Introduction

ABSTRACT

It is common knowledge that individuals, the communities in which we live, and the organizations we create adapt over time and changing conditions. It is also generally understood that organizations, communities, and individuals are all complex entities. To state that organizations are adaptive complex enterprises (ACE) is neither novel nor new: What is new, however, is that we now have a language and a set of constructs that allow us to formally conceptualize and discuss these concepts. (See the sidebar for a brief discussion of the terms adaptive complex enterprises and complex adaptive systems.)

REFERENCES

• 1: Bateson, G. Steps to an Ecology of Mind. Ballantine Books, New York, 1972.
• 2: Gould, S.J. and Lewontin, R.C. The spandrels of San Marco and the Panglossian paradigm: A critique of the adaptationist programme. In Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B 205 (1979) 581---598.
• 3: Heisenberg, W. Physics and Philosophy. Harper Torchbooks, New York, 1958.
• 4: John H. Holland, Hidden order: how adaptation builds complexity, Addison Wesley Longman Publishing Co., Inc., Redwood City, CA, 1996
• 5: Herbert A. Simon, The sciences of the artificial (3rd ed.), MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 1996
• 6: Thom, R. Structural Stability and Morphogenesis: An Outline of a General Theory of Models. Westview Press, 1972.

INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  I. Computing Methodologies
  I.2 ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
      I.2.4 Knowledge Representation Formalisms and Methods

Additional Classification:
  F. Theory of Computation
  F.1 COMPUTATION BY ABSTRACT DEVICES
      F.1.1 Models of Computation
  F.2 ANALYSIS OF ALGORITHMS AND PROBLEM COMPLEXITY
      F.2.3 Tradeoffs among Complexity Measures