On Irreducible Complexity

           On Irreducible Complexity

          - and the Boston street grid

               A rabbi once asked me how irreducibly complex systems could arise from evolution. I replied; how else? An intelligently designed system is never irreducibly complex; instead it is as reducible as possible! Intelligent designers use the KISS principle; Keep It Simple, Stupid: and that is because true intelligence recognizes the limitations of intelligence.

               Consider two street traffic grids; that of San Francisco and that of Boston. The first is rationally planned; it was laid out with straightedge and protractor; and as a result it is not complex at all. Whereas the street plan of Boston evolved over centuries, by random variation and natural selection. It started with cow paths; the cow paths became lanes, then streets; then came centuries of tweaking by Boston politicians and contractors. Thanks to cows, politicians and contractors, the street grid of Boston is the irreducibly complex system it is today.

               Once I asked my father (of blessed memory), "Is the street grid of Boston intelligently designed? After all, it's irreducibly complex." He laughed. You have to be from Boston to really get this joke.