A thought:

Complex systems are prone to fail and, knowing that, we build into them every manner of defense against such outcomes. If we consider complex systems as networks, with the number and variety of nodes of any type being some sort of measure of overall complexity, the nodes, edges and paths all hold a binary potential: to push the system towards correct/expected behaviour, or failure. In the absence of design, each of these possible points or paths through the system would have an equal likelihood of an expression leading to one of these two outcomes, so that there would be equal opportunities for failure and success. In designed systems, we stack the odds to lower the overall probability of actual failure.

I think we tend to forget about this ‘alter network’  and it’s ‘failure processing’; it bites us when we least expect it. It can be thought of as a sort of inverse of the understood, ‘as-designed’ system. It anti-operates / anti-runs alongside the latter, and is inextricably tangled with it. The best we can do is siphon power away from it.

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