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Roger L. Costello wrote:
>I think that the distinction between complication and complexity is a
>useful one. I welcome your suggestions on a better definition of the two
>terms (or even different terms).
>
>
You might want to check out the (immensely readable) work by Chaitin on
complexity [1]. He basically boils pretty much everything down to
minimum LOC:
[[
The basic idea of algorithmic information theory (AIT) is that a
scientific theory is a computer program, and the smaller, the more
concise the program is, the better the theory!"
]]
One nice idea I came across somewhere in his stuff went something like
- new theories always seem really complicated and difficult when first
expressed, but later someone usually comes along and expresses the
theory in a more suitable language and it all appears simple, even obvious.
"Elegant" might be another good word to add to your list.
Cheers,
Danny.
[1] http://www.umcs.maine.edu/~chaitin/
--
Raw
http://dannyayers.com
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