Complexity: The Emerging Science at the Edge of Order and Chaos

by M. Mitchell Waldrop

Emergence First, says Farmer, this putative law would have to give a rigorous account of emergence: What does it really mean to say that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts? “It’s not magic,” he says. “But to us humans, with our crude little human brains, it feels like magic.” Flying boids (and real birds) adapt to the actions of their neighbors, thereby becoming a flock. Organisms cooperate and compete in a dance of coevolution, thereby becoming an exquisitely tuned ecosystem. Atoms search for a minimum energy state by forming chemical bonds with each other, thereby becoming the emergent structures known as molecules. Human beings try to satisfy their material needs by buying, selling, and trading with each other, thereby creating an emergent structure known as a market. Humans likewise interact with each other to satisfy less quantifiable goals, thereby forming families, religions, and cultures. Somehow, by constantly seeking mutual accommodation and self-consistency, groups of agents manage to transcend themselves and become something more. The trick is to figure out how, without falling back into sterile philosophizing or New Age mysticism.