Video: Chaos theory, the butterfly effect, complexity, and new tools for public policy

Irene Sanders, Executive Director and Founder of the Washington Center for Complexity and Public Policy, offers a history of complexity science and explores the challenges of applying its insights to public policy.

"Unfortunately a lot of our policy is still being developed using that linear cause-and-effect thinking," she says. "We now have a way of understanding complex systems and complex issues. We finally have some real undergirding science that supports some of our social science applications."

She discusses emerging early warning capabilities as one area where public policy can benefit from complex systems science.

Sanders is author of the book "Strategic Thinking and the New Science: Planning in the Midst of Chaos, Complexity, and Change."

Provided by Santa Fe Institute