Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!oddjob!ncar!ames!mailrus!husc6!linus!mbunix!bwk
From: bwk@mitre-bedford.ARPA (Barry W. Kort)
Newsgroups: comp.cog-eng
Subject: Re: Technological overcomplexity in 1523
Summary: Cutting the Gordian Knot
Keywords: cognitive engineering, design, comnplexity, history of technology
Message-ID: <37647@linus.UUCP>
Date: 1 Aug 88 13:17:35 GMT
References: <585@sdics.ucsd.EDU> <17596@glacier.STANFORD.EDU> <587@sdics.ucsd.EDU>
Sender: news@linus.UUCP
Reply-To: bwk@mbunix (Kort)
Distribution: all
Organization: International Malefactor & Fulminator, Roaring Rapids, ME
Lines: 21

The colloquoy on comlexity is most interesting.  

I saw an item in Scientific American regarding the measurement of
complexity:  The complexity of a system is measured by the amount
of information thrown away.

In a good design, many variations were tried and discarded.  An
assembled jigsaw puzzle represents an enormous amount of discarded
information.  There is a stage in the creation of a system where the
creator is manipulating a maximum amount of information.  That's
where things bog down.

In the old days, complexity was symbolized by the Gordian Knot.

--Barry Kort

	"Nothing is as simple as it seems at first,

		or as hopeless as it seems in the middle,

			or as finished as it seems in the end."