Life is a complex system

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What is a system?

A system is a group of interacting or interrelated elements that act according to a set of rules to form a unified whole. A system, surrounded and influenced by its environment, is described by its boundaries, structure and purpose and expressed in its functioning.
System — Wikipedia

Elements that are not part of a system are defined by their properties. The functioning of a system on the other hand is defined by the relations between the elements, instead of the properties that each element has or exhibits.

Types of Systems

Open System
Closed System
Isolated System

Open System

Boundaries
Surroundings

Inputs
Outputs

Elements
Interactions
Interrelated
Set of Rules
Structure
Purpose

What is a complex system

A complex system is a system composed of many components which may interact with each other.
Complex System— Wikipedia

Unexpected Outputs from a complex systems

Nonlinearity - is a system in which the change of the output is not proportional to the change of the input.
Emergence - occurs when an entity is observed to have properties its parts do not have on their own, properties or behaviors that emerge only when the parts interact in a wider whole.
Self Organisation - is the spontaneous emergence of order out of seeming chaos (not random and can be calculated, but not predictable either)

strong dynamical non-linearity, often (though not necessarily) involving positive and negative feedback
balance of exploitation and exploration
multiple interactions
availability of energy (to overcome the natural tendency toward entropy, or loss of free energy)

Complex Adaptive System - is a system that is complex in that it is a dynamic network of interactions, but the behavior of the ensemble may not be predictable according to the behavior of the components. It is adaptive in that the individual and collective behavior mutate and self-organize corresponding to the change-initiating micro-event or collection of events. It is a "complex macroscopic collection" of relatively "similar and partially connected micro-structures" formed in order to adapt to the changing environment and increase their survivability as a macro-structure. The Complex Adaptive Systems approach builds on replicator dynamics.
Feedback loops - occurs when outputs of a system are routed back as inputs as part of a chain of cause-and-effect that forms a circuit or loop.