Complexity and Self-Endangerment
If complexity is processed through a specific selection of possibilities, which are provided by just this complexity, then it is, per se, dangerous. A decision for the realisation of the one possibility always carries the danger with it, that the discarded possibilities are no longer attainable now or in the future. If one possibility has become the reality, it is the starting point for further possible choices based upon it. With each decision, the result becomes more specific, more unique and, thus, more implausible.
However, the more implausible something is, the more limited it also is in its ability to respond to major changes in the environment with major changes. It holds onto its past. If, for example, a certain job (weaver, mason, and soon perhaps postmen or surgeons) is no longer needed, unwieldy retraining is required in order to once more have the possibility of new choices.
This relationship is of considerable relevance to change theory. This is because it shows that one-sided optimism, which asserts that with good will anything is possible, cannot be theoretically supported. Therefore, some systems disappear and don’t change. Thus, in a highly dynamic, disruptive world, structuring principles, which rely on changeability, are particularly functional, because they act against self-endangerment from historical rigidity.