Dynamics of Complex Systems
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Introduction
Qualitatively, to understand the behavior of a complex system we must understand not only the behavior of the parts but how they act together to form the behavior of the whole. It is because we cannot describe the whole without describing each part, and because each part must be described in relation to other parts, that complex systems are difficult to understand.
[…] The uniqueness of the human superorganism presents us with questions of fundamental interest in science, related to how much we can know about an individual system. When there are many instances, we can use information provided by various examples and the statistics of their properties. When there is only one system, to understand its properties or predict its behavior we must apply fundamental principles that are valid for all complex systems. Since the field of complex systems is dedicated to uncovering such principles, the subject of the human superorganism should be considered a premiere area for application of complex systems research.