Thus spake Nick Thompson circa 09-07-07 06:08 PM: > Well, If you read a textbook the physics text that we did a bit this > year you find out that system is defined as anything you happen to be > looking at. So any bunch of stuff would be a system. But any bunch > of stuff does not display emergent properties. So on that account you > would be wrong.
Well, since my post consisted of questions, I could hardly be wrong. ;-) The question was: Is there any identifiable property of a system that is NOT an emergent property, regardless of how one defines "system"? If anyone knows of one, please name it! Yes, I am _partly_ asking so that I can subsequently analyze that example and demonstrate that whatever example is provided, it can be thought of as "emergent". I'm also genuinely interested in the examples list members might assert are non-emergent properties. Honestly, I can't think of any. > -----Original Message----- >> From: "glen e. p. ropella" <[email protected]> >> >> [...] >> >> But, as Yudkowsky said in that post that Jochen forwarded, isn't >> this true of _everything_? Can you name any system where _every_ >> property of the system is based solely on the nature of its >> components and not on its organization? >> >> More generally, is any property _not_ an emergent property? >> >> Sure, there may be _types_ of organization, as in the case of a >> triangle vs. a parallelogram; but if that's the case, why not just >> talk about types of organization instead of using the magical term >> "emergence"? -- glen e. p. ropella, 971-222-9095, http://agent-based-modeling.com ============================================================ 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
