The paper discusses aspects of a project that strives to base an understanding of what economics call “productivity” on a complexity theoretic foundation. The core thesis of this project is that productivity can best be grasped by referring to two features commonly associated with knowledge – “nonreducibility in consumption” and “time preference”. The paper in hand focuses on theoretical aspects concerning the ontological status of the observer in defining productivity alongside these features. Oriented on the Theory of Social Systems by Niklas Luhmann and methodologically drawing on Multi-Agent-Simulation, it investigates the thesis that the observer itself – circularly – can be conceptualized as a consequence of these two features.

Problem: Can communication emerge from the interaction of “self-referentially closed systems,” conceived as operating solely on the base of the “internal” output of their onboard means? Or in terms of philosophical conceptions: can communication emerge without (“outward” directed) “intention” or “will to be understood”? Method: Multi-agent simulation based on a conceptual analysis of the theory of social systems as suggested by Niklas Luhmann. Results: Agents that co-evolutionarily aggregate probabilities on how to cope with their environment can structurally couple and generate a form of “eigenbehavior” that retrospectively (i.e., by an observer) might be interpreted as communication. Implications: The “intention” or the “will to be understood,” as prominently claimed to be indispensable in communication by theoreticians such as Jürgen Habermas, can be seen as a retrospective ascription to an emergent property of complex interaction. Constructivist content: The paper attempts to base constructivist reasoning on data generated in simulations.

Key words: Communication, information, contingency, structural coupling, intentionality, observer dependency, multi-agent simulation.