In Bedau's framework, strong emergence basically means something like "a miracle happened." Vitalism is a good example of strong emergence. Vitalism is the position that life has some additional (vital) property that cannot be derived from nor understood in terms of the underlying phyics and chemistry. (See Google define:vitalism<http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&rlz=1B3GGGL_enUS276US276&ei=DkqYSfm6FJKWsQOtw82PAQ&sa=X&oi=spell&resnum=0&ct=result&cd=1&q=define%3Avitalism&spell=1> .)
Nominal emergence is the idea that the emergent properties (at the macro level) are more or less directly derivable from the underlying properties (at ethe micro level). A trivial example is that the mass of a collection of things is the sum of the masses of the components. (For this to be true, one must assume that the components have not interacted in any way that would modify their aggregate mass. That turns out to be a non-trivial assumption. But the basic idea seems fairly clear.) Weak emergence is Bedau's way of characterizing what we commonly refer to as emergence, namely properties that appear at the macro level that aren't obvious from an examination of the micro level. That's not saying very much, but I don't think that the idea of weak emergence adds much to the discussion. One somewhat more concrete subcase of weak emergence consists of properties that can be determined only by a computation. An example is whether a Turing Machine will halt. One can't always just "look at" the Turing Machine and decide. One must run it. If it halts, one has the answer. Until then, one doesn't have the answer -- which means that one may never have the answer for any particular machine. This is all from what by now is a somewhat dated paper. I like my version of emergence better, which in in less than 10 words is that it is the properties at a level of abstraction. -- Russ On Sun, Feb 15, 2009 at 5:36 AM, Jochen Fromm <[email protected]> wrote: > Hi, > > Russell Standish was right, the definitions in the wiki contradict the > definitions of Mark A. Bedau. They are more like Chalmers, and less like > Bedau. Obviously I have not read Bedau carefully enough. I know the paper > from Alex Ryan, but I haven't read it carefully enough, either.. I found it > a bit boring. I added you as an "Author" to the blog (I will send the login > and password separately). Anyone else from the FRIAM list is of course > invited, too. The CAS-Group wiki has a different login, it is possible to > register yourself. > > Best regards, > Jochen > > ----- Original Message ----- From: Ted Carmichael > To: Jochen Fromm > Sent: Saturday, February 14, 2009 11:39 PM > Subject: Re: [FRIAM] The reductionist blind spot > > Hey, Jochen. > > Yeah, I struggle with these definitions myself. I tend to think best with > examples and anecdotes, as opposed to abstractions. That is, I usually > understand an abstraction in terms of an example that I use to > conceptualize > the idea. If I can't come up with a good example, that usually means I > don't understand the concept. > > So the idea of strong emergence I don't worry about too much. I agree with > you when you say, "The point here is that it is not possible to incorporate > the behavior of biological organisms (which are based on genes and > proteins) > somehow into the laws of atomic physics," so I simply don't try to connect > the two. I only work on emergent properties that I can try to understand. > And, if I'm reading you (and others) correctly, strong emergence is simply > too great a leap to be deducible. > > Well, you may have already read it, but I thought you'd like an article I > came across recently. Maybe it can help you come up with an alternative to > "levels of abstraction." > > Yes, I would be glad to take part in the CAS-Group. [..] How would you like > me to participate? > > Cheers, > > > Ted > > > ============================================================ > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College > lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org >
============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
