What is emergence?
Searle talks about how consciousness is an emergent property of the neurons in our brains...
There is some controversy over what he means by emergence... So I thought I'd ask. One take is that emergent properties are properties that can't be predicted from knowledge of the entities and relationships between entities on a lower level of analysis. For example... Take a bunch of H2O molecules. If we know the facts about the molecules internal constitution and we know the facts about the bonds and about the relationships between H2O molecules then can we predict liquidity? If we can then liquidity wouldn't be an emergent property in the sense of emergence outlined above (whereas if we couldn't predict the liquidity from the facts from the lower level then liquidity would be an emergent property). Is this what others mean by emergence or do they have something else in mind? What is an emergent system? |
Re: What is emergence?
When you hear "emergent" think of spores and seeds.
Think of bottom-up instead of top down. (And evolution rather than intelligent design!) Also think of power laws, not bell curves; path analysis, not straight lines (Sewall Wright or Robert Plomin. Also, Barabasi, 2002; Ball, 2004); networks of weak influences that achieve extraordinary stability such as those you see in your grandmother?s wicker basket or in your bathroom mirror (Kauffman, 1993; Lewontin, 2000); doodles rather than outlines, and an electronic mouse rather than a directory tree; and, most wonderful of all, the glories of animism and possession. And when resources are evenly distributed, think of coral reefs and socialism! JB from "Life Organizes in a Tinker Toy Way" Brody, ISHE poster, 2006. All rights reserved, copyright. |
Corning on Emergence
There are some interesting thoughts on "emergence" (along with a discussion of its theoretical implications and an approach to testing for it) in Peter Corning's writings.
For example, see: http://www.complexsystems.org/public...emergence3.pdf and http://www.complexsystems.org/publications/synhypo.html or the expanded discussions in "Hollistic Darwinism" or "Nature's Magic." kind regards, Todd |
Re: What is emergence?
Let’s cut to the chase—“emergence,†“Nature’s Magic,†“synergy,†evolution, natural selection, etc., are merely terms, often circular terms, for phenomena that we, for the most part, don’t begin to truly understand, and that are possible only b/c of the “specialness†at the beginning of the universe, 14 billion years ago, that we sapient beings now find ourselves in.
Roger Penrose, the eminently qualified Oxford mathematician and physicist, who recently also wrote The Road to Reality, A Complete Guide to the Laws of the Universe, 2005, “the most complete mathematical explanation of the universe yet published,†explains this in his chapter on thermodynamics (the following is from an Amazon.com review of Penrose’s book by a Reviewer, Glenn L. E. May, Islington, Ontario Canada on 6/2005): In his chapter 27 on thermodynamics, Penrose seems to finally 'bury' dissenters who believe there is nothing unique or improbable about the universe. |
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