The Observer in Complex Systems: the Gateway Papers

Abstract

Complexity demands a more sophisticated epistemology, where the mere complicatedness of old conceptions becomes inadequate. The past was modernist realism, where improved quality corresponded to a closer proximity of models to an external reality (Funtowicz and Ravetz 1992). The aim was for ecology to find out about the objective truth, but that can only be shown through distortion. The arts have gone through a similar transition from truth to post-modernity. Picasso’s modernist cubism distorts appearances so as to get closer to reality. There is still a profile to be viewed even if the image is seen in full-face, so cubism includes them both to capture that reality, and it all seems twisted and strange. In one sense cubism is a sophisticated view. But it still embraces a crude modernist pretense that the observer can be pried loose from experience. The observer was denied in distorted early television programs that appeared on black and white screens in living rooms, hiding the fact they were in fact contrivances in a studio. By contrast, David Frost’s BBC television show of 1962 “That Was The Week That Was,” (TW3) was suddenly post-modern. TW3 made no attempt to bend programming to make it seem real. It abandoned reality, and became the first show to allow the audience to see the contrivance of cameras and lights (tired nightly news does it all the time now!). TW3 credits were purposefully not slick, but consisted of pieces of cardboard hand written, held awkwardly in front of each cast member. Modernist distortion is alive and well in normal science ecology. Most ecology is still written up sanitized, hiding the mess of actually doing science, just like 1950s television hid studio devices. But now we live in a world where big problems manifest complexity; we simply cannot get away with hiding the observer, and the mess they bring. A more honest epistemology is required if ecology is to get beyond stamp collecting, so as to address real problems. The papers that influenced me admitted that observations require an observer.