The new icon

Enough of that mumbojumbo on Complex Nonlinear systems. Time to simplify.
We need an simple icon we can identify with. A simple picture we can relate to.
The Atom
In the 20th century that icon was the atom.
A ball, the nucleus, with one or more tiny balls, the electron, in orbit. Just like like the earth and its moon. A calm mechanical picture of stability. It was profound because you knew this was the fundamental source of all matter, the stars, planets, trees, water and even you. It was also slightly strange and mystical, this very tiny "object" nobody has ever seen.
It became our archetype by which we interpreted the world and reality around us.
The web
In the 21st century that icon is the web. It's neither calm or mechanical. It represent dynamics, change, no beginning, no end and no center. The atom, matter, you can touch, the web is messy, fuzzy, flaky and virtual. When I say web, I don't mean the world wide web, I mean a network of relations. Everything is in relation with everything, influence is both ways or "multi-ways". Simple cause and effect seize to exist.
It becomes counter intuitive and it brings new economics. If it's really interesting and slightly mystical, like society, economics, ant heaps, evolution, your brain, the world wide web, blogs, it means you are staring the web straight in its face.
The web is fundamentally different, it is profound and it brings new and fresh opportunities. But you have to see it first to act on it.

‘If you have an apple and I have an apple and we exchange these apples then you and I will still each have one apple. But if you have an idea and I have an idea and we exchange these ideas, then each of us will have two ideas.’ — George Bernard Shaw