You may remember a rather obscure law of science from your high school days in physics called the Conservation of Energy: The total amount of energy in a closed system remains constant. In other words, energy can be converted from one form to another, but it cannot be created or destroyed. I don't claim to understand this principle fully, but essentially it's saying there is a finite amount of energy in any given system and that amount cannot be changed. All you can do is change the way it's packaged. I guess it's a little like the mess in my boys room. It never really goes away ~ it only changes form now and then. I would like to offer a corollary to the Conservation of Energy that I call the Conservation of Complexity , which states: The total amount of complexity in an information system remains constant. In other words, complexity can be transferred from one party to another, but it cannot be created or destroyed. This principle states that in any given in