___ Sent with SnapperMail www.snappermail.com ...... Original Message ....... On Sat, 10 Oct 2009 11:08:04 -0600 "Nicholas Thompson" <[email protected]> wrote: >Robert: > >House guests, but let me take a quick whack at this. Before the recent "epigenic" revolution we focussed only on which genes we had, not on the arrangement of timing of events during development. It's example, I think, of the heurism of the emergentist viewpoint. > >Nick > >Nicholas S. Thompson >Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Ethology, >Clark University ([email protected]) >http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/ > > > > > >----- Original Message ----- >From: Robert Holmes >To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group >Sent: 10/10/2009 8:00:42 AM >Subject: [FRIAM] A question for the emergentists among you > >What's the point of determining whether a phenomenon is emergent or not? What useful stuff can I actually do with that knowledge? > >In other areas of my life, classification can have actionable consequences. For example, I can use the sophisticated pattern-matching algorithms and heuristics embedded in my brain to work out that the three animals wandering through my house can be categorized as "cats" and not "dogs". And that is useful, because it tells me that I should buy cat food and not dog food when I go to PetCo. > >So what is an equivalent example with emergence? Once I've attached the "emergent" label to a phenomenon, then what? > >-- Robert > >============================================================ >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
