An Easy Path to Modularity

There is a large literature about modularity in evolution and development CITE. One problem with modularity is that it is conceived of in so many ways CITE two papers. For example, a number of papers use measures of modularity in networks. But this is only useful if we assume that modularity of this kind is relevant to how such networks change over time.

Here, we are interested in how the some property (modularity) affects how a complex system can change over time. From an engineering perspective there are two related, but distinct, notions of modularity that matter for change over time. The first is the “decoupling” of two parts of a larger system, so that one can be modified without affecting the other. The second is “re-usability”. Here, the idea is a part of the system can be re-used for some other functionality. This “re-use” is ambiguous here. - Do we mean re-use of the very same part of the system? - Or are we making a copy of this piece of the system and redeploying it?