Click here for more details. Complexity theory deals with processes where a large number of seemingly independent agents act coherently. Complexity can be a dynamical process, or an object. We recognize the qualitative aspects of complex objects without being able to precisely measure them. Trees, handwriting, and riverbeds are all objects that are individual yet have global characteristics.
Complexity assures that they are different in detail while similar in concept.
That is, they are locally random, but globally deterministic. They are fractal . We also see this in many dynamical systems, such as the world ecosystem. This work has been inspired by fossil evidence that new species appear simultaneously in bursts of natural creativity. Likewise, in the social sciences there have been many instances where scattered individuals working independently become schools of thought, like the Transcendentalists, or schools of art, like the Impressionists.