Emergence: A Wikipedia Production

Emergence
Beginnings Are Endings
Contents
1
Emergence
1.1
In philosophy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1.1.1
Denitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1.1.2
Strong and weak emergence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1.1.3
Objective or subjective quality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1.2
In religion, art and humanities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1.3
Emergent properties and processes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1.4
Emergent structures in nature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1.4.1
Non-living, physical systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1.4.2
Living, biological systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
In humanity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1.5.1
Spontaneous order . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1.5.2
Computer AI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1.5.3
Language . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1.5.4
Emergent change processes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1.6
See also . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1.7
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
10
1.8
Bibliography
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11
1.9
Further reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
11
1.10 External links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
13
Complexity
14
2.1
Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
14
2.2
Disorganized complexity vs. organized complexity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
14
2.3
Sources and factors of complexity
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
15
2.4
Varied meanings of complexity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
15
2.5
Study of complexity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
16
2.6
Complexity topics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
16
2.6.1
Complex behaviour . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
16
2.6.2
Complex mechanisms
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16
2.6.3
Complex simulations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
16
2.6.4
Complex systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
16
2.6.5
Complexity in data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
17
1.5
ii
CONTENTS
2.6.6
Complexity in molecular recognition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
17
2.7
Applications of complexity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
17
2.8
See also . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
17
2.9
References
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18
2.10 Further reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
18
2.11 External links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
19
Self-organization
20
3.1
Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
20
3.1.1
20
3.2
History of the idea
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21
Developing views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
21
Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
22
3.3.1
Physics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
22
3.3.2
Chemistry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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3.3.3
Biology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
23
3.3.4
Computer Science . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
24
3.3.5
Cybernetics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
24
3.3.6
Human society . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
25
3.3.7
Psychology and education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
26
3.3.8
Trac ow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
27
3.3.9
Methodology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
27
3.4
Criticism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
28
3.5
See also . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
28
3.6
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
29
3.7
Further reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
31
3.8
External links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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3.8.1
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3.2.1
3.3
Principles of self-organization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Dissertations and theses on self-organization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Spontaneous order
34
4.1
History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
34
4.2
Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
34
4.2.1
Markets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
34
4.2.2
Game studies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
35
4.2.3
Anarchism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
35
4.2.4
Sobornost . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
35
4.2.5
Recent developments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
35
4.3
See also . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
35
4.4
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
35
4.5
External links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
36
Complex system
37
CONTENTS
iii
5.1
History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
37
5.2
Types of complex systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
37
5.2.1
Nonlinear systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
37
5.2.2
Complex adaptive systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
38
Topics on complex systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
38
5.3.1
Features of complex systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
38
5.4
See also . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
38
5.5
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
39
5.6
Further reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
39
5.7
External links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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5.3
Integrative level
40
6.1
Levels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
40
6.2
Philosophies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
40
6.3
References
40
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Chaos theory
42
7.1
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
42
7.2
Chaotic dynamics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
43
7.2.1
Sensitivity to initial conditions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
43
7.2.2
Topological mixing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
44
7.2.3
Density of periodic orbits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
44
7.2.4
Strange attractors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
44
7.2.5
Minimum complexity of a chaotic system . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
45
7.2.6
Jerk systems
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45
7.3
Spontaneous order . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
46
7.4
History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
46
7.5
Distinguishing random from chaotic data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
48
7.6
Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
49
7.6.1
Computer science . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
49
7.6.2
Biology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
49
7.6.3
Other areas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
49
7.7
See also . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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7.8
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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7.9
Scientic literature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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7.9.1
Articles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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7.9.2
Textbooks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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7.9.3
Semitechnical and popular works . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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7.10 External links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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Emergence (disambiguation)
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8.1
56
Literature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
iv
CONTENTS
8.2
Music . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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8.3
Other . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
56
8.4
See also . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
56
Emergence: The Connected Lives of Ants, Brains, Cities, and Software
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9.1
Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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9.2
Quote . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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9.3
Achievements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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9.4
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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9.5
Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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9.5.1
Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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9.5.2
Images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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9.5.3
Content license
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Chapter 1
Emergence
For other uses, see Emergence (disambiguation).
See also: Emergent (disambiguation), Spontaneous order
and Self-organization
In philosophy, systems theory, science, and art, emer-
A termite cathedral mound produced by a termite colony is a

classic example of emergence in nature.
basis of psychological phenomena, whereby economic

phenomena are in turn presumed to principally emerge.
The formation of complex symmetrical and fractal patterns by

Snowakes is an example of emergence in a physical system.
In philosophy, emergence typically refers to

emergentism. Almost all accounts of emergentism
gence is a process whereby larger entities, patterns, and
include a form of epistemic or ontological irreducibility
regularities arise through interactions among smaller or
to the lower levels.[1]
simpler entities that themselves do not exhibit such properties.
Emergence is central in theories of integrative levels and
of complex systems. For instance, the phenomenon life as
studied in biology is commonly perceived as an emergent
property of interacting molecules as studied in chemistry,
whose phenomena reect interactions among elementary
particles, modeled in particle physics, that at such higher
massvia substantial conglomerationexhibit motion
as modeled in gravitational physics. Neurobiological phenomena are often presumed to suce as the underlying
1.1 In philosophy
Main article: Emergentism
In philosophy, emergence is often understood to be a
claim about the etiology of a systems properties. An
emergent property of a system, in this context, is one that
is not a property of any component of that system, but
1
CHAPTER 1. EMERGENCE
is still a feature of the system as a whole. Nicolai Hartmann, one of the rst modern philosophers to write on
emergence, termed this categorial novum (new category).
1.1.1
Denitions
This idea of emergence has been around since at least the

time of Aristotle.[2] John Stuart Mill[3] and Julian Huxley[4] are two of many scientists and philosophers who
have written on the concept.
The term emergent was coined by philosopher G. H.
Lewes, who wrote:
Every resultant is either a sum or a dierence of the co-operant forces; their sum, when
their directions are the same -- their dierence, when their directions are contrary. Further, every resultant is clearly traceable in its
components, because these are homogeneous
and commensurable. It is otherwise with emergents, when, instead of adding measurable motion to measurable motion, or things of one
kind to other individuals of their kind, there is
a co-operation of things of unlike kinds. The
emergent is unlike its components insofar as
these are incommensurable, and it cannot be
reduced to their sum or their dierence.[5][6]
the game of chess illustrates ... why any laws

or rules of emergence and evolution are insucient. Even in a chess game, you cannot use the
rules to predict history i.e., the course of
any given game. Indeed, you cannot even reliably predict the next move in a chess game.
Why? Because the system involves more
than the rules of the game. It also includes
the players and their unfolding, moment-bymoment decisions among a very large number
of available options at each choice point. The
game of chess is inescapably historical, even
though it is also constrained and shaped by a
set of rules, not to mention the laws of physics.
Moreover, and this is a key point, the game of
chess is also shaped by teleonomic, cybernetic,
feedback-driven inuences. It is not simply a
self-ordered process; it involves an organized,
purposeful activity.[8]
1.1.2 Strong and weak emergence
Usage of the notion emergence may generally be subdivided into two perspectives, that of weak emergence
and strong emergence. In terms of physical systems,
weak emergence is a type of emergence in which the
emergent property is amenable to computer simulation.
This is opposed to the older notion of strong emergence,
Economist Jerey Goldstein provided a current denition in which the emergent property cannot be simulated by a
of emergence in the journal Emergence.[7] Goldstein ini- computer.
tially dened emergence as: the arising of novel and co- Some common points between the two notions are that
herent structures, patterns and properties during the proemergence concerns new properties produced as the syscess of self-organization in complex systems.
tem grows, which is to say ones which are not shared with
Goldsteins denition can be further elaborated to de- its components or prior states. Also, it is assumed that
the properties are supervenient rather than metaphysically
scribe the qualities of this denition in more detail:
primitive (Bedau 1997).
The common characteristics are: (1) radical novelty (features not previously observed in
systems); (2) coherence or correlation (meaning integrated wholes that maintain themselves
over some period of time); (3) A global or
macro level (i.e. there is some property of
wholeness); (4) it is the product of a dynamical process (it evolves); and (5) it is ostensive (it can be perceived). For good measure,
Goldstein throws in supervenience.[8]
Weak emergence describes new properties arising in systems as a result of the interactions at an elemental level.
However, it is stipulated that the properties can be determined by observing or simulating the system, and not by
any process of a priori analysis.
Bedau notes that weak emergence is not a universal metaphysical solvent, as weak emergence leads to the conclusion that matter itself contains elements of awareness to it.
However, Bedau concludes that adopting this view would
provide a precise notion that emergence is involved in
consciousness, and second, the notion of weak emergence
Systems scientist Peter Corning also says that living sysis metaphysically benign (Bedau 1997).
tems cannot be reduced to underlying laws of physics:
Strong emergence describes the direct causal action of
Rules, or laws, have no causal ecacy; they
a high-level system upon its components; qualities prodo not in fact generate anything. They serve
duced this way are irreducible to the systems constituent
merely to describe regularities and consistent
parts (Laughlin 2005). The whole is other than the sum
relationships in nature. These patterns may be
of its parts. It follows that no simulation of the system
very illuminating and important, but the undercan exist, for such a simulation would itself constitute a
lying causal agencies must be separately specireduction of the system to its constituent parts (Bedau
1997).
ed (though often they are not). But that aside,
1.1. IN PHILOSOPHY
However, the debate about whether or not the whole
can be predicted from the properties of the parts misses
the point. Wholes produce unique combined eects,
but many of these eects may be co-determined by the
context and the interactions between the whole and its
environment(s)" (Corning 2002). In accordance with
his Synergism Hypothesis (Corning 1983 2005), Corning also stated, It is the synergistic eects produced
by wholes that are the very cause of the evolution of
complexity in nature. Novelist Arthur Koestler used the
metaphor of Janus (a symbol of the unity underlying
complements like open/shut, peace/war) to illustrate how
the two perspectives (strong vs. weak or holistic vs.
reductionistic) should be treated as non-exclusive, and
should work together to address the issues of emergence
(Koestler 1969). Further,
3
fundamental physics has been devoted to the
search for a `theory of everything', a set of
equations that perfectly describe the behavior
of all fundamental particles. The view that this
is the goal of science rests in part on the rationale that such a theory would allow us to derive the behavior of all macroscopic concepts,
at least in principle. The evidence we have presented suggests that this view may be overly
optimistic. A `theory of everything' is one of
many components necessary for complete understanding of the universe, but is not necessarily the only one. The development of macroscopic laws from rst principles may involve
more than just systematic logic, and could require conjectures suggested by experiments,
simulations or insight.[10]
The ability to reduce everything to simple

fundamental laws does not imply the ability to
start from those laws and reconstruct the universe. The constructionist hypothesis breaks
down when confronted with the twin diculties of scale and complexity. At each level
of complexity entirely new properties appear.
Psychology is not applied biology, nor is biology applied chemistry. We can now see that
the whole becomes not merely more, but very
dierent from the sum of its parts. (Anderson
1972)
Emergent structures are patterns that emerge via collective actions of many individual entities. To explain such
patterns, one might conclude, per Aristotle,[2] that emergent structures are other than the sum of their parts on
the assumption that the emergent order will not arise if
the various parts simply interact independently of one
another. However, there are those who disagree.[12] According to this argument, the interaction of each part with
its immediate surroundings causes a complex chain of
processes that can lead to order in some form. In fact,
some systems in nature are observed to exhibit emergence based upon the interactions of autonomous parts,
The plausibility of strong emergence is questioned by
and some others exhibit emergence that at least at present
some as contravening our usual understanding of physics.
cannot be reduced in this way.
Mark A. Bedau observes:
Although strong emergence is logically
possible, it is uncomfortably like magic. How
does an irreducible but supervenient downward
causal power arise, since by denition it cannot
be due to the aggregation of the micro-level potentialities? Such causal powers would be quite
unlike anything within our scientic ken. This
not only indicates how they will discomfort
reasonable forms of materialism. Their mysteriousness will only heighten the traditional
worry that emergence entails illegitimately getting something from nothing.[9]
Meanwhile, others have worked towards developing analytical evidence of strong emergence. In 2009, Gu et al.
presented a class of physical systems that exhibits noncomputable macroscopic properties.[10][11] More precisely, if one could compute certain macroscopic properties of these systems from the microscopic description
of these systems, then one would be able to solve computational problems known to be undecidable in computer
science. They concluded that
Although macroscopic concepts are essential for understanding our world, much of
1.1.3 Objective or subjective quality

The properties of complexity and organization of any
system are considered by Crutcheld to be subjective
qualities determined by the observer.
Dening structure and detecting the emergence of complexity in nature are inherently
subjective, though essential, scientic activities. Despite the diculties, these problems can be analysed in terms of how modelbuilding observers infer from measurements
the computational capabilities embedded in
non-linear processes. An observers notion of
what is ordered, what is random, and what is
complex in its environment depends directly on
its computational resources: the amount of raw
measurement data, of memory, and of time
available for estimation and inference. The
discovery of structure in an environment depends more critically and subtly, though, on
how those resources are organized. The descriptive power of the observers chosen (or implicit) computational model class, for example,
can be an overwhelming determinant in nding
regularity in data."(Crutcheld 1994)
On the other hand, Peter Corning argues Must the synergies be perceived/observed in order to qualify as emergent eects, as some theorists claim? Most emphatically
not. The synergies associated with emergence are real
and measurable, even if nobody is there to observe them.
(Corning 2002)
1.2 In religion, art and humanities

In religion, emergence grounds expressions of religious
naturalism in which a sense of the sacred is perceived in
the workings of entirely naturalistic processes by which
more complex forms arise or evolve from simpler forms.
Examples are detailed in a 2006 essay titled 'The Sacred Emergence of Nature' by Ursula Goodenough and
Terrence Deacon and a 2006 essay titled 'Beyond Reductionism: Reinventing the Sacred' by Stuart Kauman.
An early argument (1904-5) for the emergence of social
formations, in part stemming from religion, can be found
in Max Weber's most famous work, The Protestant Ethic
and the Spirit of Capitalism [13]
In art, emergence is used to explore the origins of
novelty, creativity, and authorship. Some art/literary
theorists (Wheeler, 2006;[14] Alexander, 2011[15] have
proposed alternatives to postmodern understandings of
authorship using the complexity sciences and emergence theory. They contend that artistic selfhood and
meaning are emergent, relatively objective phenomena.
Michael J. Pearce has used emergence to describe the
experience of works of art in relation to contemporary
neuroscience.[16] ) The concept of emergence has also
been applied to the theory of literature and art, history, linguistics, cognitive sciences, etc. by the teachings of Jean-Marie Grassin at the University of Limoges
(v. esp.: J. Fontanille, B. Westphal, J. Vion-Dury, ds.
L'mergencePotique de l'mergence, en rponse aux
travaux de Jean-Marie Grassin, Bern, Berlin, etc., 2011;
and: the article "Emergence" in the International Dictionary of Literary Terms (DITL).
Grassin, ed. Emerging Literatures, Bern, Berlin, etc. :

Peter Lang, 1996). By opposition, emergent literature
is rather a concept used in the theory of literature.
1.3 Emergent properties and processes

