Designing Complex Systems

66 n Designing Complex Systems

At this point in the development it is appropriate to return to a statement made

earlier (following the definition of the maximal set, definition 4.11) about the rela-

tionship between functional elements and the structure this introduces into the

functional domain. A complex functional element can be said to include a number

of less complex elements in the sense that these elements arise by reducing the

number of functional parameters, either in order to achieve a simplification by

condensing subsets of parameters or in order to concentrate on a particular aspect,

as discussed above. e condensation process comes to a halt whenever a small-

est self-consistent set of variables is reached, and how far inward ...