Abstract

Complex (living) systems, despite the obsolete and inadequate paradigms which propagate the fatal error of equating them with systems that are merely complicated (that is, artificial, mechanical systems), require us to adopt a socio-systemic, relational paradigm in order to learn to inhabit the intrinsic indeterminacy of human life and all other living systems, in which “black swans” and other unexpected events are understood to be connotative features of life and complexity. In fact, life itself is emergence; it is permanently relational, an infinite, non-linear sequence of dynamic processes, where the emergent manifests itself in all possible and unimaginable, unpredictable ways. It is necessary to dissolve our obsession with total control and rationality, and to break free of the cognitive cages from which we attempt to simplify what cannot be simplified, observe the unobservable, and even aspire to eliminate error from our lives and social systems.