I don't want to leave the impression that I think that emergence is a difficult concept to understand and that I but hardly anyone else understands it. Emergence is what happens when components of the "emergent entity" act in such a way as to bring about the existence and persistence of that entity.
When "boids" follow their local flying rules, they create (*implement*) a flock. It's not mysterious. We know how it works. That's all emergence is: coordinated or consistent actions among a number of elements that result in the formation and persistence of some aggregate entity or phenomenon. The "coordination" doesn't have to be top-down. In flocking, for example, there is coordination. The flying rules depend on the boids seeing neighboring boids. One can even say that there is some overall coordination: namely that all the boids follow those same rules. *Emergence *is the term we have come to use for that process/effect. In the introduction to Bedau and Humphreys they speak of emergence as some mysterious, perhaps even incoherent phenomenon. It's not. It happens all the time all around us. Our bodies are the emergent result of the actinos of our cells. A country is the emergent result of the actinos of its citizens. This group is the emergent result of the actions of its participants. It's worth pointing out that in biological and social emergent entities, the comonents may come and go while the entity persists. What emerges is a pattern of activities, not a physical thing. That's one of the reasons people get confused. (And that's why subvenience is not particularly useful in these cases.) But if you just think about emergence as a persistent pattern of activities, that pretty much takes care of it. It's the fact that the pattern persists that matters, not the elements that are acting to produce the pattern. -- Russ On Sat, Sep 5, 2009 at 1:58 PM, Nicholas Thompson < [email protected]> wrote: > Yes I DO mean bedeau and Humphreys. > > that is the second time I have made that mistake. I dont know who the hell > Phillips is and why he has such a firm grip on my E-magination. > > Oh, yes. You dissolved the problem entirely. there were just a few .... > teensy little details I thought we might tidy up by reading the book. > > Nick > > Nicholas S. Thompson > Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Ethology, > Clark University ([email protected]) > http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/<http://home.earthlink.net/%7Enickthompson/naturaldesigns/> > > > > > > ----- Original Message ----- > *From:* Russ Abbott <[email protected]> > *To: *[email protected];The Friday Morning Applied Complexity > Coffee Group <[email protected]> > *Sent:* 9/5/2009 2:02:39 PM > *Subject:* Re: [FRIAM] emergence > > Do you mean Bedau and *Humphreys*? Also, I hope you read my paper, "The > reductionist blind spot<http://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/archive/00004540/>." > As I said I've solved the problem of emergence. It's no longer the mystery > Bedau and Humphreys make it out to be. Consequently the papers in their book > are fairly obsolete. Of course you will make up your own minds about that. > But at least give yourself the chance to reach that conclusion. > > -- Russ > > > > On Sat, Sep 5, 2009 at 11:55 AM, Nicholas Thompson < > [email protected]> wrote: > >> I hoped to start a discussion group on emergence this fall. Michel >> Bloch is in town for the next three weeks and wants to join it, so I am >> moved to start earlier than I might otherwise. I suggest thursday afternoon >> at 4pm at Downtown Subscription. Our text is Bedau and Phillips, >> EMERGENCE. Alicia Juarrero also has a collection of readings we might get >> into later. At least three of us already have cc of the book, so if others >> are curious and want to flip through it, they should join us. >> >> I just pulled the time and day out of my .... hat, so feel free to >> renegotiate it. I dont want to lose anybody just because of a time problem. >> >> Nick >> >> >> Nicholas S. Thompson >> Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Ethology, >> Clark University ([email protected]) >> http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/<http://home.earthlink.net/%7Enickthompson/naturaldesigns/> >> >> >> >> >> >> ============================================================ >> 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 >
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