up:: [[Complex Adaptive Systems]] # Constraints Constraints are relational properties that parts acquire in virtue of being unified--not just aggregated--into a systemic whole (e.g., through [[Autopoiesis]]). They make a system diverge from chance, randomness, or equiprobability. Constraints are either [[Context-free Constraints]], or [[Context-sensitive Constraints]]. [[Constraints are Causes|Constraints act as causes]] in [[Complex Adaptive Systems]]. They can either contain or connect. Examples of types of constraints include: - [[Attractors]] - [[Connections]] - [[Exchanges]] - [[Boundaries]] - [[Identity]] Constraints are dependencies, they're anything that moves the probability of an action away from randomness, or it's prior-probability. [[Context-free Constraints]]act as a prior-probability of action, while [[Context-sensitive Constraints]] change prior-probability distributions. The original ideas for the use of constraints in [[The Cynefin Framework]] came from the work of [[@Alicia Juarrero]]. The concept of constraints in [[The Cynefin Framework]] is not the same as in [[Theory of Constraints]] by [[@Eliyahu Goldratt|Eliyahu Goldratt]]. In the [[Theory of Constraints]], constraints are considered negative things that need to be removed from a system, whereas in [[70 Evolutionary Potential/The Vault/Complexity|complexity]], while they can be negative, they're also vital and enabling. Without constraints there would be no evolution ([[Innovation]]). ###### Sources: [[Dynamics in Action by Alicia Juarrero]] [[What Are Constraints in a Complex System? by Chris Corrigan]] [[Constraint Mapping Page from Cynefin Wiki]] ###### Related: left:: [[The Adjacent Possible]] down:: [[Constraint Mapping]], [[ABIDE]], [[A Typology of Constraints]]