Conquering Complexity
Software has long been perceived as complex, at least within Software Engineering circles. We have been living in a recognised state of crisis since the first NATO Software Engineering conference in 1968. Time and again we have been proven unable to engin
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Mike Hinchey r Lorcan Coyle Editors
Conquering Complexity
Foreword by Roger Penrose
Editors Mike Hinchey Lero, Irish Software Eng Research Centre University of Limerick Limerick, Ireland [email protected]
Lorcan Coyle Lero, International Science Centre University of Limerick Limerick, Ireland [email protected]
ISBN 978-1-4471-2296-8 e-ISBN 978-1-4471-2297-5 DOI 10.1007/978-1-4471-2297-5 Springer London Dordrecht Heidelberg New York British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Control Number: 2011944434 © Springer-Verlag London Limited 2012 Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of research or private study, or criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, this publication may only be reproduced, stored or transmitted, in any form or by any means, with the prior permission in writing of the publishers, or in the case of reprographic reproduction in accordance with the terms of licenses issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside those terms should be sent to the publishers. The use of registered names, trademarks, etc., in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher makes no representation, express or implied, with regard to the accuracy of the information contained in this book and cannot accept any legal responsibility or liability for any errors or omissions that may be made. Printed on acid-free paper Springer is part of Springer Science+Business Media (www.springer.com)
Today, “complexity” is a word that is much in fashion. We have learned very well that many of the systems that we are trying to deal with in our contemporary science and engineering are very complex indeed. They are so complex that it is not obvious that the powerful tricks and procedures that served us for four centuries or more in the development of modern science and engineering will enable us to understand and deal with them. . . . . . We are learning that we need a science of complex systems and we are beginning to develop it. – Herbert A. Simon
Foreword
The year 2012—of publication of this book Conquering Complexity—is particularly distinguished by being the centenary year of Alan Turing, whose theoretical analysis of the notion of “computing machine”, together with his wartime work in deciphering German codes, has had a huge impact on the enormous development of electronic computers, and the consequent impact that these devices have had on our lives, particularly with regard to science and technology. It is now possible to model extremely complex systems, whether they be naturally occurring physical processes or the predicted behaviour of human-constructed machinery. The complexity that can now be handled by today’s electronic computers has completely transformed our understanding of many different
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