  The sciences of complexity present some recurrent themes: the emergence of
qualitatively new behaviors in dissipative systems out of equilibrium, the
aparent tendency of complex system to lie at the border of phase transitions
and bifurcation points, a historical dynamics which present punctuated
equilibrium, a tentative of complementing Darwinian evolution with certain
ideas of progress (understood as increase of computational power) etc. Such
themes, indeed, belong to a long scientific and philosophical tradiction and,
curiously, appear already in the work of Frederick Engels at the 70's of the
XIX century. So, the apparent novelity of the sciences of complexity seems to
be not situated in its fundamental ideas, but in the use of mathematical and
computational models for illustrate, test and develop such ideas. Since
politicians as the candidate Al Gore recently declared that the sciences of
complexity have influenced strongly their worldview, perhaps it could be
interesting to know better the ideas and the ideology related to the notion of
complex adaptive systems.