An emergent behavior or emergent property can appear
when a number of simple entities (agents) operate in an
environment, forming more complex behaviors as a collective. If emergence happens over disparate size scales,
then the reason is usually a causal relation across dierent scales. In other words there is often a form of topdown feedback in systems with emergent properties.[18]
The processes from which emergent properties result may
occur in either the observed or observing system, and
can commonly be identied by their patterns of accumulating change, most generally called 'growth'. Emergent behaviours can occur because of intricate causal relations across dierent scales and feedback, known as
interconnectivity. The emergent property itself may be
either very predictable or unpredictable and unprecedented, and represent a new level of the systems evolution. The complex behaviour or properties are not a
property of any single such entity, nor can they easily be
predicted or deduced from behaviour in the lower-level
entities, and might in fact be irreducible to such behavior. The shape and behaviour of a ock of birds or school
of sh are good examples of emergent properties.
One reason why emergent behaviour is hard to predict

is that the number of interactions between components
of a system increases exponentially with the number
of components, thus potentially allowing for many new
and subtle types of behaviour to emerge. Emergence
is often a product of particular patterns of interaction.
Negative feedback introduces constraints that serve to x
structures or behaviours. In contrast, positive feedback
promotes change, allowing local variations to grow into
global patterns. Another way in which interactions leads
to emergent properties is dual-phase evolution. This occurs where interactions are applied intermittently, leading to two phases: one in which patterns form or grow,
In international development, concepts of emergence the other in which they are rened or removed.
have been used within a theory of social change termed On the other hand, merely having a large number of inSEED-SCALE to show how standard principles inter- teractions is not enough by itself to guarantee emergent
act to bring forward socio-economic development tted behaviour; many of the interactions may be negligible or
to cultural values, community economics, and natural irrelevant, or may cancel each other out. In some cases,
environment (local solutions emerging from the larger a large number of interactions can in fact work against
socio-econo-biosphere). These principles can be imple- the emergence of interesting behaviour, by creating a lot
mented utilizing a sequence of standardized tasks that of noise to drown out any emerging signal"; the emerself-assemble in individually specic ways utilizing recur- gent behaviour may need to be temporarily isolated from
sive evaluative criteria.[17]
other interactions before it reaches enough critical mass
In postcolonial studies, the term Emerging Literature to be self-supporting. Thus it is not just the sheer numrefers to a contemporary body of texts that is gaining mo- ber of connections between components which encourmentum in the global literary landscape (v. esp.: J.M. ages emergence; it is also how these connections are or-
1.4. EMERGENT STRUCTURES IN NATURE
ganised. A hierarchical organisation is one example that

can generate emergent behaviour (a bureaucracy may behave in a way quite dierent from that of the individual
humans in that bureaucracy); but perhaps more interestingly, emergent behaviour can also arise from more decentralized organisational structures, such as a marketplace. In some cases, the system has to reach a combined
threshold of diversity, organisation, and connectivity before emergent behaviour appears.
Unintended consequences and side eects are closely related to emergent properties. Luc Steels writes: A component has a particular functionality but this is not recognizable as a subfunction of the global functionality. Instead a component implements a behaviour whose side effect contributes to the global functionality [...] Each behaviour has a side eect and the sum of the side eects
gives the desired functionality (Steels 1990). In other
words, the global or macroscopic functionality of a system with emergent functionality is the sum of all side
eects, of all emergent properties and functionalities.
Giants Causeway in Northern Ireland is an example of a complex

emergent structure created by natural processes.
natural environment, is another example of an emergent

process, where randomness can give rise to complex and
deeply attractive, orderly structures.
Systems with emergent properties or emergent structures

may appear to defy entropic principles and the second law
of thermodynamics, because they form and increase order despite the lack of command and central control. This
is possible because open systems can extract information
and order out of the environment.
Emergence helps to explain why the fallacy of division is
a fallacy.
1.4 Emergent structures in nature

Main article: Patterns in nature
Emergent structures can be found in many natural phe-
Water crystals forming on glass demonstrate an emergent, fractal

natural process occurring under appropriate conditions of temperature and humidity.
However, crystalline structure and hurricanes are said to

have a self-organizing phase.
Ripple patterns in a sand dune created by wind or water is an

example of an emergent structure in nature.
nomena, from the physical to the biological domain.

For example, the shape of weather phenomena such as
hurricanes are emergent structures. The development
and growth of complex, orderly crystals, as driven by the
random motion of water molecules within a conducive
Symphony of the Stones carved by the Goght River at Garni Gorge

in Armenia is an example of an emergent natural structure.
It is useful to distinguish three forms of emergent structures. A rst-order emergent structure occurs as a result
of shape interactions (for example, hydrogen bonds in water molecules lead to surface tension). A second-order
emergent structure involves shape interactions played

out sequentially over time (for example, changing atmospheric conditions as a snowake falls to the ground build
upon and alter its form). Finally, a third-order emergent
structure is a consequence of shape, time, and heritable
instructions. For example, an organisms genetic code
sets boundary conditions on the interaction of biological
systems in space and time.
1.4.1
Non-living, physical systems
In physics, emergence is used to describe a property, law,

or phenomenon which occurs at macroscopic scales (in
space or time) but not at microscopic scales, despite the
fact that a macroscopic system can be viewed as a very
large ensemble of microscopic systems.
An emergent property need not be more complicated than
the underlying non-emergent properties which generate
it. For instance, the laws of thermodynamics are remarkably simple, even if the laws which govern the interactions between component particles are complex. The
term emergence in physics is thus used not to signify complexity, but rather to distinguish which laws and concepts
apply to macroscopic scales, and which ones apply to microscopic scales.
Some examples include:
Classical mechanics: The laws of classical mechanics can be said to emerge as a limiting case from the
rules of quantum mechanics applied to large enough
masses. This is particularly strange since quantum
mechanics is generally thought of as more complicated than classical mechanics.
Friction: Forces between elementary particles are
conservative. However, friction emerges when considering more complex structures of matter, whose
surfaces can convert mechanical energy into heat
energy when rubbed against each other. Similar
considerations apply to other emergent concepts in
continuum mechanics such as viscosity, elasticity,
tensile strength, etc.
Patterned ground: the distinct, and often symmetrical geometric shapes formed by ground material in
periglacial regions.
Electrical networks: The bulk conductive response

of binary (RC) electrical networks with random
arrangements can be seen as emergent properties
of such physical systems. Such arrangements can
be used as simple physical prototypes for deriving
mathematical formulae for the emergent responses
of complex systems.[19]
Weather.
Temperature is sometimes used as an example of an
emergent macroscopic behaviour. In classical dynamics, a snapshot of the instantaneous momenta of a large
number of particles at equilibrium is sucient to nd the
average kinetic energy per degree of freedom which is
proportional to the temperature. For a small number of
particles the instantaneous momenta at a given time are
not statistically sucient to determine the temperature
of the system. However, using the ergodic hypothesis, the
temperature can still be obtained to arbitrary precision by
further averaging the momenta over a long enough time.
Convection in a liquid or gas is another example of emergent macroscopic behaviour that makes sense only when
considering dierentials of temperature. Convection
cells, particularly Bnard cells, are an example of a selforganizing system (more specically, a dissipative system) whose structure is determined both by the constraints of the system and by random perturbations: the
possible realizations of the shape and size of the cells depends on the temperature gradient as well as the nature of
the uid and shape of the container, but which congurations are actually realized is due to random perturbations
(thus these systems exhibit a form of symmetry breaking).
In some theories of particle physics, even such basic
structures as mass, space, and time are viewed as emergent phenomena, arising from more fundamental concepts such as the Higgs boson or strings. In some interpretations of quantum mechanics, the perception of a
deterministic reality, in which all objects have a denite
position, momentum, and so forth, is actually an emergent phenomenon, with the true state of matter being described instead by a wavefunction which need not have a
single position or momentum. Most of the laws of physics
themselves as we experience them today appear to have
emerged during the course of time making emergence the
most fundamental principle in the universe and raising the
question of what might be the most fundamental law of
physics from which all others emerged. Chemistry can
in turn be viewed as an emergent property of the laws
of physics. Biology (including biological evolution) can
be viewed as an emergent property of the laws of chemistry. Similarly, psychology could be understood as an
emergent property of neurobiological laws. Finally, freemarket theories understand economy as an emergent feature of psychology.
Statistical mechanics was initially derived using the

concept of a large enough ensemble that uctuations
about the most likely distribution can be all but ignored. However, small clusters do not exhibit sharp
rst order phase transitions such as melting, and at
the boundary it is not possible to completely categorize the cluster as a liquid or solid, since these concepts are (without extra denitions) only applicable
to macroscopic systems. Describing a system using
statistical mechanics methods is much simpler than
According to Laughlin (2005), for many particle systems,
using a low-level atomistic approach.
1.4. EMERGENT STRUCTURES IN NATURE
nothing can be calculated exactly from the microscopic

adaptation, is a consequence of the functional
equations, and macroscopic systems are characterised by
eects it produces in relation to the survival
broken symmetry: the symmetry present in the microand reproductive success of a given organism
scopic equations is not present in the macroscopic sysin a given environment. It is these functional
tem, due to phase transitions. As a result, these macroeects that are ultimately responsible for the
scopic systems are described in their own terminology,
trans-generational continuities and changes in
and have properties that do not depend on many micronature. (Corning 2002)
scopic details. This does not mean that the microscopic
interactions are irrelevant, but simply that you do not see Per his denition of emergence, Corning also addresses
them anymore you only see a renormalized eect of emergence and evolution:
them. Laughlin is a pragmatic theoretical physicist: if
you cannot, possibly ever, calculate the broken symmetry
"[In] evolutionary processes, causation is
macroscopic properties from the microscopic equations,
iterative; eects are also causes. And this is
then what is the point of talking about reducibility?
equally true of the synergistic eects produced
by emergent systems. In other words, emergence itself... has been the underlying cause
1.4.2 Living, biological systems
of the evolution of emergent phenomena in
biological evolution; it is the synergies proEmergence and evolution
duced by organized systems that are the key.
(Corning 2002)
See also: Abiogenesis
Life is a major source of complexity, and evolution is the
major process behind the varying forms of life. In this
view, evolution is the process describing the growth of
complexity in the natural world and in speaking of the
emergence of complex living beings and life-forms, this
view refers therefore to processes of sudden changes in
evolution.
Life is thought to have emerged in the early RNA world
when RNA chains began to express the basic conditions
necessary for natural selection to operate as conceived by
Darwin: heritability, variation of type, and competition
for limited resources. Fitness of an RNA replicator (its
per capita rate of increase) would likely be a function of
adaptive capacities that were intrinsic (in the sense that
they were determined by the nucleotide sequence) and the
availability of resources.[20][21] The three primary adaptive capacities may have been (1) the capacity to replicate
with moderate delity (giving rise to both heritability and
variation of type); (2) the capacity to avoid decay; and
(3) the capacity to acquire and process resources.[20][21]
These capacities would have been determined initially
by the folded congurations of the RNA replicators (see
Ribozyme) that, in turn, would be encoded in their individual nucleotide sequences. Competitive success among
dierent replicators would have depended on the relative
values of these adaptive capacities.
Swarming is a well-known behaviour in many animal species from marching locusts to schooling sh to
ocking birds. Emergent structures are a common strategy found in many animal groups: colonies of ants,
mounds built by termites, swarms of bees, shoals/schools
of sh, ocks of birds, and herds/packs of mammals.
An example to consider in detail is an ant colony. The
queen does not give direct orders and does not tell the
ants what to do. Instead, each ant reacts to stimuli in the
form of chemical scent from larvae, other ants, intruders,
food and buildup of waste, and leaves behind a chemical trail, which, in turn, provides a stimulus to other ants.
Here each ant is an autonomous unit that reacts depending
only on its local environment and the genetically encoded
rules for its variety of ant. Despite the lack of centralized
decision making, ant colonies exhibit complex behavior
and have even been able to demonstrate the ability to solve
geometric problems. For example, colonies routinely nd
the maximum distance from all colony entrances to dispose of dead bodies.[22]
Organization of life
A broader example of emergent properties in biology is

viewed in the biological organisation of life, ranging from
the subatomic level to the entire biosphere. For example, individual atoms can be combined to form molecules
Regarding causality in evolution Peter Corning observes: such as polypeptide chains, which in turn fold and refold to form proteins, which in turn create even more
Synergistic eects of various kinds have
complex structures. These proteins, assuming their funcplayed a major causal role in the evolutionary
tional status from their spatial conformation, interact toprocess generally and in the evolution of coopgether and with other molecules to achieve higher bioeration and complexity in particular... Natural
logical functions and eventually create an organism. Another example is how cascade phenotype reactions, as deselection is often portrayed as a mechanism,
tailed in chaos theory, arise from individual genes mutator is personied as a causal agency... In realing respective positioning.[23] At the highest level, all the
ity, the dierential selection of a trait, or an
8
biological communities in the world form the biosphere,
where its human participants form societies, and the complex interactions of meta-social systems such as the stock
market.
1.5 In humanity
the network of links in the World Wide Web is that almost any pair of pages can be connected to each other
through a relatively short chain of links. Although relatively well known now, this property was initially unexpected in an unregulated network. It is shared with
many other types of networks called small-world networks (Barabasi, Jeong, & Albert 1999, pp. 130131).
Internet trac can also exhibit some seemingly emergent

properties. In the congestion control mechanism, TCP
1.5.1 Spontaneous order
ows can become globally synchronized at bottlenecks,
simultaneously increasing and then decreasing throughSee also: Spontaneous order and Self-organization
put in coordination. Congestion, widely regarded as a
nuisance, is possibly an emergent property of the spreadGroups of human beings, left free to each regulate them- ing of bottlenecks across a network in high trac ows
selves, tend to produce spontaneous order, rather than the which can be considered as a phase transition [see review
meaningless chaos often feared. This has been observed of related research in (Smith 2008, pp. 131)].
in society at least since Chuang Tzu in ancient China. A
Another important example of emergence in web-based
classic trac roundabout is a good example, with cars
systems is social bookmarking (also called collaboramoving in and out with such eective organization that
tive tagging). In social bookmarking systems, users assome modern cities have begun replacing stoplights at
sign tags to resources shared with other users, which
problem intersections with trac circles , and getting betgives rise to a type of information organisation that
ter results. Open-source software and Wiki projects form
emerges from this crowdsourcing process. Recent rean even more compelling illustration.
search which analyzes empirically the complex dynamEmergent processes or behaviours can be seen in many ics of such systems[25] has shown that consensus on staother places, such as cities, cabal and market-dominant ble distributions and a simple form of shared vocabularminority phenomena in economics, organizational phe- ies does indeed emerge, even in the absence of a central
nomena in computer simulations and cellular automata. controlled vocabulary. Some believe that this could be
Whenever you have a multitude of individuals interact- because users who contribute tags all use the same laning with one another, there often comes a moment when guage, and they share similar semantic structures underdisorder gives way to order and something new emerges: lying the choice of words. The convergence in social tags
a pattern, a decision, a structure, or a change in direction may therefore be interpreted as the emergence of struc(Miller 2010, 29).[24]
tures as people who have similar semantic interpretation
collaboratively index online information, a process called
semantic imitation.[26] [27]
Economics
Open-source software, or Wiki projects such as
The stock market (or any market for that matter) is an Wikipedia and Wikivoyage are other impressive examples of emergence. The zeroeth law of Wikipedia
example of emergence on a grand scale. As a whole it
precisely regulates the relative security prices of com- is often cited by its editors to highlight its apparently
surprising and unpredictable quality: The problem with
panies across the world, yet it has no leader; when no
central planning is in place, there is no one entity which Wikipedia is that it only works in practice. In theory, it
can never work.
controls the workings of the entire market. Agents, or
investors, have knowledge of only a limited number of
companies within their portfolio, and must follow the regArchitecture and cities
ulatory rules of the market and analyse the transactions
individually or in large groupings. Trends and patterns
Emergent structures appear at many dierent levels of
emerge which are studied intensively by technical anaorganization or as spontaneous order. Emergent selflysts.
organization appears frequently in cities where no planning or zoning entity predetermines the layout of the
city. (Krugman 1996, pp. 929) The interdisciplinary
World Wide Web and the Internet
study of emergent behaviors is not generally considered
The World Wide Web is a popular example of a decen- a homogeneous eld, but divided across its application or
tralized system exhibiting emergent properties. There is problem domains.
no central organization rationing the number of links, yet
the number of links pointing to each page follows a power
law in which a few pages are linked to many times and
most pages are seldom linked to. A related property of
Architects and Landscape Architects may not design all

the pathways of a complex of buildings. Instead they
might let usage patterns emerge and then place pavement
where pathways have become worn in.
1.6. SEE ALSO
9
Gridlock on a highway, for example, can travel backward
for no apparent reason, even as the cars are moving forward. He has also likened emergent phenomena to the
analysis of market trends and employee behavior.[31]
Computational emergent phenomena have also been
utilized in architectural design processes, for example for formal explorations and experiments in digital
materiality.[32]
1.5.2 Computer AI
Trac patterns in cities can be seen as an example of spontaneous
order
The on-course action and vehicle progression of the 2007

