Nature's Bottom Line

Another commonly used complexity tool has brought more sex into the workplace--sort of. Genetic algorithms take advantage of the notion that, as Meyer puts it, "code is code," be it your parents' DNA or the zeroes and ones of the digital age. The birds and the bees have survived all these years because splitting and recombining their genetic code--sexual reproduction--creates novelty and, with it, adaptability. Similarly, Scotland's United Distillers and Vintners uses software that "breeds" schedules for moving around the company's 7 million casks of whiskey--a "survival of the fittest" for distribution bottlenecks. It's the economic equivalent of a successful evolutionary adaptation.

The complexity community itself is clearing new paths by uniting the most disparate parts of our experience. Kauffman does so himself. When Boeing sought help speeding up its airplane design-and-construction process, he instinctively reached for a $23.94 Lego set. By setting scientific creativity to work on Big Business's problems, there's just no telling--quite literally--what will emerge next.