Is self-organisation a rational expectation? Complexity and emergence critically reviewed

Over decades and under varying names the study of complex, e.g. biology-inspired algorithms concerned with self-organization has been the subject of a small and somewhat exotic research community. Only the recent coincidence of a growing inability to master the design, development and operation of increasingly complex system and processes, and an accelerated trend towards a naive if not romanticizing view of nature in the sciences, has led to the adoption of biology-inspired algorithmic research by a wider range of sciences. Adaptive systems, as we apparently observe in nature, are meanwhile viewed as a promising way out of the complexity trap and, propelled by a long list of dasiaselfpsila catchwords, complexity research has become an influential stream in systems thinking. This paper presents four provocative theses that cast doubt on the strategic potential of complexity research and the viability of large scale deployment of biology-inspired algorithms in an expectation driven world.