Urban Challenge could possibly be regarded as an example of cybernetic emergence. Patterns of road use, indeterministic obstacle clearance times, etc. will work together to form a complex emergent pattern that can not
be deterministically planned in advance.
The architectural school of Christopher Alexander takes
a deeper approach to emergence attempting to rewrite the
process of urban growth itself in order to aect form,
establishing a new methodology of planning and design
tied to traditional practices, an Emergent Urbanism. Urban emergence has also been linked to theories of urban
complexity (Batty 2005) and urban evolution (Marshall
2009).
Building ecology is a conceptual framework for understanding architecture and the built environment as the
interface between the dynamically interdependent elements of buildings, their occupants, and the larger environment. Rather than viewing buildings as inanimate or
static objects, building ecologist Hal Levin views them
as interfaces or intersecting domains of living and nonliving systems.[28] The microbial ecology of the indoor
environment is strongly dependent on the building materials, occupants, contents, environmental context and the
indoor and outdoor climate. The strong relationship between atmospheric chemistry and indoor air quality and
the chemical reactions occurring indoors. The chemicals
may be nutrients, neutral or biocides for the microbial organisms. The microbes produce chemicals that aect the
building materials and occupant health and well being.
Humans manipulate the ventilation, temperature and humidity to achieve comfort with the concomitant eects
on the microbes that populate and evolve.[28][29][30]
Eric Bonabeaus attempt to dene emergent phenomena
is through trac: trac jams are actually very complicated and mysterious. On an individual level, each driver
is trying to get somewhere and is following (or breaking)
certain rules, some legal (the speed limit) and others societal or personal (slow down to let another driver change
into your lane). But a trac jam is a separate and distinct entity that emerges from those individual behaviors.
Some articially intelligent computer applications utilize

emergent behavior for animation. One example is Boids,
which mimics the swarming behavior of birds.
1.5.3 Language
It has been argued that the structure and regularity
of language grammar, or at least language change, is
an emergent phenomenon (Hopper 1998). While each
speaker merely tries to reach his or her own communicative goals, he or she uses language in a particular way. If
enough speakers behave in that way, language is changed
(Keller 1994). In a wider sense, the norms of a language,
i.e. the linguistic conventions of its speech society, can
be seen as a system emerging from long-time participation in communicative problem-solving in various social
circumstances. (Mtt 2000)
1.5.4 Emergent change processes

Within the eld of group facilitation and organization development, there have been a number of new group processes that are designed to maximize emergence and selforganization, by oering a minimal set of eective initial
conditions. Examples of these processes include SEEDSCALE, Appreciative Inquiry, Future Search, the World
Cafe or Knowledge Cafe, Open Space Technology, and
others. (Holman, 2010)
1.6 See also

Abstraction
Agent-based model
Anthropic principle
Big History
Connectionism
Consilience
Constructal theory
Dynamical system
10
Deus ex machina
Dual-phase evolution
Emergenesis
Emergent algorithm
Emergent evolution
Emergent gameplay
Emergent organization
Epiphenomenon
Externality
Free will
Generative sciences
Innovation buttery
Interconnectedness
Irreducible complexity
Langtons ant
Law of Complexity-Consciousness
Mass action (sociology)
Neural networks
Organic Wholes of G.E. Moore
Polytely
Society of Mind theory
Structuralism
Swarm intelligence
System of systems
Teleology
Synergetics (Fuller)
Synergetics (Haken)
1.7 References
[1] O'Connor, Timothy and Wong, Hong Yu (February 28,
2012). Edward N. Zalta,, ed. Emergent Properties. The
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2012 Edition).
[2] Aristotle, Metaphysics, Book 1045a 810: "... the totality is not, as it were, a mere heap, but the whole is something besides the parts ..., i.e., the whole is other than the
sum of the parts.
[3] The chemical combination of two substances produces,

as is well known, a third substance with properties dierent from those of either of the two substances separately,
or of both of them taken together (Mill 1843)
[4] Julian Huxley: now and again there is a sudden rapid
passage to a totally new and more comprehensive type of
order or organization, with quite new emergent properties, and involving quite new methods of further evolution
(Huxley & Huxley 1947)
[5] (Lewes 1875, p. 412)
[6] (Blitz 1992)
[7] (Goldstein 1999)
[8] Corning, Peter A. (2002), The Re-Emergence of Emergence": A Venerable Concept in Search of a Theory
(PDF), Complexity 7 (6): 1830, doi:10.1002/cplx.10043
[9] (Bedau 1997)
[10] Gu, Mile, et al. "More really is dierent. Physica D:
Nonlinear Phenomena 238.9 (2009): 835-839.
[11] Binder, P-M. Computation: The edge of reductionism.
Nature 459.7245 (2009): 332-334.
[12] Steven Weinberg. A Designer Universe?". Retrieved
2008-07-14. A version of the original quote from address
at the Conference on Cosmic Design, American Association for the Advancement of Science, Washington, D.C.
in April 1999
[13] McKinnon, AM. (2010). 'Elective anities of the Protestant ethic: Weber and the chemistry of capitalism'. Sociological Theory, vol 28, no. 1, pp. 108-126.
[14] Wheeler, Wendy (2006). The Whole Creature: Complexity, Biosemiotics and the Evolution of Culture. London:
Lawrence & Wishart. p. 192. ISBN 1-905007-30-2.
[15] Alexander, Victoria N. (2011). The Biologists Mistress:
Rethinking Self-Organization in Art, Literature, and Nature. Litcheld Park, AZ: Emergent Publications. ISBN
0-9842165-5-3.
[16] Pearce, Michael J. (2015). Art in the Age of Emergence.
Manchester, England: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
ISBN 1443870579.
[17] Daniel C. Taylor, Carl E. Taylor, Jesse O. Taylor, Empowerment on an Unstable Planet: From Seeds of Human
Energy to a Scale of Global Change (New York: Oxford
University Press, 2012)
[18] See, e.g., Korotayev, A.; Malkov, A.; Khaltourina, D.
(2006), Introduction to Social Macrodynamics: Compact Macromodels of the World System Growth, Moscow:
URSS, ISBN 5-484-00414-4
[19] The origin of power-law emergent scaling in large binary
networks D. P. Almond, C. J. Budd, M. A. Freitag, G.
W. Hunt, N. J. McCullen and N. D. Smith. Physica A:
Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Volume 392,
Issue 4, 15 February 2013
1.9. FURTHER READING
[20] Bernstein H, Byerly HC, Hopf FA, Michod RA, Vemulapalli GK. (1983) The Darwinian Dynamic. Quarterly
Review of Biology 58, 185-207. http://www.jstor.org/
discover/10.2307/2828805?uid=3739568&uid=2&uid=
4&uid=3739256&sid=21102790068637
[21] Michod RE. (2000) Darwinian Dynamics: Evolutionary
Transitions in Fitness and Individuality. Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey ISBN 0691050112
ISBN 978-0691050119
[22] Steven Johnson. 2001. Emergence: The Connected Lives
of Ants, Brains, Cities, and Software
[23] Campbell, Neil A., and Jane B. Reece. Biology. 6th ed.
San Francisco: Benjamin Cummings, 2002.
[24] Miller, Peter. 2010. The Smart Swarm: How understanding ocks, schools, and colonies can make us better at
communicating, decision making, and getting things done.
New York: Avery.
[25] Valentin Robu, Harry Halpin, Hana Shepherd Emergence
of consensus and shared vocabularies in collaborative tagging systems, ACM Transactions on the Web (TWEB),
Vol. 3(4), article 14, ACM Press, September 2009.
[26] Fu, Wai-Tat; Kannampallil, Thomas George; Kang,
Ruogu (August 2009), A Semantic Imitation Model of
Social Tagging, Proceedings of the IEEE conference on
Social Computing: 6672, doi:10.1109/CSE.2009.382,
ISBN 978-1-4244-5334-4
[27] Fu, Wai-Tat; Kannampallil, Thomas; Kang, Ruogu; He,
Jibo (2010), Semantic Imitation in Social Tagging, ACM
Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction (TOCHI) 17
(3): 1, doi:10.1145/1806923.1806926
[28] http://www.microbe.net/fact-sheet-building-ecology/
[29] http://www.microbe.net
[30] http://buildingecology.com
11
Corning, Peter A. (1983), The Synergism Hypothesis: A Theory of Progressive Evolution, New York:
McGraw-Hill
Koestler, Arthur (1969), A. Koestler & J. R.
Smythies, ed., Beyond Reductionism: New Perspectives in the Life Sciences, London: Hutchinson
Laughlin, Robert (2005), A Dierent Universe:
Reinventing Physics from the Bottom Down, Basic
Books, ISBN 0-465-03828-X
1.9 Further reading

Alexander, V. N. (2011). The Biologists Mistress:
Rethinking Self-Organization in Art, Literature and
Nature. Litcheld Park AZ: Emergent Publications.
Anderson, P.W. (1972), More is Dierent:
Broken Symmetry and the Nature of the Hierarchical Structure of Science (PDF), Science 177
(4047): 393396, Bibcode:1972Sci...177..393A,
doi:10.1126/science.177.4047.393,
PMID
17796623
Barabsi, Albert-Lszl; Jeong, Hawoong; Albert,
Rka (1999), The Diameter of the World Wide
Web, Nature 401 (6749): 130131, arXiv:condmat/9907038,
Bibcode:1999Natur.401..130A,
doi:10.1038/43601
Bar-Yam, Yaneer (2004), A Mathematical
Theory of Strong Emergence using Multiscale
Variety (PDF), Complexity 9 (6):
1524,
doi:10.1002/cplx.20029
Bateson, Gregory (1972), Steps to an Ecology of
Mind, Ballantine Books, ISBN 0-226-03905-6
[31] Bonabeau E. Predicting the Unpredictable. Harvard Business Review [serial online]. March 2002;80(3):109-116.
Available from: Business Source Complete, Ipswich, MA.
Accessed February 1, 2012.
Batty, Michael (2005), Cities and Complexity, MIT

Press, ISBN 0-262-52479-1
[32] Roudavski, Stanislav and Gwyllim Jahn (2012). 'Emergent Materiality though an Embedded Multi-Agent System', in 15th Generative Art Conference, ed. by Celestino
Soddu (Lucca, Italy: Domus Argenia), pp. 348-363
Blitz, David. (1992). Emergent Evolution: Qualitative Novelty and the Levels of Reality. Dordrecht:
Kluwer Academic.
1.8 Bibliography
Anderson, P.W. (1972), More is Dierent:
Broken Symmetry and the Nature of the Hierarchical Structure of Science, Science 177
(4047): 393396, Bibcode:1972Sci...177..393A,
doi:10.1126/science.177.4047.393,
PMID
17796623
Bedau, Mark A. (1997), Weak Emergence (PDF)
Bedau, Mark A. (1997).Weak Emergence.
Bunge, Mario Augusto (2003), Emergence and Convergence: Qualitiative Novelty and the Unity of
Knowledge, Toronto: University of Toronto Press
Chalmers, David J. (2002). Strong and Weak
Emergence
http://consc.net/papers/emergence.
pdf Republished in P. Clayton and P. Davies, eds.
(2006) The Re-Emergence of Emergence. Oxford:
Oxford University Press.
Philip Clayton (2005). Mind and Emergence: From
Quantum to Consciousness Oxford: OUP, ISBN
978-0-19-927252-5
12
Philip Clayton & Paul Davies (eds.) (2006). The ReEmergence of Emergence: The Emergentist Hypothesis from Science to Religion Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Corning, Peter A. (2005). Holistic Darwinism:
Synergy, Cybernetics and the Bioeconomics of Evolution. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Crutcheld, James P. (1994), Special issue on
the Proceedings of the Oji International Seminar: Complex Systems from Complex Dynamics to Articial Reality" (PDF), Physica D,
Bibcode:1994PhyD...75...11C, doi:10.1016/01672789(94)90273-9 |contribution= ignored (help)
Felipe Cucker and Stephen Smale (2007), The
Japanese Journal of Mathematics, The Mathematics
of Emergence
Delsemme, Armand (1998), Our Cosmic Origins:
From the Big Bang to the Emergence of Life and Intelligence, Cambridge University Press
De Wolf, Tom; Holvoet, Tom (2005), Emergence
Versus Self-Organisation: Dierent Concepts but
Promising When Combined, Engineering Self Organising Systems: Methodologies and Applications,
Lecture Notes in Computer Science: 3464, pp. 115
Fromm, Jochen (2004), The Emergence of Complexity, Kassel University Press, ISBN 3-89958-069-9*
Fromm, Jochen (2005a), Types and Forms of Emergence, arXiv, arXiv:nlin.AO/0506028
Fromm, Jochen (2005b), Ten Questions about Emergence, arXiv, arXiv:nlin.AO/0509049
Goodwin, Brian (2001), How the Leopard Changed
Its Spots: The Evolution of Complexity, Princeton
University Press
Goldstein, Jerey (1999), Emergence as a
Construct: History and Issues (PDF), Emergence: Complexity and Organization 1 (1): 4972,
doi:10.1207/s15327000em0101_4
Haag, James W. (2008). Emergent Freedom: Naturalizing Free Will Goettingen: Vandenhoeck &
Ruprecht, ISBN 978-3-525-56988-7
Hayek, Friedrich (1973), Law, Legislation and Liberty, ISBN 0-226-32086-3
Hofstadter, Douglas R. (1979), Gdel, Escher, Bach:
an Eternal Golden Braid, Harvester Press
Hopeld, John J. (1982), Neural networks and
physical systems with emergent collective computational abilities, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 79
(8): 25542558, Bibcode:1982PNAS...79.2554H,
doi:10.1073/pnas.79.8.2554, PMC 346238, PMID
6953413
Hopper, P. 1998. Emergent Grammar. In:
Tomasello, M. eds. 1998. The new psychology
of language: Cognitive and functional approaches
to language structure. Mahwah, NJ: Earlbaum, pp.
155176.
Huxley, Julian S.; Huxley, Thomas Henry (1947),
Evolution and Ethics: 1893-1943, London, 1947:
The Pilot Press, p. 120
Johnson, Steven Berlin (2001), Emergence: The
Connected Lives of Ants, Brains, Cities, and Software, Scribners, ISBN 0-684-86876-8
Kauman, Stuart (1993), The Origins of Order: SelfOrganization and Selection in Evolution, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-507951-5
Keller, Rudi (1994), On Language Change: The
Invisible Hand in Language, London/New York:
Routledge, ISBN 0-415-07671-4
Kauman, Stuart (1995), At Home in the Universe,
New York: Oxford University Press
Kelly, Kevin (1994), Out of Control: The New Biology of Machines, Social Systems, and the Economic
World, Perseus Books, ISBN 0-201-48340-8
Koestler, Arthur (1969), A. Koestler & J. R.
Smythies, ed., Beyond Reductionism: New Perspectives in the Life Sciences, London: Hutchinson
Korotayev, A.; Malkov, A.; Khaltourina, D. (2006),
Introduction to Social Macrodynamics: Compact
Macromodels of the World System Growth, Moscow:
URSS, ISBN 5-484-00414-4
Krugman, Paul (1996), The Self-organizing Economy, Oxford: Blackwell, ISBN 1-55786-698-8,
ISBN 0-87609-177-X
Laughlin, Robert (2005), A Dierent Universe:
Reinventing Physics from the Bottom Down, Basic
Books, ISBN 0-465-03828-X
Holland, John H. (1998), Emergence from Chaos

to Order, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-73820142-1
Leland, W.E.; Willinger, M.S.; Taqqu, M.S.;

