The big question for this segment is, what can be distilled from our examination of complex adaptive systems. [MUSIC] Once we move from complex physical to biological systems, we are dealing with billions of more component parts and tangled webs. Making it extremely more difficult to predict their behavior and the outcome of their interactions. Much more so than the calculable regularity of orbiting planets and blazing stars. The key to understanding the behavior of a complex adaptive system is keeping track of the component parts of that system and the outside pressures upon it. This will illuminate, not just one possible path for its behavior, but many possible futures as new adaptations emerge. Once you have a roster of possible pathways or trajectories, we are better equipped to anticipate new emergent properties. But one thing both physical and biological systems hold in common is they are both dependent on energy flows. Ultimately, the needs, movements and trajectories of complex adaptive structures are geared toward finding enough energy to sustain or increase their complexity. All biological instinct, all individual behaviors and even human cultural activity descends from this. Either serving it, or as a harmless offshoot that does not impede this goal. It is the core of both biological and cultural evolution. Ultimately, this quest for energy flows to sustain or increase our complexity, can have a knock on effect on the overall ecosystem. That, in the long run, can ultimately rupture and frustrate this goal for everyone and everything. This applies to fast spreading and noxious bacteria, highly successful herbivores that strip landscapes bare or carnivorous predators that eliminate entire species and thus remove their own source of food. And, of course, this applies to humans who, in our race to obtain energy flows, to sustain or increase our own complexity, could wind up destroying that complexity. This adds an extra layer to our analysis of complexity. Not only is it tricky to project the trajectories of complex adaptive systems, but even more mind boggling to predict the impact the interaction between these millions upon millions of systems can have on an entire interwoven, entangled meta-system or ecosystem. In the next module, we shall ratchet up complexity even higher. Looking at complex adaptive systems that do not rely primarily on natural selection to generate new adaptations over millions and billions of years, but thousands of innovations that allow for rapid adaptations within a single generation, cultural systems. [MUSIC]