Postscript: Unsolved Problems and Potential Applications of Hierarchy Theory

Abstract

Is it possible to have a simple theory of very complex, evolving systems? Can we hope to find common, essential properties of hierarchical organizations that we can usefully apply to the design and management of our growing biological, social, and technological organizations? Such a theory will require a deep and general understanding of the nature of hierarchies, how they originate, how they evolve, how the levels interact, and how failure occurs. The five authors of the previous chapters [Herbert Simon, Clifford Grobstein, James Bonner, Howard Pattee, Richard Levins] have explored the nature of hierarchical organization of complex systems from entirely different perspectives. As mentioned in the Preface, these chapters were developed from a series of public lectures that were scheduled over a period of months, so that the authors did not have the strong interactions that normally occur at conferences. Nevertheless, there is a common theme that runs through all the authors’ discussions, and partly because of their independent approaches we may hope this theme has a general significance for a theory of hierarchies.

Reprinted from Hierarchy Theory: The Challenge of Complex Systems, H. H. Pattee, Ed. New York: George Braziller, 1973, pp. 130–156.