Complex “Adaptive” Systems 

Complex systems are adaptive when a system changes, mutates, and/or self-organizes in response to an event or collection of events.  Complex Adaptive Systems include climates; cities; firms; markets; redwood trees; governments; airplanes; industries; ecosystems; social networks; power grids; animal swarms; computers; traffic flows; social insects (e.g., ant colonies); the brain and the immune system; the living cell; the developing embryo; and the electric grid that powers our lightbulbs.

Evolutionary Systems

Evolutionary Systems are subsets of Complex Adaptive Systems. Synergy and Emergence, are also present in evolutionary systems. 

The distinction between complex systems and evolutionary systems is that the latter try out alternatives, or variations, from which only one or a few are selected by outside factors: competition from other creatures (and tribes), availability of foods, changes in climate, incentive to make tools, disease, synergy, emergence, and others. 

In biology, where the evolutionary process of Selection is done by the surrounding ecosystem, science calls it “Natural Selection.”  When human decisions are involved, we might call the selection “peer review” in science; “market acceptance” in economics, and “settled law” or “regulatory approval” in governance.

Synergy Yields Transcendence 

Evolution is a process of Synergy – wherein the Whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Because the Whole cannot be accounted for by the simple sum of its parts, the Whole is Transcendent.  “Transcendent” means “beyond or above the range of normal human experience; Awe-inspiring; having great and unique significance; sublime.”