Helen Couclelis (University of California, Santa Barbara)
Abstract. Herbert Simon’s famous ant-on-the-beach metaphor points to the possibility of two alternative representations for the same complex phenomenon: the ant’s convoluted path on the beach may be described as complex behavior against a simple background, or as simple behavior against a complex background. Taking this idea one step further, I discuss the notion of polyplexity as an alternative way of approaching the study of systems in the social and policy sciences, for which classical complexity approaches may sometimes be too simple. Polyplexity proposes a "divide and conquer" modeling strategy based on apportioning the apparent complexity of a phenomenon among the three major constituent parts of any system representation: the system of interest itself, its environment, and its spatio-temporal context. I believe that the Santa Fe Institute is the perfect venue for submitting this still tentative idea to expert and constructive critique.