-term discomfort whether that is the best thing to do in the long-run or not. Minds naturally feel more comfortable when things are simplistic, linear, and predictable reflecting their limited capacities to understand and analyze complex situations, but this just simply is not the way reality works most of the time.
There are many ways one can see throughout history that the mind has handled this disparity between the simple way it wishes reality were, and the complex way reality actually is. For example, this is how many religions, and prejudicial, us-them, elitist, and exclusionary philosophies function. They give predictable linear explanations to complex uncomfortable situations and processes... such as the weather, death, poverty, and sexuality.
These types of philosophies are characterized mostly by linear thinking where they give simplistic one-way formulas for cause and effect and responsibility/blame which do not reflect the multi-directional feedback loops by which social and psychological influence actually occurs. They also don't acknowledge the complex evolutionary development of social conditions and situations, and instead give simplistic explanations often based on erroneous facts to explain difficult and uncomfortable situations.
An excellent example of this simplistic kind of thinking is the conservative explanation for why most crimes in America are done by minorities. Their explanation is simple - minority races originate from "primitive cultures" which reflects their inability to create an "advanced civilization", then live in poverty in America because they are not capable of succeeding in a competitive capitalistic system, and they then pursue crime as a means of getting money for the same reasons. This explanation ignores such factors as "primitive" cultures being not lesser but simply as being culturally focused differently than Western Civilization (based more on cooperation with nature rather than in opposition to it), and that being stuck in poverty might be due to the psychologically and socially devastating effects of the culture shock and psychological truama from (1) being forced to leave their own lands and communities and come to America against their will, and then (2) of one or two generations being stuck in slavery, and then (3) the psychologically and sociologically devastating affects of poverty itself. Common sense easily understands how all of these would lead to the perpetuation of poverty, and would explain the adoption of criminal lifestyles by people stuck in poverty. Plus the conservative view ignores the huge percentage of minority individuals who develop very rich, meaningful, productive lives despite such terrible experiences such as growing up or living in or near poverty.
What is the solution to this dilemma? How do we help the mind adjust to, and successfully handle the true chaotic, non-linear complex nature of reality even though it is so different from what the mind inherently finds comfortable, and so much more complex than what the mind can inherently handle? Suggestions: increasing (1) emotional stability, (2) mental strength, (3) developing social support, (4) relevant supportive cultural icons, and finally (5) educating people about the Complex Systems theoretical way of viewing changes and processes. These are all standard ways to help people handle difficult and traumatic situations more easily, efficiently, and effectively. Thus, these methods would also help with the generally complex, chaotic, and non-linear nature of reality as well.
1. Increasing emotionally stability: enables people to think more clearly in uncomfortable situations in general through psychotherapy techniques which can (easier for some people than others), unravel emotional tangles, help resolve emotional pain, facilitate emotional catharsis, and train the person in emotion-management.
2. Increasing mental strength: increases the ability of the analytical abilities of the mind to handle complex sets of data possibly through meditation and yoga which helps the mind establish a calm base center, teaches mental discipline, agility, and stress management, teaches the mind how to manage emotional turmoil, and teaches access to internal resources for energy, strength, and calming peacefulness happiness.
3. Developing social support for emotional, mental, and cultural risking: sharing difficult challenges increases effectiveness with them through support groups where a group of people systematically help the individual overcome social anxieties related to being emotionally and intellectually honest, culturally unique or experimental, and having successes, failures, and being mid-process or in development with something.
4. Developing cultural icons: that model attitudes and behaviors demonstrating social inclusiveness, open-mindedness, and respectfulness toward people who are different, and/or have different points of view, and/or are in different stages of development through supporting the development of entertainment, educational, and artistic pieces reflecting these values and ethics.
5. Educate people about the Complex Systems Theoretical approach to analyzing problems. Research has shown that conceptual understanding facilitates overall intellectual effectiveness and emotional stability tremendously. One should also educate people in general about the mind and emotions. It might increase the effectiveness of this educational effort if the mind and emotions are described as parts of a Complex System.
One of the most stressful things about reality is how complex, unpredictable, and confusing it is. Scientists are now finding out that these qualities are actually inherent in reality and the world. This vein of research is called "Complex Systems Theory", and is being applied in every area of scientific and mathematical research, and engineering application. Human beings can learn how to handle this through the usual means of psychotherapy and stress management training, but this effort would be further facilitated by actual training in Complex Systems Theory itself. The challenge is to develop a teaching approach in the details and application of Complex Systems Theory that is understandable and useable by the average person.