Limits to comprehensive planning

This paper postulates that larger more complicated organisms cannot be comprehended completely. Some of their important internal characteristics and dynamics are indeterminate. Certain external conditions and occurrences vitally affecting them cannot be predicted or treated as random events. The internal functioning of complex organisms and their interaction with the external environment cannot therefore be formulated analytically with the completeness, precision, and reliability required for truly comprehensive planning and decision-making. Limitations of rational and collective action by people are also involved in what comprehensive planning can and cannot accomplish, and how it is best conducted.