Information, technology and complexity, v. 2. 0

Abstract

On the basis of accounting for the specific nature of information and those technologies dealing with it in contemporary societies, it is necessary to outline the distinctive features of information technologies as those tools, products and services that shape global economy. This task involves a clarification of those phenomena in which technological development supplies human organizations —i. e. functionally structured sets of individuals— with uncertainty. The gap between the development of information technologies and the evolution of human organizations rises serious challenges. As a consequence of them, the real complexity of information technologies does not lie in their functional articulation, their usability or their diversity, nor in their sofistication. It rather lies in the deep transformations they cause in the ways human systems organize themselves. The paradoxical consequence is that an exponential variation of knowledge management resources may result in the drop of the adaptability of the organization, even though it may mean an improvement of tools. The interaction among the several levels of complexity in human organizations —system, individuals and technologies— requires a system design addressed to the management of the uncertainty surplus provided by information technologies