Complex Adaptive Systems

Biological Parallel

Ecosystems don't optimize—they adapt. When fire sweeps through a forest, some species die while others (lodgepole pine with serotinous cones) explode in the newly opened space. The system constantly reorganizes based on feedback, with agents adapting to each other's adaptations. Complex adaptive systems exhibit path dependence, non-linearity, and emergence—exactly what the Santa Fe Institute found studying them. Every ecosystem is a complex adaptive system; most organizations aspire to be.