The Limits of Monolithic Knowledge

I suspect the following observations are more about how long I've lived than anything really new. Regardless, I've become increasingly interested in the factors that limit the size/complexity of a capability.

I suppose some of these factors are ontological...a capability (by definition) has a constrained scope of use/applicability across a limited range of contexts. Since the capability (in effect) models both aspects (implicitly and explicitly), the amount/complexity of modeling generally is a key predictor of the size/complexity of the tightly-coupled aspects of the capability.

Bottom line: as the capability increases in scope (and therefore, size/complexity), so does its implicit/explicit models, and, so does the difficulty of creating it.

These ontological factors alone would seem to point toward a capability creation boundary where increasing knowledge inputs yields less and less incremental capability....more pithily alluded to in sayings like "large complex systems that work evolve from small simple systems that work" ("evolve" being used in an engineering sense, since there are no small simple biological systems).

Since we can't really do much about the ontological aspect, we tend to focus on the factors we can influence: personnel, process, culture, etc.

Which brings me to a few items that triggered these thoughts this week:

• Various government leaders have expressed concern about spending overruns in the defense area over the past few years. This article in the New York Times is a good summary of the latest declaration of a "crisis." Critics in the past have pointed to factors like unconstrained requirements growth, loss of systems engineering expertise, poor engineering process & execution, poor management process & execution, poor acquisition process & execution, lack of discipline (across the board), etc. I'll limit my comments to observing that needs with radically constrained resources (e.g., time, budget) tend to get addressed more efficiently. While I recognize the dangers of faster, better, cheaper for large/complex capabilities like the Space Shuttle, I also suspect that the ultimate needs can often be addressed with simpler capabilities. Constraining resources focuses the mind.
  
• A related LM story here;
  
• And, an Augustine-centric article from Defense Acquisition Review.