The model of hierarchical complexity as a measurement system

Abstract

The model of hierarchical complexity (mhc) is a mathematical model based on the “Theory of Measurement” that has gone through a number of iterations as a measurement system (Commons, Goodheart, Pekker, et al., 2005; Commons & Pekker, 2008; Commons & Richards, 1984a, 1984b; Commons, Trudeau, Stein, et all, 1998). It sets forth the measurement system by which actions are put into a hierarchical order and each order is assigned an ordinal number. In this paper, the components of the model will be described: actions and tasks, measurement and operations, and the axioms, followed by an articulation of emerging properties from axioms, and then a description of orders of hierarchical complexity of tasks. These are a reworked smaller set of axioms, which are more measurement-theoretical in nature. They also parallel the informal conditions underlying the kind of complexity that the mhc entails.