Complex Adaptive Systems: An Introduction to Computational Models of Social Life (Princeton Studies in Complexity Book 14)

by John H. Miller

The notion of emergence has deep intuitive appeal. Consider for the moment standing up close to a pixelated picture (see figure 4.1).1 While each individual pixel can be easily understood in terms of its shape, color, hue, and other properties, it is typically impossible to figure out the entire image by simply scanning across the pixels at close range. As the observer moves back, there is some point at which the overall image begins to resolve, and the pixels become indistinguishable. Once the image has resolved, we can typically make many possible alterations to individual pixels and still not impact the overall image. Indeed, depending on the image, certain types of global pixel properties, such as color, may not even be be needed to have a good sense of the final image.