Wilson, D.V. (1994), On the self-similar nature of Ethernet trac (extended version)",
IEEE/ACM Transactions on Networking 2: 115,
doi:10.1109/90.282603
Holman, Peggy. (2010). Engaging Emergence:

Turning upheaval into opportunity. San Francisco:
Barrett-Koehler. ISBN 978-1-60509-521-9
Lewes, G. H. (1875), Problems of Life and Mind

(First Series) 2, London: Trbner, ISBN 1-42555578-0
1.10. EXTERNAL LINKS

Lewin, Roger (2000), Complexity - Life at the Edge
of Chaos (second ed.), University of Chicago Press,
ISBN 0-226-47654-5, ISBN 0-226-47655-3
Ignazio Licata & Ammar Sakaji (eds) (2008).
Physics of Emergence and Organization, ISBN 978981-277-994-6, World Scientic and Imperial College Press.
Marshall, Stephen (2009), Cities Design and Evolution, Routledge, ISBN 978-0-415-42329-8, ISBN
0-415-42329-5
Mill, John Stuart (1843), On the Composition of
Causes, A System of Logic, Ratiocinative and Inductive (1872 ed.), London: John W. Parker and Son,
p. 371
Morowitz, Harold J. (2002), The Emergence of Everything: How the World Became Complex, Oxford
University Press, ISBN 0-19-513513-X
Ryan, Alex J. (2006), Emergence is Coupled to
Scope, not Level, Complexity (arXiv), (to be submitted), arXiv:nlin.AO/0609011
13
Weinstock, Michael (2010), The Architecture of
Emergence - the evolution of form in Nature and
Civilisation, John Wiley and Sons, ISBN 0-47006633-4
Wolfram, Stephen (2002), A New Kind of Science,
ISBN 1-57955-008-8
Young, Louise B. (2002), The Unnished Universe,
ISBN 0-19-508039-4
1.10 External links

Emergence entry in the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Emergent Properties entry in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Emergence at PhilPapers
Emergence at the Indiana Philosophy Ontology
Project
Schelling, Thomas C. (1978), Micromotives and

Macrobehaviour, W. W. Norton
The Emergent Universe: An interactive introduction to emergent phenomena, from ant colonies to
Alzheimers.
Jackie (Jianhong) Shen (2008), CuckerSmale

Flocking Emergence under Hierarchical Leadership
In: SIAM J. Applied Math., 68:3,
Exploring Emergence: An introduction to emergence using CA and Conways Game of Life from
the MIT Media Lab
Smith, John Maynard; Szathmry, Ers (1997), The

Major Transitions in Evolution, Oxford University
Press, ISBN 0-19-850294-X
ISCE group: Institute for the Study of Coherence

and Emergence.
Smith, Reginald D. (2008), The Dynamics of Internet Trac: Self-Similarity, Self-Organization,

and Complex Phenomena 0807, arXiv, p. 3374,
arXiv:0807.3374, Bibcode:2008arXiv0807.3374S
Sol, Ricard and Goodwin, Brian (2000) Signs of
life: how complexity pervades biology, Basic Books,
New York.
Steels, Luc (1990), Towards a Theory of Emergent
Functionality, in Jean-Arcady Meyer; Stewart W.
Wilson, From Animals to Animats (Proceedings of
the First International Conference on Simulation of
Adaptive behaviour), Cambridge, MA & London,
England: Bradford Books (MIT Press), pp. 451
461
Wan, Poe Yu-ze (2011), Emergence a la Systems
Theory: Epistemological Totalausschluss or Ontological Novelty?", Philosophy of the Social Sciences,
41(2), pp. 178210
Wan, Poe Yu-ze (2011), Reframing the Social:
Emergentist Systemism and Social Theory, Ashgate
Publishing
Towards modeling of emergence: lecture slides

from Helsinki University of Technology
Biomimetic Architecture - Emergence applied to
building and construction
Studies in Emergent Order: Studies in Emergent Order (SIEO) is an open-access journal
Emergence
Chapter 2
Complexity
For other uses, see Complexity (disambiguation).
might be summarized as implying that complexity arises

from the number of distinguishable relational regimes
There is no absolute denition of what complexity means; (and their associated state spaces) in a dened system.
the only consensus among researchers is that there is Some denitions relate to the algorithmic basis for the
no agreement about the specic denition of complex- expression of a complex phenomenon or model or mathity. However, a characterization of what is complex is ematical expression, as later set out herein.
possible.[1] Complexity is generally used to characterize something with many parts where those parts interact
with each other in multiple ways. The study of these com- 2.2 Disorganized complexity vs.
plex linkages at various scales is the main goal of complex
organized complexity
systems theory.
In science,[2] there are as of 2010 a number of approaches
to characterizing complexity; this article reects many of
these. Neil Johnson states that even among scientists,
there is no unique denition of complexity - and the scientic notion has traditionally been conveyed using particular examples... Ultimately he adopts the denition
of 'complexity science' as the study of the phenomena
which emerge from a collection of interacting objects.[3]
2.1 Overview
One of the problems in addressing complexity issues has

been formalizing the intuitive conceptual distinction between the large number of variances in relationships extant in random collections, and the sometimes large, but
smaller, number of relationships between elements in systems where constraints (related to correlation of otherwise independent elements) simultaneously reduce the
variations from element independence and create distinguishable regimes of more-uniform, or correlated, relationships, or interactions.
Weaver perceived and addressed this problem, in at least

Denitions of complexity often depend on the concept a preliminary way, in drawing a distinction between disof a "system"a set of parts or elements that have re- organized complexity and organized complexity.
lationships among them dierentiated from relationships In Weavers view, disorganized complexity results from
with other elements outside the relational regime. Many the particular system having a very large number of parts,
denitions tend to postulate or assume that complexity say millions of parts, or many more. Though the interacexpresses a condition of numerous elements in a system tions of the parts in a disorganized complexity situation
and numerous forms of relationships among the elements. can be seen as largely random, the properties of the sysHowever, what one sees as complex and what one sees as tem as a whole can be understood by using probability
and statistical methods.
simple is relative and changes with time.
Warren Weaver posited in 1948 two forms of complexity:
disorganized complexity, and organized complexity.[4]
Phenomena of 'disorganized complexity' are treated using probability theory and statistical mechanics, while 'organized complexity' deals with phenomena that escape
such approaches and confront dealing simultaneously
with a sizable number of factors which are interrelated
into an organic whole.[4] Weavers 1948 paper has inuenced subsequent thinking about complexity.[5]
A prime example of disorganized complexity is a gas in

a container, with the gas molecules as the parts. Some
would suggest that a system of disorganized complexity
may be compared with the (relative) simplicity of planetary orbits the latter can be predicted by applying
Newtons laws of motion. Of course, most real-world systems, including planetary orbits, eventually become theoretically unpredictable even using Newtonian dynamics;
as discovered by modern chaos theory.[6]
The approaches that embody concepts of systems, multi- Organized complexity, in Weavers view, resides in nothple elements, multiple relational regimes, and state spaces ing else than the non-random, or correlated, interaction
14
2.4. VARIED MEANINGS OF COMPLEXITY

between the parts. These correlated relationships create a
dierentiated structure that can, as a system, interact with
other systems. The coordinated system manifests properties not carried or dictated by individual parts. The organized aspect of this form of complexity vis a vis to other
systems than the subject system can be said to emerge,
without any guiding hand.
The number of parts does not have to be very large for a
particular system to have emergent properties. A system
of organized complexity may be understood in its properties (behavior among the properties) through modeling
and simulation, particularly modeling and simulation with
computers. An example of organized complexity is a city
neighborhood as a living mechanism, with the neighborhood people among the systems parts.[7]
2.3 Sources and factors of complexity

There are generally rules which can be invoked to explain
the origin of complexity in a given system.
The source of disorganized complexity is the large number of parts in the system of interest, and the lack of correlation between elements in the system.
In the case of self-organizing living systems, usefully organized complexity comes from benecially mutated organisms being selected to survive by their environment
for their dierential reproductive ability or at least success over inanimate matter or less organized complex
organisms. See e.g. Robert Ulanowicz's treatment of
ecosystems.[8]
Complexity of an object or system is a relative property. For instance, for many functions (problems), such
a computational complexity as time of computation is
smaller when multitape Turing machines are used than
when Turing machines with one tape are used. Random
Access Machines allow one to even more decrease time
complexity (Greenlaw and Hoover 1998: 226), while inductive Turing machines can decrease even the complexity class of a function, language or set (Burgin 2005).
This shows that tools of activity can be an important factor of complexity.
2.4 Varied meanings of complexity

In several scientic elds, complexity has a precise
meaning:
In computational complexity theory, the amounts of
resources required for the execution of algorithms is
studied. The most popular types of computational
complexity are the time complexity of a problem
equal to the number of steps that it takes to solve an
15
instance of the problem as a function of the size of
the input (usually measured in bits), using the most
ecient algorithm, and the space complexity of a
problem equal to the volume of the memory used
by the algorithm (e.g., cells of the tape) that it takes
to solve an instance of the problem as a function
of the size of the input (usually measured in bits),
using the most ecient algorithm. This allows to
classify computational problems by complexity class
(such as P, NP ... ). An axiomatic approach to
computational complexity was developed by Manuel
Blum. It allows one to deduce many properties of
concrete computational complexity measures, such
as time complexity or space complexity, from properties of axiomatically dened measures.
In algorithmic information theory, the Kolmogorov
complexity (also called descriptive complexity, algorithmic complexity or algorithmic entropy) of a string
is the length of the shortest binary program that
outputs that string. Minimum message length is
a practical application of this approach. Dierent
kinds of Kolmogorov complexity are studied: the
uniform complexity, prex complexity, monotone
complexity, time-bounded Kolmogorov complexity, and space-bounded Kolmogorov complexity.
An axiomatic approach to Kolmogorov complexity
based on Blum axioms (Blum 1967) was introduced
by Mark Burgin in the paper presented for publication by Andrey Kolmogorov (Burgin 1982). The
axiomatic approach encompasses other approaches
to Kolmogorov complexity. It is possible to treat
dierent kinds of Kolmogorov complexity as particular cases of axiomatically dened generalized
Kolmogorov complexity. Instead, of proving similar theorems, such as the basic invariance theorem,
for each particular measure, it is possible to easily
deduce all such results from one corresponding theorem proved in the axiomatic setting. This is a general advantage of the axiomatic approach in mathematics. The axiomatic approach to Kolmogorov
complexity was further developed in the book (Burgin 2005) and applied to software metrics (Burgin
and Debnath, 2003; Debnath and Burgin, 2003).
In information processing, complexity is a measure
of the total number of properties transmitted by an
object and detected by an observer. Such a collection of properties is often referred to as a state.
In physical systems, complexity is a measure of the
probability of the state vector of the system. This
should not be confused with entropy; it is a distinct
mathematical measure, one in which two distinct
states are never conated and considered equal, as
is done for the notion of entropy in statistical mechanics.
In mathematics, KrohnRhodes complexity is an
16
CHAPTER 2. COMPLEXITY
important topic in the study of nite semigroups and is the opposite of independent, while complicated is the
automata.
opposite of simple.
In Network theory complexity is the product of rich- While this has led some elds to come up with speness in the connections between components of a cic denitions of complexity, there is a more recent
movement to regroup observations from dierent elds to
system.
study complexity in itself, whether it appears in anthills,
In software engineering, programming complexity human brains, or stock markets. One such interdisciis a measure of the interactions of the various ele- plinary group of elds is relational order theories.
ments of the software. This diers from the computational complexity described above in that it is a
measure of the design of the software.
In abstract sense - Abstract Complexity, is based on
visual structures perception [9] It is complexity of
binary string dened as a square of features number
divided by number of elements (0s and 1s). Features comprise here all distinctive arrangements of
0s and 1s. Though the features number have to be
always approximated the denition is precise and
meet intuitive criterion.
Other elds introduce less precisely dened notions of
complexity:
2.6 Complexity topics

2.6.1 Complex behaviour
The behavior of a complex system is often said to be due

to emergence and self-organization. Chaos theory has investigated the sensitivity of systems to variations in initial
conditions as one cause of complex behaviour.
2.6.2 Complex mechanisms
A complex adaptive system has some or all of the

Recent developments around articial life, evolutionary
following attributes:[3]
computation and genetic algorithms have led to an in The number of parts (and types of parts) in the creasing emphasis on complexity and complex adaptive
system and the number of relations between systems.
the parts is non-trivial however, there is no
general rule to separate trivial from nontrivial";
The system has memory or includes feedback;
2.6.3 Complex simulations
The system can adapt itself according to its In social science, the study on the emergence of macroproperties from the micro-properties, also known as
history or feedback;
macro-micro view in sociology. The topic is commonly
The relations between the system and its envirecognized as social complexity that is often related to
ronment are non-trivial or non-linear;
the use of computer simulation in social science, i.e.:
The system can be inuenced by, or can adapt computational sociology.
itself to, its environment; and
The system is highly sensitive to initial conditions.
2.5 Study of complexity

Complexity has always been a part of our environment,
and therefore many scientic elds have dealt with complex systems and phenomena. From one perspective, that
which is somehow complex-displaying variation without being random is most worthy of interest given the
rewards found in the depths of exploration.
The use of the term complex is often confused with the
term complicated. In todays systems, this is the dierence between myriad connecting stovepipes and eective integrated solutions.[10] This means that complex
2.6.4 Complex systems

