Brian:
> However, emergence on its own appears useless as a principle of hope.
Good point. Allow me to amplify . . . <g>
"Emergence"was a DoD project. Or, more properly a DoE one. The US Department
of Energy (spun-off from DoD to "control" nuclear weapons), established the
Mecca of "emergence" at the Santa Fe Institute (across the road from Los Alamos
and staffed with bomb designers), to take the techniques of "star design" and
apply them to society. The DoE still funds $10M/year to the Institute (about
1/2 its budget.)
And while we're on the subject, the recently established "Cultural Evolution
Society" -- devoted to "nudging" whatever emerges -- was initiated at an iARPA
workshop at the UofMaryland where they explicitly said that DoD funding would
block many participants so they would need Templeton and others to "sheep-dip"
the process . . . !!
https://culturalevolutionsociety.org/
"Complexity theory" is a poor substitute for *causality* -- adopted from
astro-physics, in which "probability" has replaced any understanding of "why"
-- and actually has had *zero* success in the social domain. If you want to
deal with "strategy" (which is the business of my Center), then you will have
to retrieve causality (and forget "emergence"). Otherwise, there is indeed no
"principle of hope."
Judea Pearl, famous for his contributions to AI research (as well as the death
of his journalist son), has written an important book titled "The Book of Why?"
In it he recounts how we lost "causality" and why we need to get it back --
alas, without answering his own urgent questions (or really understanding *why*
all this happened in the first place.)
https://www.amazon.com/Book-Why-Science-Cause-Effect/dp/046509760X
Happy New Year!!
MarkJersey City Heights
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