And Another Thing

31 January 2009

The case for simplicity is essentially a moral one

A bank was, until comparatively recently, quite simple. Depositors put their money there, and the bank used it to make loans, interest payments being adjusted accordingly. This simple process had huge constructive value. But modern technology has allowed banks to create new and infinitely complicated systems of credit and debt. Again, a cloud settles down obscuring the magnitude and dangers of what is being done. Worse, the greed-inciting systems of bonuses to senior bankers means they have a direct personal incentive to use technology to multiply the level of transaction, chiefly the acquisition of debt, and the scale of the bonus is determined by sheer magnitude, making no distinction between good and bad debt. Thus the entire financial world was running a colossal Ponzi scheme, whose ruling principle was complexity. Now that it is too late, we can grasp this, and a longing for simplicity possesses the world. For we feel instinctively that simplicity makes moral control possible. Complexity, beyond a certain point, rules it out. We see it now, surveying the ruins of global finance. Why should it be any different for the origins of the universe?

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Andrew Martin

January 29th, 2009 10:15am Report this comment

You might want to stick to commentating rather than enginering ... but the concept of "over-engineered" systems is a well-known one.

A famous computer scientist, Oxford's Professor C A R Hoare, had a dictum "Inside every big program there's a small program trying to get out". Anyone who's tried to make sense of a modern computer will yearn for the simplicity of those of yesteryear. What's more, in computer security, complexity is widely seen as the enemy: systems with many complex details provide ample places for attackers and fraudsters to lurk. The simpler the software, the more likely it does what was intended, no more and no less.

Philoktetes

January 29th, 2009 5:20pm Report this comment

Andrew Martin, you ought to stick to software engineering rather than commentating.

Regarding evolutionary origins, I was just studying the godless version of origins. It is vastly complex without very little actual evidence but with lots of conjecture. The belief that life can arise out of non-life without a personal creator has bent physics and astronomy into pretzel shapes of unbelievable complexity, which requires loads of faith. Mr. P. Johnson is right: simplicity is morally right.

Rob Slack

January 30th, 2009 12:12pm Report this comment

Having read your piece, I conclude the virtue of complexity is it convinces us of the virtue of simplicity.

David Preiser

February 4th, 2009 4:59am Report this comment

Isn't the concept of an omnipotent God more of a simple explanation than things like the Casimir Effect? Emotional complexity doesn't count, I'm afraid.

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