Bonini's paradox

Bonini's Paradox explains the difficulty in constructing models or simulations that fully capture the workings of complex systems (such as the human brain).

Specifically, the paradox can be explained as follows: As a model of a complex system becomes more complete, it becomes less understandable. Alternatively, as a model grows more realistic, it also becomes just as difficult to understand as the real-world processes it represents (Dutton and Starbuck, 1971).

This paradox is often used by researchers to explain why complete models of the human brain and thinking processes have not been created and will undoubtedly remain difficult for years to come.

This same paradox was observed earlier from a quote by Paul Valéry, "Everything simple is false. Everything which is complex is unusable." (Notre destin et les lettres, 1937)