Your high school Latin lesson and complexity

Understanding engineering system complexity starts with a definition.  The English word "complex"has two Latin roots - - com (meaning "together") and plectere (meaning "to weave" or "to braid").  The Latin roots begin to illustrate the story of the modern engineered system - - a story of intertwined elements affecting and depending on one another.  A story that begins with the braiding of scale, function, structure, and temporality in engineering systems - - and sometimes ends in a God awful mess.