No sex please, we're (in)breeding

Abstract

The complex systems revolution is currently exploding through science, transforming its concepts, principles, methods and conclusions. It is also transforming its disciplinary structure, both creating new, distinctive 'complexity' disciplines, such as climate science, systems and synthetic biology and self-assembling/repairing and social robotics, and transforming older disciplinary relations, e.g. between developmental biology, psychology and sociology. This revolution creates a plethora of new problems and challenges for foundations and philosophy of science. These have a special intellectual appeal, because the foundations of the science of complex systems is itself still being invented. This dual revolution in science and philosophy is the most important large scale development in scientific cognition for a century. It invites the urgent attention of scientists and philosophers alike. ?? 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.