Rising Complexity

The phrase 'rising complexity' is not a very common idea discussed or explored in most fields of studies, and, perhaps, there is only one field of study that allows us to see the amazing story behind the rising complexity: The Big History.

The Big History was introduced by David Christian. It starts from the big bang theory and investigates the first atoms, the formation of stars and the first life on earth. It culminates in the formation of human civilization. This study spans all forms of study; from astronomy to biology to humanity. The whole story surrounds and depends on one phrase, “rising complexity”. This resounding phrase refers to how multiple simple elements, or something similar, have worked together to form more complex effects which in turn create far more complexities. Since not everyone is not on the same term with most of the facts in Big History, I will focus only on the advancements of civilization to explain the ideas behind “rising complexity” in more detail.

After the agricultural revolution, we experienced the first population boom, and that means more people working with each other. There was much more diversity since everyone focused on different functions. Complexities within and among humanity had risen constantly after that, but the industrial revolution had more of an astounding impact. After the invention of the railroads and steam power, the world became smaller than most people originally thought. Travelling and transferring goods became efficient and convenient; people communicated at much faster speed. Then the invention of fertilizer came about during the industrial revolution, which brought us the second population boom, and thus pushed complexity into a new threshold: modernization.

Humanity was advancing because of the rising complexity brought upon by development. In other words, in order to ensure long-term survival, we need to keep pace with this complexity rising. People who cannot keep up with these complexities are seen to be slowing down the ever rising complexity are, therefore, not contributing to society.

There are three ways to look at how we can bring this complexity to the next stage: through politics, social dependence and interactions and economic situations.

Politics, determined by international borders and customs control, prevents easy communication between people in the world. All leaders of nations tend to focus their attention on their own respective countries rather than the global good. They hoard and accumulate all resources to themselves and very rarely share them. If the relationship between countries worsen, ideas and resources are prevented from being exchanged. 

Some people argue that competition between countries, for instance the ‘Space Race’, results in better innovation when countries work separately than together as competition accelerates ingenuity. This argument is contradictory as in Nature, working with each other usually provides a higher chance of survival than competing against one another. Homo sapiens are social animals who are dependent on each other to survive, because our gene dictates that we do not harm our own species, like many other primates. Yet, our society and education brought us up this way, to compete with other people and 'survive' in this society.

In social terms, Ken Robinson reports that our education system is killing creativity. I totally agree with him, because we value Math and Science more than Speech and Drama. He believes this happened because of industrialism that gives people an illusion that Math and Science are more important than many other subjects. If this issue is seen from the point of view of rising complexity, it makes more sense. Some people have potential in other fields of studies, like the Arts or in Music, but our education system often marginalizes these people. Parents need to pay money and take extra time for their child to go to tuition centres or academies to learn these skills. It halts diversity and ignores, sometimes discriminates, people who think differently.

Racism also plays a big role in slowing down complexity. Just like national borders, racism forces people to limit their connections and cooperation with others. I noticed that each race holds a slightly different genetic code that brings different potential to each race. Thanks to capitalism, some races are not receiving the equal chance to maximize their own potential. If all races learn to work with each other, we will have more diversity, as each race sees things differently, and, therefore, further boosts rising complexity.

In terms of economy however, capitalism plays a huge role in slowing down rising complexity, because it emphasizes more on competition than on teamwork. In capitalism, whoever has the most money is the most powerful. People who are successful economically will be more superior to people who are good at other things, like artistic expressions. Not many people want to donate their money to those who need it more and also the governments would rather invest money in things that can bring them more money instead of other things which will be more beneficial to the people.

In our current situation, I think the best way to keep this complexity rising is to dispel poverty in third-world countries. According to research, around 0.1% of the human population considered to be 'genius' or 'gifted', and this has not included those immensely talented in athletics. If this is the case, there should be 7 million geniuses around the world, and why is this fact not so? This is because most geniuses, from birth, do not receive proper education and miss the chance to be one of the most influential people in history.

Rising complexity is just one of the ways to see how our society can improve in leaps and bounds in the right direction. We really should learn to evaluate the things that we do in our everyday lives. Our goal to live is not for our own survival only, but for the survival of the species. I hope this article allows you to look at our world in a different perspective and realize how corrupted humanity really is.