[Stoves] How to thnk about complex engineering solutions

[Crispin Pemberton-Pigott]

Dear Friends

Stoves are technically complex and interact with complex social needs and
wants. There is a way of thinking about the endless complexity that might
interest you.

http://www.necsi.edu/projects/yaneer/ESOA04.pdf

About Engineering Complex Systems: Multiscale Analysis and Evolutionary
Engineering

Yaneer Bar-Yam

New England Complex Systems Institute,

Cambridge, MA 02138

Abstract. We describe an analytic approach, multiscale analysis, that can
demonstrate the fundamental limitations of decomposition based engineering
for the development of highly complex systems. The planning based process is
limited by the interdependence of components and communication between
design teams. Thus, the construction of many highly complex systems should
be pursued by strategies modeled after biological evolution, or market
economies, where extensive planning is forsaken and multiple parallel design
efforts compete for adoption through testing in actual use.

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You may be interesting to think about how this approach applies to stove
programmes.

Regards

Crispin in Ulaanbaatar doing exactly that

 

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