Main article: Complex system
Systems theory has long been concerned with the study
of complex systems (in recent times, complexity theory
and complex systems have also been used as names of
the eld). These systems are present in the research of
a variety disciplines, including biology, economics, and
technology. Recently, complexity has become a natural domain of interest of real world socio-cognitive systems and emerging systemics research. Complex systems
tend to be high-dimensional, non-linear, and dicult to
model. In specic circumstances, they may exhibit lowdimensional behaviour.
2.7. APPLICATIONS OF COMPLEXITY
2.6.5
Complexity in data
17
2.7 Applications of complexity
In information theory, algorithmic information theory is Computational complexity theory is the study of the comconcerned with the complexity of strings of data.
plexity of problemsthat is, the diculty of solving
Complex strings are harder to compress. While intuition them. Problems can be classied by complexity class
tells us that this may depend on the codec used to com- according to the time it takes for an algorithmusually
press a string (a codec could be theoretically created in a computer programto solve them as a function of
any arbitrary language, including one in which the very the problem size. Some problems are dicult to solve,
small command X could cause the computer to out- while others are easy. For example, some dicult probput a very complicated string like 18995316), any two lems need algorithms that take an exponential amount of
Turing-complete languages can be implemented in each time in terms of the size of the problem to solve. Take
other, meaning that the length of two encodings in dif- the travelling salesman problem, for example. It can be
2 n
ferent languages will vary by at most the length of the solved in time O(n 2 ) (where n is the size of the nettranslation languagewhich will end up being negligi- work to visitlets say the number of cities the travelling
salesman must visit exactly once). As the size of the netble for suciently large data strings.
work of cities grows, the time needed to nd the route
These algorithmic measures of complexity tend to assign
grows (more than) exponentially.
high values to random noise. However, those studying
complex systems would not consider randomness as com- Even though a problem may be computationally solvable
in principle, in actual practice it may not be that simplexity.
ple. These problems might require large amounts of time
Information entropy is also sometimes used in informaor an inordinate amount of space. Computational comtion theory as indicative of complexity.
plexity may be approached from many dierent aspects.
Recent work in machine learning has examined the com- Computational complexity can be investigated on the baplexity of the data as it aects the performance of sis of time, memory or other resources used to solve the
supervised classication algorithms. Ho and Basu present problem. Time and space are two of the most important
a set of complexity measures for binary classication and popular considerations when problems of complexity
problems.[11] The complexity measures broadly cover 1) are analyzed.
the overlaps in feature values from diering classes, 2)
There exist a certain class of problems that although they
the separability of the classes, and 3) measures of geomare solvable in principle they require so much time or
etry, topology, and density of manifolds. Instance hardspace that it is not practical to attempt to solve them.
ness is another approach seeks to characterize the data
These problems are called intractable.
complexity with the goal of determining how hard a data
set is to classify correctly and is not limited to binary There is another form of complexity called hierarchical
problems.[12] Instance hardness is a bottom-up approach complexity. It is orthogonal to the forms of complexity
that rst seeks to identify instances that are likely to be discussed so far, which are called horizontal complexity
misclassied (or, in other words, which instances are the Bejan and Lorente showed that complexity is modest (not
most complex). The characteristics of the instances that maximum, not increasing), and is a feature of the natuare likely to be misclassied are then measured based on ral phenomenon of design generation in nature, which is
the output from a set of hardness measures. The hard- predicted by the Constructal law.[15]
ness measures are based on several supervised learning
techniques such as measuring the number of disagree- Bejan and Lorente also showed that all the optimality
ing neighbors or the likelihood of the assigned class label (max,min) statements have limited ad-hoc applicability,
the Constructal law of design and
given the input features. The information provided by the and are unied under
[16][17]
complexity measures has been examined for use in meta evolution in nature.
learning to determine for which data sets ltering (or removing suspected noisy instances from the training set)
is the most benecial[13] and could be expanded to other
areas.
2.8 See also

Chaos theory
2.6.6
Complexity in molecular recognition
A recent study based on molecular simulations and

compliance constants describes molecular recognition
as a phenomenon of organisation.[14] Even for small
molecules like carbohydrates, the recognition process can
not be predicted or designed even assuming that each individual hydrogen bond's strength is exactly known.
Command and Control Research Program

Complex systems
Complexity theory (disambiguation page)
Constructal law
Cyclomatic complexity
18
Digital morphogenesis
Emergence
Evolution of complexity
Game complexity
Holism in science
Interconnectedness
Law of Complexity/Consciousness
Model of Hierarchical Complexity
Names of large numbers
Network science
Network theory
Novelty theory
Occams razor
Process architecture
Programming Complexity
CHAPTER 2. COMPLEXITY
[6] Sir James Lighthill and Modern Fluid Mechanics, by Lokenath Debnath, The University of Texas-Pan American, US, Imperial College Press: ISBN 978-1-84816-113-9: ISBN 184816-113-1, Singapore, page 31. Online at http:
//cs5594.userapi.com/u11728334/docs/25eb2e1350a5/
Lokenath_Debnath_Sir_James_Lighthill_and_mode.pdf
[7] Jacobs, Jane (1961). The Death and Life of Great American Cities. New York: Random House.
[8] Ulanowicz, Robert, Ecology, the Ascendant Perspective, Columbia, 1997
[9] Mariusz Stanowski (2011) Abstract Complexity Denition, Complicity 2, p.78-83
[10] Lissack, Michael R.; Johan Roos (2000). The Next Common Sense, The e-Managers Guide to Mastering Complexity. Intercultural Press. ISBN 978-1-85788-235-3.
[11] Ho, T.K.; Basu, M. (2002). "Complexity Measures of Supervised Classication Problems". IEEE Transactions on
Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence 24 (3), pp 289300.
[12] Smith, M.R.; Martinez, T.; Giraud-Carrier, C. (2014).
"An Instance Level Analysis of Data Complexity". Machine Learning, 95(2): 225-256.
Systems theory
[13] Saez, J.; Luengo, J.; Herrera, F. (2013). "Predicting

Noise Filtering Ecacy with Data Complexity Measures
for Nearest Neighbor Classication". Pattern Recognition
46 (1) pp 355-364.
Thorngates postulate of commensurate complexity
[14] Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2011, 13, 1013610146
Variety (cybernetics)
[15] Bejan A., Lorente S., The Constructal Law of Design

and Evolution in Nature. Philosophical Transactions of
the Royal Society B, Biological Science, Vol. 365, 2010,
pp. 13351347.
Sociology and complexity science
Volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity
2.9 References
[1] Antunes, Ricardo; Gonzalez, Vicente (3 March 2015).
A Production Model for Construction: A Theoretical Framework.
Buildings 5 (1): 209228.
doi:10.3390/buildings5010209. Retrieved 17 March
2015.
[2] J. M. Zayed, N. Nouvel, U. Rauwald, O. A. Scherman.
Chemical Complexity supramolecular self-assembly of
synthetic and biological building blocks in water. Chemical Society Reviews, 2010, 39, 28062816 http://pubs.
rsc.org/en/Content/ArticleLanding/2010/CS/b922348g
[3] Johnson, Neil F. (2009). Chapter 1: Twos company,
three is complexity. Simply complexity: A clear guide to
complexity theory (PDF). Oneworld Publications. p. 3.
ISBN 978-1780740492.
[4] Weaver, Warren (1948). Science and Complexity
(PDF). American Scientist 36 (4): 53644. PMID
18882675. Retrieved 2007-11-21.
[5] Johnson, Steven (2001). Emergence: the connected lives
of ants, brains, cities, and software. New York: Scribner.
p. 46. ISBN 0-684-86875-X.
[16] Lorente S., Bejan A. (2010). Few Large and Many Small:
Hierarchy in Movement on Earth, International Journal
of Design of Nature and Ecodynamics, Vol. 5, No. 3, pp.
254267.
[17] Kim S., Lorente S., Bejan A., Milter W., Morse J. (2008)
The Emergence of Vascular Design in Three Dimensions,
Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 103, 123511.
2.10 Further reading

Chu, Dominique (2011). Complexity: Against Systems. Theory in Biosciences (Springer). PMID
21287293.
Waldrop, M. Mitchell (1992). Complexity: The
Emerging Science at the Edge of Order and Chaos.
New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 978-0-67176789-1.
Czerwinski, Tom;
David Alberts (1997).
Complexity, Global Politics, and National Security (PDF). National Defense University. ISBN
978-1-57906-046-6.

Sol, R. V.; B. C. Goodwin (2002). Signs of Life:
How Complexity Pervades Biology. Basic Books.
ISBN 978-0-465-01928-1.
Heylighen, Francis (2008). Complexity and SelfOrganization (PDF). In Bates, Marcia J.; Maack,
Mary Niles. Encyclopedia of Library and Information Sciences. CRC. ISBN 978-0-8493-9712-7.
Burgin, M. (1982) Generalized Kolmogorov complexity and duality in theory of computations, Notices of the Russian Academy of Sciences, v.25, No.
3, pp. 1923
Meyers, R.A., (2009) Encyclopedia of Complexity
and Systems Science, ISBN 978-0-387-75888-6
Mitchell, M. (2009). Complexity: A Guided Tour.
Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK.
Gershenson, C., Ed. (2008). Complexity: 5 Questions. Automatic Peess / VIP.
2.11 External links

Complexity Measures an article about the abundance of not-that-useful complexity measures.
Exploring Complexity in Science and Technology
Introductory complex system course by Melanie
Mitchell
Quantifying Complexity Theory classication of
complex systems
Santa Fe Institute focusing on the study of complexity science: Lecture Videos
UC Four Campus Complexity Videoconferences
Human Sciences and Complexity
19
Chapter 3
Self-organization
both in the natural sciences and the social sciences such
as economics or anthropology. Self-organization has also
been observed in mathematical systems such as cellular
automata. Sometimes the notion of self-organization is
conated with that of the related concept of emergence.[3]
Properly dened, however, there may be instances of selforganization without emergence and emergence without
self-organization.
Self-organization
ingredients:[4]
Self-organization in micron-sized Nb3 O7 (OH) cubes during a
hydrothermal treatment at 200 C. Initially amorphous cubes
gradually transform into ordered 3D meshes of crystalline
nanowires as summarized in the model below.[1]
usually
relies
on
three
basic
1. Strong dynamical non-linearity, often though not

necessarily involving positive and negative feedback
2. Balance of exploitation and exploration
Self-organization is a process where some form of overall order or coordination arises out of the local interactions between smaller component parts of an initially disordered system. The process of self-organization can be
spontaneous, and it is not necessarily controlled by any
auxiliary agent outside of the system. It is often triggered
by random uctuations that are amplied by positive
feedback. The resulting organization is wholly decentralized or distributed over all the components of the system.
As such, the organization is typically robust and able to
survive and, even, self-repair substantial damage or perturbations. Chaos theory discusses self-organization in
terms of islands of predictability in a sea of chaotic unpredictability. Self-organization occurs in a variety of
physical, chemical, biological, robotic, social, and cognitive systems. Examples of its realization can be found
in crystallization, thermal convection of uids, chemical
oscillation, animal swarming, and neural networks.
3.1 Overview
Self-organization is realized[2] in the physics of nonequilibrium processes, and in chemical reactions, where
it is often described as self-assembly. The concept of
self-organization is central to the description of biological systems, from the subcellular to the ecosystem
level. There are also cited examples of self-organizing behaviour found in the literature of many other disciplines,
3. Multiple interactions
3.1.1 Principles of self-organization

The original principle of self-organization was formulated in 1947 by the cybernetician William Ross
Ashby.[5][6] It states that any deterministic dynamic system will automatically evolve towards a state of equilibrium that can be described in terms of an attractor in a
basin of surrounding states. Once there, the further evolution of the system is constrained to remain in the attractor. This constraint on the system as a whole implies
a form of mutual dependency or coordination between
its constituent components or subsystems. In Ashbys
terms, each subsystem has adapted to the environment
formed by all other subsystems.
The principle of order from noise was formulated by
the cybernetician Heinz von Foerster in 1960.[7] It notes
that self-organization is facilitated by random perturbations (noise) that let the system explore a variety of
states in its state space. This increases the chance that
the system would arrive into the basin of a strong or
deep attractor, from which it would then quickly enter
the attractor itself. A similar principle was formulated
by the thermodynamicist Ilya Prigogine as order through
uctuations[8] or order out of chaos.[9] It is applied in
the method of simulated annealing that is used in problem
solving and machine learning
20
3.2. HISTORY OF THE IDEA
3.2 History of the idea
21
Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine (1961).
Self-organization as a word and concept was used by

those associated with general systems theory in the 1960s,
but did not become commonplace in the scientic literature until its adoption by physicists and researchers in the
eld of complex systems in the 1970s and 1980s.[11] After Ilya Prigogine's 1977 Nobel Prize, the thermodynamic
concept of self-organization received some attention of the
public, and scientic researchers started to migrate from
The ancient atomists believed that a designing intelli- the cybernetic view to the thermodynamic view.[12]
gence is unnecessary to eect natural order, arguing that
given enough time and space and matter, organization is
ultimately inevitable, although there is no preferred ten- 3.2.1 Developing views
dency for this to happen. What Descartes introduced was
the idea that the ordinary laws of nature tend to produce Other views of self-organization in physical systems inorganization (For related history, see Aram Vartanian, terpret it as a strictly accumulative construction process,
Diderot and Descartes).
commonly displaying an S curve history of developThe economic concept of the "invisible hand" due to ment. As discussed somewhat dierently by dierent
Adam Smith can be understood as an attempt to describe researchers, local complex systems for exploiting enthe inuence of the market as a spontaneous order on peo- ergy gradients evolve from seeds of organization, through
a succession of natural starting and ending phases for
ples actions.
inverting their directions of development. The accuBeginning with the 18th century, natural scientists sought mulation of working processes which their exploratory
to understand the universal laws of form in order to ex- parts construct as they exploit their gradient becomes the
plain the observed forms of living organisms. Because learning, organization or design of the system as a
of its association with Lamarckism, their ideas fell into physical artifact, such for an ecology or economy. For
disrepute until the early 20th century, when pioneers example, A. Bejans books and papers describe his apsuch as D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson revived them. The proach as Constructal Theory.[13] P. F. Henshaws work
modern understanding is that there are indeed universal on decoding net-energy system construction processes
laws, arising from fundamental physics and chemistry, termed Natural Systems Theory, uses various analytical
that govern growth and form in biological systems.
methods to quantify and map them such as System En[14]
Sadi Carnot and Rudolf Clausius discovered the Second ergy Assessment for taking true quantitative measures
Law of Thermodynamics in the 19th century. It states of whole complex energy using systems, and for anticipat[15]
that total entropy, sometimes understood as disorder, will ing their successions, such as Models Learning Change
always increase over time in an isolated system. This to permit adapting models to their emerging inverted demeans that a system cannot spontaneously increase its or- signs. G. Y. Georgievs work is utilizing the principle of
der, without an external relationship that decreases order least (stationary) action in Physics, to dene organization
elsewhere in the system (e.g. through consuming the low- of a complex system as the state of the constraints deentropy energy of a battery and diusing high-entropy termining the total action of the elements in a system.
Organization is then dened numerically as the reciproheat).
cal of the average action per one element and one edge
Originally, the term self-organizing was used by crossing, if the system is described as a network. The elImmanuel Kant in his Critique of Judgment, where he ar- ementary quantum of action, Plancks constant, is used
gued that teleology is a meaningful concept only if there to make the measure dimensionless and to dene it as inexists such an entity whose parts or organs are simulta- versely proportional to the number of quanta of action exneously ends and means. Such a system of organs must pended by the elements for one edge crossing. The mechbe able to behave as if it has a mind of its own, that is, it anism of self-organization is the interaction between the
is capable of governing itself.
elements and the constrains, which leads to constraint
The term self-organizing was introduced to contem- minimization. This is consistent with the Gauss principorary science in 1947 by the psychiatrist and engineer ple of least constraint. More elements minimize the conW. Ross Ashby.[5] It was taken up by the cyberneticians straints faster, another aspect of the mechanism, which
Heinz von Foerster, Gordon Pask, Staord Beer, and von is through quantity accumulation. As a result, the paths
Foerster organized a conference on The Principles of of the elements are straightened, which is consistent with
Self-Organization at the University of Illinois Allerton Hertzs principle of least curvature. The state of a system
Park in June, 1960 which led to a series of conferences on with least average sum of actions of its elements is deSelf-Organizing Systems.[10] Norbert Wiener also took ned as its attractor. In open systems, where there is conup the idea in the second edition of his Cybernetics: or stant inow and outow of energy and elements, this nal
The idea that the dynamics of a system can lead to an
increase of the systems organization has a long history.
One of the earliest statements of this idea was by the
philosopher Descartes, in the fth part of his Discourse
on Method, where he presents it hypothetically. Descartes
further elaborated on the idea at great length in his unpublished work The World.
22
CHAPTER 3. SELF-ORGANIZATION
state is never reached, but the system always tends toward There are several broad classes of physical processes that
it.[12] This method can help describe, quantify, manage, can be described as self-organization. Such examples
design and predict future behavior of complex systems, to from physics include:
achieve the highest rates of self-organization to improve
their quality, which is the numerical value of their orga structural (order-disorder, rst-order) phase transinization. It can be applied to complex systems in physics,
tions, and spontaneous symmetry breaking such as
chemistry, biology, ecology, economics, cities, network
spontaneous magnetization, crystallization
theory and others, where they are present.[12][16][17]
(see crystal growth, and liquid crystal) in the
classical domain and
3.3 Examples
The following list summarizes and classies the instances
of self-organization found in dierent disciplines. As the
list grows, it becomes increasingly dicult to determine
whether these phenomena are all fundamentally the same
process, or the same label applied to several dierent processes. Self-organization, despite its intuitive simplicity
as a concept, has proven notoriously dicult to dene and
pin down formally or mathematically, and it is entirely
possible that any precise denition might not include all
the phenomena to which the label has been applied.
The farther a phenomenon is removed from physics, the
more controversial the idea of self-organization as understood by physicists becomes. Also, even when selforganization is clearly present, attempts at explaining
it through physics or statistics are usually criticized as
reductionistic.
Similarly, when ideas about self-organization originate
in, say, biology or social science, the farther one tries to
take the concept into chemistry, physics or mathematics, the more resistance is encountered, usually on the
grounds that it implies direction in fundamental physical processes. However the tendency of hot bodies to get
cold (see Thermodynamics) and by Le Chateliers Principlethe statistical mechanics extension of Newtons
Third Lawto oppose this tendency should be noted.
3.3.1
Physics
the laser, superconductivity and BoseEinstein

