the Complexity Problem

Reality is fraught with complexity. Hardly a day goes by when I am not faced with the fact that life is complicated and few things are simple. To deal with the complexities of reality, we must mentally construct simplified versions of reality. These models allow us to choose salient features in order to simplify a complex reality down to a less complex version with fewer variables, fewer parts which we need to understand and deal with. We willingly sacrifice completeness for simplicity. In order to reduce complexity we must reduce completeness. Consider once again, the beggars and the elephant. Let’s change the story a bit. Instead of the beggars being limited by a restricted view through a knothole in a fence, let’s pretend that the three beggars actually were able to finally get a really good look at the elephant from every angle and had a really good mental picture in their minds. Let’s say that the young village boy returns and asks the beggars to play a game. He hands the beggars a small piece of paper and tells them that each beggar must write a description of the elephant, but because the boy is a slow reader, and the paper is quite small, each beggar must limit the description to 3 words. The three beggars talk amongst themselves for a moment, then each writes a few words and hands the boy the paper. The paper reads as follows:

It is big It is grey It is alive

“Ah!” exclaimed the young boy – “It’s like an ox!” These three short descriptions give a more integrated view of the elephant. The combination of big, grey, and alive struck a chord of familiarity with the young boy and he was able to relate an elephant to another big, grey animal in his frame of reference. Now, with the basic framework, of “like an ox”, he mentally adds the three previous descriptions, floppy, snake-ish, and tree-like; and his mental picture of an elephant is getting a lot closer to reality. As more details are added, the model becomes more complete and more accurate.

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