Why is adaptivity so important?

Why is it so important to use adaptive approaches for the solution of complex problems?

Complex systems (e.g. like urban traffic flows) are characterized by a lot of known and unknown or fuzzy dependencies and feedbacks. Hereby it often becomes very hard or even impossible to predict the system's behaviour in case of changes in single components or parameters. So if one cannot predict everything even with the brain power of the brightest experts, one should at least be able to adopt quickly to new situations and boundary conditions (which is one of the signs for intelligence by the way). Therefore adaptivity is a necessary feature in development of intelligent solutions, which needs to be considered from the beginning in the design.

When dealing with control for complex systems, Machine Learning approaches are the methods of choice, because they comprehend adaptivity naturally. New situations and behaviours can be trained quickly and easily without redesign.