condensation, in the quantum domain (but
with macroscopic manifestations)
second-order phase transition, associated with
"critical points" at which the system exhibits scaleinvariant structures. Examples of these include:
critical opalescence of uids at the critical
point
percolation in random media
structure formation in thermodynamic systems
away from equilibrium. The theory of dissipative structures of Prigogine and Hermann Hakens
Synergetics were developed to unify the understanding of these phenomena, which include lasers, turbulence and convective instabilities (e.g., Bnard cells)
in uid dynamics,
structure formation in astrophysics and cosmology (including star formation, planetary
systems formation, galaxy formation)
self-similar expansion
Diusion-limited aggregation
percolation
reaction-diusion systems, such as Belousov
Zhabotinsky reaction
self-organizing dynamical systems: complex systems made up of small, simple units connected to
each other usually exhibit self-organization
Self-organized criticality (SOC)
In tribology, friction coupled with other simultaneous eects, such as heat transfer, wear, and material
diusion. can lead to self-organized patterns at the
frictional interface, ranging from stick-slip patterns
to in-situ formed tribolms and surface roughness
adjustment of two materials in contact.
Convection cells in a gravity eld
In spin foam system and loop quantum gravity that

was proposed by Lee Smolin. The main idea is that
the evolution of space in time should be robust in
general. Any ne-tuning of cosmological parameters weaken the independency of the fundamental theory. Philosophically, it can be assumed that
3.3. EXAMPLES
in the early time, there has not been any agent to
tune the cosmological parameters. Smolin and his
colleagues in a series of works show that, based on
the loop quantization of spacetime, in the very early
time, a simple evolutionary model (similar to the
sand pile model) behaves as a power law distribution on both the size and area of avalanche.
23
5. colloidal crystals
6. self-assembled monolayers
7. micelles
8. microphase separation of block copolymers
9. Langmuir-Blodgett lms
Although, this model, which is restricted only
on the frozen spin networks, exhibits a nonstationary expansion of the universe. How- 3.3.3 Biology
ever, it is the rst serious attempt toward the
nal ambitious goal of determining the cosmic expansion and ination based on a selforganized criticality theory in which the parameters are not tuned, but instead are determined from within the complex system.[18]
A laser can also be characterized as a self organized system to the extent that normal states of thermal equilibrium characterized by electromagnetic
energy absorption are stimulated out of equilibrium
in a reverse of the absorption process. If the matter
can be forced out of thermal equilibrium to a sucient degree, so that the upper state has a higher population than the lower state (population inversion),
then more stimulated emission than absorption oc- Birds ocking, an example of self-organization in biology
curs, leading to coherent growth (amplication or
gain) of the electromagnetic wave at the transition Main article: Biological organisation
frequency.[19]
According to Scott Camazine.. [et al.]:
3.3.2
Chemistry
The following is an incomplete list of the diverse phenomena which have been described as self-organizing in
biology.
1. spontaneous folding of proteins and other biomacromolecules
2. formation of lipid bilayer membranes
3. homeostasis (the self-maintaining nature of systems
from the cell to the whole organism)
The DNA structure at left (schematic shown) will self-assemble

into the structure visualized by atomic force microscopy at right.
Image from Strong.[20]
Self-organization in chemistry includes:
4. pattern formation and morphogenesis, or how the

living organism develops and grows. See also
embryology.
5. the coordination of human movement, e.g. seminal
studies of bimanual coordination by Kelso
1. molecular self-assembly
6. the creation of structures by social animals, such

as social insects (bees, ants, termites), and many
mammals
2. reaction-diusion systems and oscillating chemical

reactions
7. ocking behaviour (such as the formation of ocks

by birds, schools of sh, etc.)
3. autocatalytic networks (see: autocatalytic set)
8. the origin of life itself from self-organizing chemical systems, in the theories of hypercycles and
autocatalytic networks
4. liquid crystals
24
9. the organization of Earths biosphere in a way that is need to be relatively simpler to manage than they used to
broadly conducive to life (according to the contro- be.
versial Gaia hypothesis)
Only certain kinds of networks are self-organizing. The
best known examples are small-world networks and scalefree networks. These emerge from bottom-up interac3.3.4 Computer Science
tions, and appear to be limitless in size. In contrast, there
are top-down hierarchical networks, which are not selforganizing. These are typical of organizations, and have
severe size limits.
In many natural systems, self-organization results from
repeated phase shifts in their underlying network of connections. Such phase shifts alter the balance between internal processes (e.g. selection and variation). They give
rise to the phenomenon of dual-phase evolution.
3.3.5 Cybernetics
Wiener regarded the automatic serial identication of a
Gospers Glider Gun creating "gliders" in the cellular automaton black box and its subsequent reproduction as sucient
to meet the condition of self-organization.[25] The imConways Game of Life.[22]
portance of phase locking or the attraction of frequenAs mentioned above, phenomena from mathematics and cies, as he called it, is discussed in the 2nd edition of his
[26]
Drexler sees self-replication as a key
computer science such as cellular automata, random "Cybernetics".
step
in
nano
and
universal
assembly.
graphs, and some instances of evolutionary computation
and articial life exhibit features of self-organization. By contrast, the four concurrently connected galvanomeIn swarm robotics, self-organization is used to produce ters of W. Ross Ashby's Homeostat hunt, when peremergent behavior. In particular the theory of ran- turbed, to converge on one of many possible stable
dom graphs has been used as a justication for self- states.[27] Ashby used his state counting measure of
organization as a general principle of complex systems. variety[28] to describe stable states and produced the
In the eld of multi-agent systems, understanding how "Good Regulator"[29] theorem which requires internal
to engineer systems that are capable of presenting self- models for self-organized endurance and stability (e.g.
organized behavior is a very active research area.
Nyquist stability criterion).
Warren McCulloch proposed Redundancy of Potential
Command[30] as characteristic of the organization of the
brain and human nervous system and the necessary conMany optimization algorithms can be considered as a dition for self-organization.
self-organization system because the aim of the optimiza- Heinz von Foerster proposed Redundancy, R = 1
tion is to nd the optimal solution to a problem. If the H/H , where H is entropy.[31][32] In essence this states
solution is considered as a state of the iterative system, that unused potential communication bandwidth is a meathe optimal solution is essentially the selected, converged sure of self-organization.
state or structure of the system, driven by the algorithm
based on the system landscape.[23][24] In fact, one can In the 1970s Staord Beer considered this condition as
view all optimization algorithms as a self-organization necessary for autonomy which identies self-organization
in persisting and living systems. Using Variety analysystem.
ses he applied his neurophysiologically derived recursive
Viable System Model to management. It consists of ve
Networks
parts: the monitoring of performance of the survival processes (1), their management by recursive application of
Self-organization is an important component for a suc- regulation (2), homeostatic operational control (3) and
cessful ability to establish networking whenever needed. development (4) which produce maintenance of identity
Such mechanisms are also referred to as Self-organizing (5) under environmental perturbation. Focus is priorinetworks. Intensied work in the latter half of the rst tized by an alerting algedonic loop feedback: a sendecade of the 21st century was mainly due to interest sitivity to both pain and pleasure produced from underfrom the wireless communications industry. It is driven performance or over-performance relative to a standard
by the plug and play paradigm, and that wireless networks capability.[33]
Algorithms
3.3. EXAMPLES
In the 1990s Gordon Pask pointed out von Foersters
H and Hmax were not independent and interacted via
countably innite recursive concurrent spin processes[34]
(he favoured the Bohm interpretation) which he called
concepts (liberally dened in any medium, productive
and, incidentally reproductive). His strict denition of
concept a procedure to bring about a relation[35] permitted his theorem Like concepts repel, unlike concepts attract[36] to state a general spin based Principle
of Self-organization. His edict, an exclusion principle, There are No Doppelgangers"[37][34] means no two
concepts can be the same (all interactions occur with
dierent perspectives making time incommensurable for
actors). This means, after sucient duration as dierences assert, all concepts will attract and coalesce as pink
noise and entropy increases (and see Big Crunch, selforganized criticality). The theory is applicable to all organizationally closed or homeostatic processes that produce enduring and coherent products (where spins have a
xed average phase relationship and also in the sense of
Rescher Coherence Theory of Truth with the proviso that
the sets and their members exert repulsive forces at their
boundaries) through interactions: evolving, learning and
adapting.
25
In social theory the concept of self-referentiality has
been introduced as a sociological application of selforganization theory by Niklas Luhmann (1984). For Luhmann the elements of a social system are self-producing
communications, i.e. a communication produces further
communications and hence a social system can reproduce
itself as long as there is dynamic communication. For
Luhmann human beings are sensors in the environment
of the system. Luhmann developed an evolutionary theory of Society and its subsytems, using functional analyses and systems theory.[39]
Self-organization in human and computer networks can

give rise to a decentralized, distributed, self-healing system, protecting the security of the actors in the network
by limiting the scope of knowledge of the entire system
held by each individual actor. The Underground Railroad is a good example of this sort of network. The
networks that arise from drug tracking exhibit similar
self-organizing properties. The Sphere College Project
seeks to apply self-organization to adult education. Parallel examples exist in the world of privacy-preserving computer networks such as Tor. In each case, the network as
a whole exhibits distinctive synergistic behavior through
the combination of the behaviors of individual actors in
Pasks Interactions of Actors hard carapace model is re- the network. Usually the growth of such networks is fuected in some of the ideas of emergence and coherence. eled by an ideology or sociological force that is adhered
It requires a knot emergence topology that produces ra- to or shared by all participants in the network.[12]
diation during interaction with a unit cell that has a prismatic tensegrity structure. Laughlin's contribution to
Economics
emergence reects some of these constraints.
In economics, a market economy is sometimes said to
be self-organizing. Paul Krugman has written on the
3.3.6 Human society
role that market self-organization plays in the business
cycle in his book The Self Organizing Economy.[40]
Friedrich Hayek coined the term catallaxy[41] to describe
a self-organizing system of voluntary co-operation, in
regards to the spontaneous order of the free market
economy. Neo-classical economists hold that imposing central planning usually makes the self-organized
economic system less ecient. On the other end of
the spectrum, economists consider that market failures
are so signicant that self-organization produces bad
results and that the state should direct production and
pricing. Most economists adopt an intermediate position and recommend a mixture of market economy and
Social self-organization in international drug routes
command economy characteristics (sometimes called a
mixed economy). When applied to economics, the conThe self-organizing behaviour of social animals and the
cept of self-organization can quickly become ideologiself-organization of simple mathematical structures both
cally imbued.[12][42]
suggest that self-organization should be expected in human society. Tell-tale signs of self-organization are
usually statistical properties shared with self-organizing Collective intelligence
physical systems (see Zipfs law, power law, Pareto
principle). Examples such as critical mass, herd be- Non-thermodynamic concepts of entropy and selfhaviour, groupthink and others, abound in sociology, organization have been explored by many theorists. Cli
economics, behavioral nance and anthropology.[38] The Joslyn and colleagues and their so-called "global brain"
theory of human social self-organization is also known as projects. Marvin Minsky's "Society of Mind" and the nospontaneous order theory.
central editor in charge policy of the open sourced inter-
26
Cybernetic algorithm
Visualization of links between pages on a wiki. This is an example of collective intelligence through collaborative editing.
net encyclopedia, called Wikipedia, are examples of applications of these principles see collective intelligence.
Donella Meadows, who codied twelve leverage points
that a self-organizing system could exploit to organize itself, was one of a school of theorists who saw human
creativity as part of a general process of adapting human lifeways to the planet and taking humans out of conict with natural processes. See Gaia philosophy, deep
ecology, ecology movement and Green movement for
similar self-organizing ideals. (The connections between
self-organisation and Gaia theory and the environmental
movement are explored in A. Marshall, 2002, The Unity
of Nature, Imperial College Press: London).
Systems algorithm
only a more rewarding and eective way of living ones

personal life; it is also applicable in any group of people
living, playing and/or working together.
As many young children, pupils, students and lifelong

learners eventually become ruefully aware, this testing
out of what I have learned needs to be carried out in each
3.3.7 Psychology and education
learner(s) whole process of living, and so it extends well
beyond the connes of specic learning environments
Self-organised learning
(home, school, university, etc.), and eventually beyond
these environments (parEnabling others to learn how to learn[43] is usually the reaches of the controllers of[49]
ents,
teachers,
employers,
etc.)
misconstrued as instructing them[44] how to successfully
submit to being taught. Whilst fully accepting that we SOL needs to be tested, and intermittently revised,
can always learn from others, particularly those with through the ongoing personal experience[50] of the
more and/or dierent experience than ourselves; self- learner(s) themselves in their ever-expanding outer and
organised learning (SOL) repudiates any idea[45] that this inner lives.
reduces to accepting that the expert knows best or that Whilst internal life may cease to expand, the external enthere is ever the one best method. It oers an alternative vironment does not. If a learner allows themselves to bedenition of learning as the construction of personally come progressively more other-organised, they become
signicant, relevant and viable meaning.
less able to recognise and respond to varying needs for
This more democratic 'bottom up' approach to learning is
to be frequently tested experientially[46] by the learner(s)
as being more meaningful, constructive and creatively
eective for me or us.
change. Unfortunately this is often the current reported

