Three different electronic systems have been studied either in simulation, or experimentally, or both. They all may be made to display sudden changes of the chaotic motion which we have interpreted in the light of the Variable Structure model. It is just possible that by finding universal properties such as this in disparate but structurally similar systems, ideas for the engineering of complex systems to either display or avoid such behaviour may emerge. It may even be possible to engineer such systems to display emergent or evolutionary properties.