Complexity

Perhaps the heart of what Occam’s Razor is getting at is this: that there is a metaphysical truth in that as a simple explanatory idea is expanded upon to account for more and more complex phenomena, the apparatus that forms as a result becomes more complex, and as a result, unwieldy. So after a certain point, better results can be achieved if a completely new, simplified idea is proposed that can better handle the current state of affairs.

Let’s say that reality is an infinitely complex subject to understand. We can begin to understand it by proxy, and thus manipulate it, by constructing an ideological/methodological framework for understanding it. But as we come to know more about that reality, through the explanatory framework itself (and of course there are other parallel frameworks being developed in different fields that are competing to explain the same thing) the original framework has to be expanded upon to account for new knowledge. This results in a web of logical extensions that become increasingly convoluted and tangled as they become more complex, diminishing the explanatory power of the framework by virtue of complexity and high energy requirements for use.

So again, there comes a point when this framework simply becomes too unwieldy to use. Also consider that the framework itself is revised and updated by subsequent minds that might not understand the phenomena like the previous mind. As time goes on, more and more inferior minds become attached to the apparatus and insert their own provisions until the apparatus becomes laden with contradictions and errors.

More complexity could lead to more fragmentation and less consistency, as minds can only cooperate to an extent, and that one mind can only hold so much information, even great minds. This variable would depend on the balance between the ego and the collective, to be sure.