experience of many during, and hence after their parenting, schooling and/or higher education.
But, this SOL way of understanding the learning proSince human learning may be achieved by one person,[47] cess need not be restricted by either consciousness or
or groups of learners working together;[48] SOL is not language.[51] Nor is it restricted to humans, since anal-
3.3. EXAMPLES
ogous directional self-organizing (learning?) processes
are reported variously within the life sciences and even
within the less-living sciences, for example, of physics
and chemistry: (as is clearly articulated in other sections
of this 'Self-organization' Section).
Since SOL is as yet only very supercially recognised
within psychology and education, it is useful to place it
more rmly within the human public mind-pool[52] of
achievement, knowledge, experience and understanding.
SOL can also be placed within a hierarchy of scientic
explanatory concepts, for example:
1. Cause and Eect (requires other things being
equal)
2. Cybernetics[35] (incorporates item 1 in this list) with
greater complexity, providing internal feedback and
feed-forward controls: but still implying a sealed
boundary. (i.e. other things being equal)
3. Systems Theory[53] (incorporates item 2 in this list,
and opens the boundaries)
27
in themselves in response to the others representations. So art, drama, music, computer programs,
maths problems, ???, etc., can all create dierent, if
limited, forms of Learning Conversation which really only become fully functional when at least two
humans really attempt to fully communicate, and effectively share their understanding. That is achieve
shared meaning in an event that approximates to
what Maslow called a creative encounter[55]
7. Conversational Science[56] (will require item 6 in
this list, the main method of SOL) among all seekers
after signicant, relevant and viable shared meaning. Science and many other human activities still
need major paradigm shifts if we are to achieve SelfOrganised Living. It also requires equal stakeholdership for each converser. Thus SOL can be seen as
necessary but not sucient for science to contribute
positively to the benet of the society, within which
it may have only spasmodically been conversing successfully (SOL wise). Until, perhaps, both science
and society as a whole will become Self-Organised
Learners (SOLers) continually learning from their
own shared experience and using what they learn in
the shared interest of all concerned.
4. Self-organized System (incorporates item 3 in this

list) and attributes this property to the interaction,
patterning and coordination among the sub-systems
of the system in question; in response to ow across 3.3.8
its boundaries
5. Self-Organised Learning (SOL)[54] (incorporates
item 4 in this list) but also requires that the parts
each systematically respond, change and develop in
the light of their experience, whilst self-organizing
in the developing experiential interest of the whole).
SOL not only involves self-organization of the rst
order, i.e. what is mostly experienced as learning from experience without much conscious awareness of the process. At a second level of SOL consciousness enables us, (possibly uniquely among living beings) to reect upon and thus self-organise the
very process of self-organisation itself, (See 'Cybernetic algorithm' gure). It also enables organisations small and large to self-organise themselves,
(see 'System algorithm' gure).
Once this approach to human learning is acknowledged, then we can re-set science into its place
within the total human mind-pool. A mind-pool of
human know-how and feel-how as an ever expanding and hopefully self-organizing resource.
Trac ow
The self-organizing behaviour of drivers in trac ow

determines almost all trac spatiotemporal phenomena
observed in real trac data like trac breakdown at a
highway bottleneck, highway capacity, the emergence of
moving trac jams, etc. Self-organization in trac ow
is extremely complex spatiotemporal dynamic process.
For this reason, only in 19962002 spatiotemporal selforganization eects in trac have been understood in
real measured trac data and explained by Boris Kerner's
three-phase trac theory.
3.3.9 Methodology
In many complex systems in nature, there are global phenomena that are the irreducible result of local interactions
between components whose individual study would not
allow us to see the global properties of the whole combined system. Thus, a growing number of researchers
think that many properties of language are not directly
encoded by any of the components involved, but are the
6. Learning Conversation (incorporates item 5 in this self-organized outcomes of the interactions of the comlist) and yet is at the same time its major tool. ponents.
The Learning Conversation is a two-way process be- Building mathematical models in the context of research
tween SOLers, even within one person (conversing into language origins and the evolution of languages is
with oneself). Whilst not necessarily requiring lan- enjoying growing popularity in the scientic community,
guage i.e. dialogue; it does require that the each par- because it is a crucial tool for studying the phenomena
ticipant really attempts to represent their meaning of language in relation to the complex interactions of its
to the other(s), and that they all attempt to create components. These systems are put to two main types of
personally signicant, relevant and viable meaning use: 1) they serve to evaluate the internal coherence of
28
verbally expressed theories already proposed by clarifying all their hypotheses and verifying that they do indeed
lead to the proposed conclusions ; 2) they serve to explore and generate new theories, which themselves often
appear when one simply tries to build an articial system
reproducing the verbal behavior of humans.
As it were, the construction of operational models to test
proposed hypotheses in linguistics is gaining much contemporary attention. An operational model is one which
denes the set of its assumptions explicitly and above
all shows how to calculate their consequences, that is, to
prove that they lead to a certain set of conclusions.
In the emergence of language
The emergence of language in the human species has
been described in a game-theoretic framework based on a
model of senders and receivers of information. The evolution of certain properties of language such as inference
follow from this sort of framework (with the parameters stating that information transmitted can be partial or redundant, and the underlying assumption that
the sender and receiver each want to take the action
in his/her best interest). Likewise, models have shown
that compositionality, a central component of human
language, emerges dynamically during linguistic evolution, and need not be introduced by biological evolution.
Tomasello (1999) argues that through one evolutionary
step, the ability to sustain culture, the groundwork for
the evolution of human language was laid. The ability to ratchet cultural advances cumulatively allowed for
the complex development of human cognition unseen in
other animals.
languages.[57] Cross-linguistic patterns show that what
can be treated as the same gestural units produce dierent
contextualised patterns in dierent languages.[58] Articulatory Phonology fails to attend to the acoustic output
of the gestures themselves (meaning that many typological patterns remain unexplained).[59] Freedom among listeners in the weighting of perceptual cues in the acoustic
signal has a more fundamental role to play in the emergence of structure.[60] The realization of the perceptual
contrasts by means of articulatory movements means that
articulatory considerations do play a role,[61] but these are
purely secondary.
In diachrony and synchrony
Several mathematical models of language change rely on
self-organizing or dynamical systems. Abrams and Strogatz (2003) produced a model of language change that
focused on "language death" the process by which a
speech community merges into the surrounding speech
communities. Nakamura et al. (2008) proposed a variant
of this model that incorporates spatial dynamics into language contact transactions in order to describe the emergence of creoles. Both of these models proceed from the
assumption that language change, like any self-organizing
system, is a large-scale act or entity (in this case the creation or death of a language, or changes in its boundaries)
that emerges from many actions on a micro-level. The
microlevel in this example is the everyday production and
comprehension of language by speakers in areas of language contact.
3.4 Criticism
In language acquisition
Heinz Pagels, in a balanced, but ultimately negative 1985

book review of Ilya Prigogine and Isabelle Stengers' Order
Within a species ontogeny, the acquisition of language Out of Chaos in Physics Today, appeals to authority:[62]
has also been shown to self-organize. Through the ability to see others as intentional agents (theory of mind), In theology, Thomas Aquinas (12251274) in his Summa
and actions such as 'joint attention,' human children have Theologica assumes a teleological created universe in recan be a self-sucient
the scaolding they need to learn the language of those jecting the idea that something
[63]
cause
of
its
own
organization:
around them.
(The body of the Article consists of the quinque viae.)
In articulatory phonology
Articulatory phonology takes the approach that speech
production consists of a coordinated series of gestures,
called 'constellations,' which are themselves dynamical
systems. In this theory, linguistic contrast comes from the
distinction between such gestural units, which can be described on a low-dimensional level in the abstract. However, these structures are necessarily context-dependent
in real-time production. Thus the context-dependence
emerges naturally from the dynamical systems themselves. This statement is controversial, however, as it suggests a universal phonetics which is not evident across
3.5 See also

Ant mill
Autowave
Biology concepts: Bow tie (biology) evolution
morphogenesis homeostasis Gaia Hypothesis
Causality
Chemistry concepts:
autocatalysis
reaction-diusion
3.6. REFERENCES
Complex systems concepts:
emergence
evolutionary computation articial life
self-organized criticality "edge of chaos"
spontaneous order metastability Chaos theory
Buttery eect
Computer science concepts: swarm intelligence
Constructal law
Self-organized criticality control
Free energy principle
Free will
Information theory
Language Operator grammar
Mathematics concepts: fractal random graph
power law small world phenomenon cellular automata
Organization of the artist
Philosophical concepts: tectology Religious naturalism
Physics concepts:
thermodynamics nonequilibrium thermodynamics constructal theory
statistical mechanics phase transition dissipative
structures turbulence
Social concepts: participatory organization
Spontaneous order
Stigmergy
Systems theory concepts: cybernetics autopoiesis
polytely
Santiago theory of cognition
Thermodynamics concepts: Second Law of Thermodynamics Heat death of the Universe
3.6 References
[1] Betzler, S. B.; Wisnet, A.; Breitbach, B.; Mitterbauer,
C.; Weickert, J.; Schmidt-Mende, L.; Scheu, C. (2014).
Template-free synthesis of novel, highly-ordered 3D hierarchical Nb3 O7 (OH) superstructures with semiconductive and photoactive properties. Journal of Materials
Chemistry A 2 (30): 12005. doi:10.1039/C4TA02202E.
[2] Glansdor, P., Prigogine, I. (1971). Thermodynamic
Theory of Structure, Stability and Fluctuations, WileyInterscience, London. ISBN 0-471-30280-5
[3] Bernard Feltz et al (2006). Self-organization and Emergence in Life Sciences. ISBN 9781402039164. p. 1.
29
[4] Bonabeau, Eric; Dorigo, Marco and Theraulaz, Guy

(1999). Swarm intelligence: from natural to articial systems. ISBN 0195131592. pp. 911.
[5] Ashby, W. R. (1947). Principles of the Self-Organizing
Dynamic System. The Journal of General Psychology
37 (2): 1258. doi:10.1080/00221309.1947.9918144.
PMID 20270223.
[6] Ashby, W. R. (1962). Principles of the self-organizing
system, pp. 255278 in Principles of Self-Organization.
Heinz von Foerster and George W. Zopf, Jr. (eds.) U.S.
Oce of Naval Research.
[7] Von Foerster, H. (1960). [Retrieved from http://e1020.
pbworks.com/f/fulltext.pdf On self-organizing systems
and their environments"], pp. 3150 in Self-organizing
systems. M.C. Yovits and S. Cameron (eds.), Pergamon
Press, London
[8] Nicolis, G. and Prigogine, I. (1977). Self-organization in
nonequilibrium systems: From dissipative structures to order through uctuations. Wiley, New York.
[9] Prigogine, I. and Stengers, I. (1984). Order out of chaos:
Mans new dialogue with nature. Bantam Books.
[10] Asaro, P. (2007). Heinz von Foerster and the BioComputing Movements of the 1960s in Albert Mller
and Karl H. Mller (eds.) An Unnished Revolution?
Heinz von Foerster and the Biological Computer Laboratory BCL 19581976. Vienna, Austria: Edition
Echoraum.
[11] As an indication of the increasing importance of this concept, when queried with the keyword self-organ*, Dissertation Abstracts nds nothing before 1954, and only four
entries before 1970. There were 17 in the years 1971
1980; 126 in 19811990; and 593 in 19912000.
[12] Biel, R.; Mu-Jeong Kho (November 2009). The Issue of
Energy within a Dialectical Approach to the Regulationist
Problematique (PDF). Recherches & Rgulation Working Papers, RR Srie ID 2009-1, Association Recherche
& Rgulation (http://theorie-regulation.org): 121. Retrieved 2013-11-09.
[13] Bejan, A.; Lorente, S. (2006).
Constructal theory of generation of conguration in nature and
engineering.
Journal of Applied Physics 100
(4):
041301.
Bibcode:2006JAP...100d1301B.
doi:10.1063/1.2221896.
[14] Henshaw, King; Zarnikau (2011). System Energy Assessment (SEA), Dening a Standard Measure of EROI
for Energy Businesses as Whole Systems. Sustainability
3 (10): 19081943. doi:10.3390/su3101908.
[15] Henshaw, P. F. (2010). Models Learning Change. Cosmos and History 6 (1).
[16] Georgiev, Georgi Yordanov (2012) A quantitative measure, mechanism and attractor for self-organization in networked complex systems, pp. 9095 in Lecture Notes in
Computer Science (LNCS 7166), F. A. Kuipers and P. E.
Heegaard (Eds.): IFIP International Federation for Information Processing, Proceedings of the Sixth International
30
Workshop on Self-Organizing Systems (IWSOS 2012),

Springer-Verlag (2012).
[17] Georgiev, Georgi Yordanov; Georgiev, Iskren Yordanov (2002). The least action and the metric of
an organized system. Open Systems and Information Dynamics 9 (4): 371380. arXiv:1004.3518.
Bibcode:2010arXiv1004.3518G.
[18] Ansari M. H. (2004) Self-organized theory in quantum
gravity. arxiv.org
[19] Zeiger, H. J. and Kelley, P. L. (1991) Lasers, pp.
614619 in The Encyclopedia of Physics, Second Edition,
edited by Lerner, R. and Trigg, G., VCH Publishers.
[20] Strong, M. (2004). Protein Nanomachines. PLoS
Biol. 2 (3): e73e74. doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.0020073.
PMC 368168. PMID 15024422.
[21] Camazine, Deneubourg, Franks, Sneyd, Theraulaz,
Bonabeau, Self-Organization in Biological Systems,
Princeton University Press, 2003. ISBN 0-691-11624-5
--ISBN 0-691-01211-3 (pbk.) p. 8
[33] Brain of the Firm Alan Lane (1972) see also Viable System Model also in Beyond Dispute " Wiley Staord Beer
1994 Redundancy of Potential Command pp. 157158.
[34] Pask, Gordon (1996). Heinz von Foersters SelfOrganisation, the Progenitor of Conversation and Interaction Theories (PDF). Systems Research 13 (3): 349362.
[35] Pask, G. (1973). Conversation, Cognition and Learning.
A Cybernetic Theory and Methodology. Elsevier
[36] Green, N. (2001). On Gordon Pask. Kybernetes 30
(5/6): 673. doi:10.1108/03684920110391913.
[37] Pask, Gordon (1993) Interactions of Actors (IA), Theory
and Some Applications.
[38] Interactive models for self organization and biological systems Center for Models of Life, Niels Bohr Institute, Denmark
[39] Luhmann, Niklas (1995) Social Systems. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press. ISBN 0804726256. p.
410.
[22] Dennett, Daniel (1995), Darwins Dangerous Idea, Penguin Books, London, ISBN 978-0-14-016734-4
[40] Krugman, P. (1995) The Self Organizing Economy. Blackwell Publishers. ISBN 1557866996
[23] Yang, X. S.; Deb, S.; Loomes, M.; Karamanoglu, M.

(2013). A framework for self-tuning optimization algorithm. Neural Computing and Applications 23 (78):
2051. doi:10.1007/s00521-013-1498-4.
[41] Hayek, F. (1976) Law, Legislation and Liberty, Volume 2:

The Mirage of Social Justice. University of Chicago Press.
[24] X. S. Yang (2014) Nature-Inspired Optimization Algorithms, Elsevier.

