Traditionally the natural sciences, particularly physics, have been regarded as the Gatekeepers of Truth. As such the legitimacy of others forms of knowledge have been called into question, particularly those methods that characterise the `softer' sciences, and even the arts. This paper begins with an extended discussion concerning the main features of a complex system, and the nature of the boundaries that emerge within such systems. Subsequent to this discussion, and byassuming that the Universe at some level is a complex system, the paper explores the notion of ontology, or existence from a complex systems perspective. It is argued that none of the traditional objects of science, or any objects from any discipline , formal or not, can be said to be real in any absolute sense though a substantial realism may be associated with them. The limitations of the natural sciences is discussed as well as the deep connection between the `hard' and the `soft' sciences. As a result of this complex systems analysis, an evolutionary philosophy referred to as quasi-`critical pluralism' is outlined, which is more sensitive to the demands of complexity than contemporary scientific approaches.

This report provides a brief review of a recently developed new framework for the fundamental physics, designated as Quantum Field Mechanics and including causally complete and intrinsically unified theory of explicitly emerging elementary particles, their inherent properties, quantum and relativistic behaviour, interactions and their results. The essential progress with respect to the conventional theory is attained due to the unreduced, nonperturbative analysis of arbitrary interaction process revealing the qualitatively new phenomenon of dynamic multivaluedness of interaction results and their dynamically entangled internal structure, which gives rise to the universally defined dynamic complexity and is absent in the conventional, always perturbative and dynamically single-valued models corresponding to the zero value of unreduced complexity (including the substitutes used for “complexity”, “chaoticity”, “self-organisation”, etc.). It is shown how the observed world structure, starting from elementary particles and their interactions, dynamically emerges from the unreduced interaction between two initially homogeneous, physically real protofields. In that way one avoids arbitrary imposition of abstract entities and improvable postulates or “principles”, let alone “mysteries”, of the conventional theory, which now obtain their unified, consistent and realistic explanation in terms of the unreduced dynamic complexity. We complete the theoretical description of the fundamental world structure emergence and properties by an outline of the ensuing experimental implications of the quantum field mechanics and the resulting causally substantiated change of the basic research strategy.

Complex systems theory promises to solve all problems, big and small – but, concretely, what would such a solution mean in the first place? Specially, what would the automation environment of the future look like? The following presentation introduces these issues, trying to reach a “systemic view ” of complexity.

There exist various complex systems theories. Common to these ideas is that they construct fancy abstractions about complexity – so fancy that it is difficult to see the underlying domain fields any more. However, there will not exist applications of the theories if the abstractions cannot be concretized. This paper tries to show that something practical can really be reached: New approaches and conceptual tools can be developed, the application field here being industrial automation systems.

Keywords: Universal and rigorously derived concept of dynamic complexity shows that any system of interacting components, including society and civilisation, is a process of highly uneven development of its unreduced complexity. Modern civilisation state corresponds to the end of unfolding of a big complexity level. Such exhausted, totally “replete ” structure cannot be sustainable in principle and shows instead increased instability, realising its replacement by a new kind of structure with either low or much higher complexity (degrading or progressive development branch respectively). Unrestricted sustainability can emerge only after transition to the next, superior level of civilisation complexity, which implies qualitative and unified changes in all aspects of life, including knowledge, production, social organisation, and infrastructure. These changes are specified by a rigorous analysis of underlying interaction processes. We propose mathematically rigorous description of unreduced civilisation complexity development, including

Imagine the day when physics is complete. A theory is in place which unifies all the forces of nature in one self-consistent and empirically verified set of absolutely basic principles. There are some who see this day as perhaps not too distant (e.g. Hawking 1988, Weinberg 1992, Horgan 1996). Of course, the mere possession of this theory of everything will not give us the ability to provide a complete explanation of everything: every event, process, occurrence and structure. Most things will be too remote from the basic theory to admit of explanation in its terms; even relatively small and simple systems will be far too complex to be intelligibly described in the final theory. But seeing as our imagined theory is fully developed and mathematically complete it will enable us to set up detailed computer simulations of physical systems. The range of practicable simulations will in fact be subject to the same constraints facing the explanatory use of the theory; the modelling of even very simple systems will require impossibly large amounts of computational resources. Nonetheless, possession of a computational implementation of our final theory would be immensely useful. Real versions of something very like my imaginary scenario now exist and are already fruitful. For example, there are computer models of quantum

By assuming that the Universe is best described as a cellular automaton, and by making use of some of the results from the field of computational mechanics, this paper discusses the extension of the notion of existence from a simple binary opposition to that of a continuum. It is argued that none of the traditional objects of science, or any objects from any discipline formal or not, can be said to be real in any absolute sense though a substantial realism may be associated with them. By problematising existence it is proposed that an evolutionary philosophy referred to as critical pluralism is more sensitive to the demands of complexity than contemporary scientific thought. Though many of the conclusions reported herein are not original, the fact that they can be `proved' in a scientific sense, and explored scientifically, is certainly of interest and is an interpretation of complexity theory that has received little attention.

By assuming that the Un iverse is best described as a cellular automaton, and by making use of some of the results from the field of computational mechanics, this paper discusses the extension of the notion of existence from a simple binary opposition to that of a continuum. It is argued that none of the traditional objects of science, or any objects from any discipline formal or not, can be said to be real in any absolute sense though a substantial realism may be associated with them. By problematising existence it is proposed that an evolutionary philosophy referred to as critical pluralism is more sensitive to the demands of complexity than contemporary scientific thought.

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ABSTRACT. On 14 December 1900 Max Planck first formulated the idea of the intrinsic discreteness of energy of elementary solid-body oscillators and expressed the discrete energy portions, or quanta, as the product of the frequency of the emitted or absorbed radiation and a new universal constant, now known as Planck's constant. Despite the following spectacular progress of the thus initiated ‘quantum mechanics’ (and ‘new physics ’ in general), the physical origin of both energy discreteness and universality of Planck's constant, determining quantization of very diverse object behaviour, remain mysterious, as well as other ‘peculiar ’ properties of quantum dynamics. In this paper we review the recently proposed, causally complete extension of quantum mechanics consistently explaining all its ‘mysteries’, including the action and energy quantization, by the irreducibly complex, ‘dynamically multivalued ’ behaviour of the underlying simple, physically real system of two interacting ‘protofields ’ (quant-ph/9902015, quantph/9902016). We emphasize the truly ‘first-principles ’ character of the theory containing no imposed ‘postulates’, ‘principles’, or inserted ‘entities ’ except one, unavoidable, assumption about the qualitative, physical nature of the protofields. All the observed entities and their properties, starting from physically real space, time, and elementary particles, are consistently derived, in exact correspondence with their emergence in the real, irreducibly complex, system dynamics (physics/9806002). The latter also provides