Complexity Sciences
Unicist Approach to Complexity
(an ontological approach)
The unicist approach to complex problems
The most primitive complex problem is given by two elements that have a biuni-vocal relation (loop). For example:
• The lack of credibility of an innovation inhibits its use and the absence of use impedes credibility.
• The absence of production causes inappropriate distribution and dysfunctional distribution causes a lack in productivity.
Until the appearance of the solution given by the unicist approach, there were four palliatives:
• Intuition
• More or less subjective arbitrary models
• Fallacies to avoid the perception of complexity
• Ceteris paribus
Complexity is self-evident in the field of social, institutional and individual evolu-tion. It can be said that evolution is a complex problem itself.
Complexity is implicit in the core of the business world. Those who can apprehend it and influence the environment are successful. Those who cannot influence com-plexity, fail. The unicist approach is necessary for those who need to manage com-plex problem to transform them into simple solutions, easy to be implemented.
The Unicist approach transforms complex problems into simple solu-tions, and these simple solutions into “easy” actions.
We define a complex system as an open system, which determines the functionality of a unified field through the conjunction of objects and/or subsystems.
A complex system has the following characteristics:
1) It is an open system, meaning that the energy flows to and from the system itself.
2) The external limits of the unified field (its “globality”) be-have as the ones of a fuzzy set.
3) Functionality is determined by the “conjunction” of elements that influence each other, generating “loops” of cause-effect relations.
4) The “disjunction” does not exist in a complex system.
5) The sum of the results of the subsystems is not equal to the result of the total complex system.
6) Relationships among subsystems are not linear; they respond to the double dialectics laws (purpose-antithesis / purpose-homeostasis).
7) Complex systems generate their own energy transformation using their own energy and the energy from the environment.
8 ) Complex systems are composed of subsystems, which are also composed of other subsystems, until reaching a descrip-tive level that is functional to their purposes.
9) Complex systems cannot be observed. The observer is part of the system.
“The Unicist Ontology of Evolution”, the “Unicist Logic” and the “Logic of Fallacies and the Anti-concepts”, made the conceptual modeling and operation of complex systems possible.
Some examples of complex systems can be found in the social, eco-nomical, political and cultural aspects of reality as well as in man-agement, marketing, strategy (of countries, institutions and individu-als), learning processes, continuous improvement and interpersonal relations.
Transforming complex systems into simple systems is making them operational in a univocal way, with cause-effect relations that permit to influence the environment. This means transforming strategy, which, by definition, is a complex system, into operation tactics.
Transforming them into an easy task implies materializing these tac-tics through well defined actions, using a language that could be un-derstood by all participants and the proper tools that could be used by all of them.
Nevertheless, even though we operate with simple solutions, in their essence, these problems remain complex.
