Editorial The law of requisite variety: Is it applicable

to human systems? It is rarely disputed that we live in a world of increasing complexity. Some would even say: 'Entropy is rising; negentropy is falling', or 'Pro-liferating variety is a measure of increasing chaos', and such. This is too simple. The increase in complexity should refer to the increase in organized complex-ity, not to chaos. Even chaos itself is now seen as a kind of organization which is still incomprehensi-ble or inaccessible to humans. Some insist that 'only variety can absorb variety' and call it the great 'law ' of nature. Matching, or requisite, variety is then proposed as the condition of successful regulation and control in our increas