It would be wrong to regard this as the emergence of first one (increased complexity) and then the other (reduction of complexity) in some historical sense, as though one were a cause or energizer of the other. Causality is to be seen in both, in a mutual cause and effect relationship. The functional compartmentalization of this unity into a problem (increase of complexity) on the one hand, and a solution (reduction of complexity) on the other, serves simply as a means to compare different kinds of solutions. In the final analysis, the increase and reduction of complexity belong together as complementary aspects of the structure of human response to the world.

DEFINE: Clarifies that 'increase of complexity' and 'reduction of complexity' are not sequential stages but mutually linked, complementary aspects of the same phenomenon.

Niklas Luhmann, Trust and Power, loc. 105