[25] Wiener, Norbert (1962) The mathematics of selforganising systems. Recent developments in information
and decision processes, Macmillan, N. Y. and Chapter X
in Cybernetics, or control and communication in the animal
and the machine, The MIT Press.
[26] Cybernetics, or control and communication in the animal and the machine, The MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts and Wiley, NY, 1948. 2nd Edition 1962
Chapter X Brain Waves and Self-Organizing Systems"pp 201202.
[27] Ashby, William Ross (1952) Design for a Brain, Chapter
5 Chapman & Hall
[28] Ashby, William Ross (1956) An Introduction to Cybernetics, Part Two Chapman & Hall
[29] Conant, R. C.; Ashby, W. R. (1970). Every good regulator of a system must be a model of that system (PDF).
Int. J. Systems Sci. 1 (2): 8997.
[30] Embodiments of Mind MIT Press (1965)"
[31] von Foerster, Heinz; Pask, Gordon (1961). A Predictive
Model for Self-Organizing Systems, Part I. Cybernetica
3: 258300.
[32] von Foerster, Heinz; Pask, Gordon (1961). A Predictive
Model for Self-Organizing Systems, Part II. Cybernetica
4: 2055.
[42] Marshall, A. (2002) The Unity of Nature, Chapter 5. Imperial College Press. ISBN 1860943306.
[43] Rogers.C. (1969). Freedom to Learn. Merrill
[44] Feynman, R. P. (1987) Elementary Particles and the Laws
of Physics. The Dyrac 1997 Memorial Lecture. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521658621.
[45] Illich. I. (1971) A Celebration of Awareness. Penguin
Books.
[46] Harri-Augstein E. S. (2000) The University of Learning in
transformation
[47] Schumacher, E. F. (1997) This I Believe and Other Essays
(Resurgence Book). ISBN 1870098668.
[48] Revans R. W. (1982) The Origins and Growth of Action
Learning Chartwell-Bratt, Bromley
[49] Thomas L.F. and Harri-Augstein S. (1993) On Becoming a Learning Organisation in Report of a 7 year Action Research Project with the Royal Mail Business. CSHL
Monograph
[50] Rogers C.R. (1971) On Becoming a Person. Constable,
London
[51] Prigogyne I. & Sengers I. (1985) Order out of Chaos
Flamingo Paperbacks. London
[52] Capra F (1989) Uncommon Wisdom Flamingo Paperbacks. London
[53] Bohm D. (1994) Thought as a System. Routledge.
3.7. FURTHER READING
[54] Harri-Augstein E. S. and Thomas L. F. (1991)Learning

Conversations: The SOL way to personal and organizational growth. Routledge
[55] Maslow, A. H. (1964). Religions, values, and peakexperiences, Columbus: Ohio State University Press.
[56] Conversational Science Thomas L.F. and Harri-Augstein
E.S. (1985)
[57] Sole, M-J. (1992). Phonetic and phonological processes:
nasalization. Language & Speech 35: 2943.
[58] Ladefoged, Peter (2003) Commentary: some thoughts
on syllables an old-fashioned interlude, pp. 269276 in
Papers in laboratory Phonology VI. Local, John, Richard
Ogden & Ros Temple (eds.). Cambridge University Press.
[59] see papers in Phonetica 49, 1992, special issue on Articulatory Phonology
[60] Ohala, John J. (1996).
Speech perception is
hearing sounds, not tongues.
Journal of the
Acoustical Society of America 99 (3): 17181725.
Bibcode:1996ASAJ...99.1718O. doi:10.1121/1.414696.
PMID 8819861.
[61] Lindblom, B. (1999). Emergent phonology (PDF). Proceedings of the Twenty-fth Annual Meeting of the
Berkeley Linguistics Society, University of California,
Berkeley.
[62] Pagels, H. R. (January 1, 1985). Is the irreversibility we
see a fundamental property of nature?" (PDF). Physics Today: 9799.
[63] Article 3. Whether God exists? newadvent.org
3.7 Further reading

W. Ross Ashby (1966), Design for a Brain, Chapman & Hall, 2nd edition.
Amoroso, Richard (2005) The Fundamental Limit
and Origin of Complexity in Biological Systems .
Per Bak (1996), How Nature Works: The Science of
Self-Organized Criticality, Copernicus Books.
31
Scott Camazine, Jean-Louis Deneubourg, Nigel
R. Franks, James Sneyd, Guy Theraulaz, & Eric
Bonabeau (2001) Self-Organization in Biological
Systems, Princeton Univ Press.
Falko Dressler (2007), Self-Organization in Sensor
and Actor Networks, Wiley & Sons.
Manfred Eigen and Peter Schuster (1979), The Hypercycle: A principle of natural self-organization,
Springer.
Myrna Estep (2003), A Theory of Immediate Awareness: Self-Organization and Adaptation in Natural
Intelligence, Kluwer Academic Publishers.
Myrna L. Estep (2006), Self-Organizing Natural Intelligence: Issues of Knowing, Meaning, and Complexity, Springer-Verlag.
J. Doyne Farmer et al. (editors) (1986), Evolution, Games, and Learning: Models for Adaptation
in Machines and Nature, in: Physica D, Vol 22.
Carlos Gershenson and Francis Heylighen (2003).
When Can we Call a System Self-organizing?" In
Banzhaf, W, T. Christaller, P. Dittrich, J. T. Kim,
and J. Ziegler, Advances in Articial Life, 7th European Conference, ECAL 2003, Dortmund, Germany, pp. 606614. LNAI 2801. Springer.
Hermann Haken (1983) Synergetics: An Introduction. Nonequilibrium Phase Transition and SelfOrganization in Physics, Chemistry, and Biology,
Third Revised and Enlarged Edition, SpringerVerlag.
F.A. Hayek Law, Legislation and Liberty, RKP, UK.
Francis Heylighen (2001): The Science of Selforganization and Adaptivity.
Henrik Jeldtoft Jensen (1998), Self-Organized Criticality: Emergent Complex Behaviour in Physical
and Biological Systems, Cambridge Lecture Notes
in Physics 10, Cambridge University Press.
Steven Berlin Johnson (2001), Emergence: The Connected Lives of Ants, Brains, Cities, and Software.
Philip Ball (1999), The Self-Made Tapestry: Pattern

Formation in Nature, Oxford University Press.
Stuart Kauman (1995), At Home in the Universe,

Oxford University Press.
Staord Beer, Self-organization as autonomy: Brain

of the Firm 2nd edition Wiley 1981 and Beyond Dispute Wiley 1994.
Stuart Kauman (1993), Origins of Order: SelfOrganization and Selection in Evolution Oxford University Press.
A. Bejan (2000), Shape and Structure, from Engineering to Nature, Cambridge University Press,
Cambridge, UK, 324 pp.
J. A. Scott Kelso (1995), Dynamic Patterns: The

self-organization of brain and behavior, The MIT
Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Mark Buchanan (2002), Nexus: Small Worlds and

the Groundbreaking Theory of Networks W. W.
Norton & Company.
J. A. Scott Kelso & David A Engstrom (2006), "The

Complementary Nature", The MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
32
Alex Kentsis (2004), Self-organization of biological
systems: Protein folding and supramolecular assembly, Ph.D. Thesis, New York University.
E.V.Krishnamurthy(2009)", Multiset of Agents in
a Network for Simulation of Complex Systems,
in Recent advances in Nonlinear Dynamics and
synchronization, ,(NDS-1) -Theory and applications, Springer Verlag, New York,2009. Eds.
K.Kyamakya et al.
Paul Krugman (1996), The Self-Organizing Economy, Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Oxford:
Blackwell Publishers.
Elizabeth McMillan (2004) Complexity, Organizations and Change.
Marshall, A (2002) The Unity of Nature, Imperial
College Press: London (esp. chapter 5)
Mller, J.-A., Lemke, F. (2000), Self-Organizing
Data Mining.
Gregoire Nicolis and Ilya Prigogine (1977) SelfOrganization in Non-Equilibrium Systems, Wiley.
Heinz Pagels (1988), The Dreams of Reason: The
Computer and the Rise of the Sciences of Complexity,
Simon & Schuster.
Gordon Pask (1961), The cybernetics of evolutionary processes and of self organizing systems, 3rd. International Congress on Cybernetics, Namur, Association Internationale de Cybernetique.
Christian Prehofer ea. (2005), Self-Organization
in Communication Networks: Principles and Design Paradigms, in: IEEE Communications Magazine, July 2005.
Mitchell Resnick (1994), Turtles, Termites and
Trac Jams: Explorations in Massively Parallel Microworlds, Complex Adaptive Systems series, MIT
Press.
Lee Smolin (1997), The Life of the Cosmos Oxford
University Press.
Ricard V. Sol and Brian C. Goodwin (2001), Signs
of Life: How Complexity Pervades Biology, Basic
Books.
Ricard V. Sol and Jordi Bascompte (2006), Selforganization in Complex Ecosystems, Princeton U.
Press
Steven Strogatz (2004), Sync: The Emerging Science
of Spontaneous Order, Theia.
D'Arcy Thompson (1917), On Growth and Form,
Cambridge University Press, 1992 Dover Publications edition.
Tom De Wolf, Tom Holvoet (2005), Emergence
Versus Self-Organisation: Dierent Concepts but
Promising When Combined, In Engineering Self Organising Systems: Methodologies and Applications,
Lecture Notes in Computer Science, volume 3464,
pp 115.
K. Yee (2003), Ownership and Trade from Evolutionary Games, International Review of Law and
Economics, 23.2, 183197.
Louise B. Young (2002), The Unnished Universe
Mikhail Prokopenko (ed.) (2008), Advances in Applied Self-organizing Systems, Springer.
Alfred Hbler (2009), Digital wires, Complexity,
14.5,79,
Rdiger H. Jung (2010), Self-organization In: Helmut K. Anheier, Stefan Toepler, Regina List (editors): International Encyclopedia of Civil Society.
Springer Science + Business Media LLC, New York
2010, ISBN 978-0-387-93996-4, p. 13641370.
3.8 External links

Self-organization at Scholarpedia, curated by
Hermann Haken.
Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and SelfOrganization, Gttingen
PDF le on self-organized common law with references
An entry on self-organization at the Principia Cybernetica site
The Science of Self-organization and Adaptivity, a
review paper by Francis Heylighen
The Self-Organizing Systems (SOS) FAQ by
Chris Lucas, from the USENET newsgroup
comp.theory.self-org.sys
David Grieath, Primordial Soup Kitchen (graphics,
papers)
nlin.AO, nonlinear preprint archive, (electronic
preprints in adaptation and self-organizing systems)
Structure and Dynamics of Organic Nanostructures
Metal organic coordination networks of oligopyridines and Cu on graphite
Selforganization in complex networks The Complex
Systems Lab, Barcelona
Computational Mechanics Group at the Santa Fe Institute
3.8. EXTERNAL LINKS

Organisation must grow (1939) W. Ross Ashby
journal page 759, from The W. Ross Ashby Digital Archive
Cosma Shalizis notebook on self-organization from
2003-06-20, used under the GFDL with permission
from author.
Connectivism:SelfOrganization
UCLA Human Complex Systems Program
Interactions of Actors (IA), Theory and Some Applications 1993 Gordon Pasks theory of learning,
evolution and self-organization (in draft).
The Cybernetics Society
Scott Camazines webpage on self-organization in
biological systems
Mikhail Prokopenkos page on Information-driven
Self-organisation (IDSO)
Lakeside Labs Self-Organizing Networked Systems
A platform for science and technology, Klagenfurt,
Austria.
Watch 32 discordant metronomes synch up all by
themselves theatlantic.com
3.8.1
Dissertations and theses on selforganization
Gershenson, Carlos. (2007). Design and control of

Self-organizing Systems (PhD thesis).
de Boer, Bart. (1999). Self-Organisation in Vowel
Systems Vrije Universiteit Brussel AI-lab (PhD thesis).
33
Chapter 4
Spontaneous order
See also: Emergence and Self-organization
concept later developed particularly by Proudhon in the

nineteenth century.[2]
Spontaneous order, also named "self-organization", is

the spontaneous emergence of order out of seeming
chaos. It is a process found in physical, biological, and
social networks, as well as economics, though the term
self-organization is more often used for physical and
biological processes, while spontaneous order is typically used to describe the emergence of various kinds of
social orders from a combination of self-interested individuals who are not intentionally trying to create order through planning. The evolution of life on Earth,
language, crystal structure, the Internet and a free market
economy have all been proposed as examples of systems
which evolved through spontaneous order.[1] Naturalists
often point to the inherent watch-like precision of uncultivated ecosystems and to the universe itself as ultimate examples of this phenomenon.
The thinkers of the Scottish Enlightenment were the rst

to seriously develop and inquire into the idea of the market as a spontaneous order. In 1767, the sociologist and
historian Adam Ferguson described the phenomenon of
spontaneous order in society as the result of human action, but not the execution of any human design.[3][4]
Spontaneous orders are to be distinguished from organizations. Spontaneous orders are distinguished by being
scale-free networks, while organizations are hierarchical
networks. Further, organizations can be and often are a
part of spontaneous social orders, but the reverse is not
true. Further, while organizations are created and controlled by humans, spontaneous orders are created, controlled, and controllable by no one. In economics and the
social sciences, spontaneous order is dened as the result
of human actions, not of human design.
The Austrian School of Economics, led by Carl Menger,

Ludwig von Mises and Friedrich Hayek, would later rene the concept and make it a centerpiece in its social and
economic thought.
4.2 Examples
4.2.1 Markets
Many economic classical liberals, such as Hayek, have
argued that market economies are a spontaneous order,
a more ecient allocation of societal resources than any
design could achieve.[5] They claim this spontaneous order (referred to as the extended order in Hayeks "The Fatal Conceit") is superior to any order a human mind can
design due to the specics of the information required.[6]
Centralized statistical data cannot convey this information because the statistics are created by abstracting away
from the particulars of the situation.[7]
Spontaneous order is also used as a synonym for any

emergent behavior of which self-interested spontaneous In a market economy, price is the aggregation of information acquired when people are free to use their individual
order is just an instance.
knowledge. Price then allows everyone dealing in a commodity or its substitutes to make decisions based on more
information than he or she could personally acquire, information not statistically conveyable to a centralized au4.1 History
thority. Interference from a central authority which afAccording to Murray Rothbard, Zhuangzi (369286 fects price will have consequences they could not foresee
BCE) was the rst to work out the idea of spontaneous because they do not know all of the particulars involved.
order. The philosopher rejected the authoritarianism of
Confucianism, writing that there has been such a thing as
letting mankind alone; there has never been such a thing
as governing mankind [with success]. He articulated an
early form of spontaneous order, asserting that good order results spontaneously when things are let alone, a
This is illustrated in the concept of the invisible hand proposed by Adam Smith in The Wealth of Nations.[1] Thus
in this view by acting on information with greater detail
and accuracy than possible for any centralized authority,
a more ecient economy is created to the benet of a
whole society.
34
4.3. SEE ALSO
35
Lawrence Reed, president of the Foundation for Eco- 4.2.5 Recent developments
nomic Education, describes spontaneous order as follows:
Perhaps the most famous theorist of social spontaneous
orders is Friedrich Hayek. In addition to arguing the
economy is a spontaneous order, which he termed a
Spontaneous order is what happens when
catallaxy, he argued that common law[11] and the brain[12]
you leave people alonewhen entrepreneurs...
are also types of spontaneous orders. In The Republic
see the desires of people... and then provide for
of Science,[13] Michael Polanyi also argued that science
them.
is a spontaneous order, a theory further developed by Bill
They respond to market signals, to prices.
Butos and Thomas McQuade in a variety of papers. Gus
Prices tell them whats needed and how urDiZerega has argued that democracy is the spontaneous
gently and where. And its innitely better and
order form of government,[14] David Emmanuel Andermore productive than relying on a handful of
sson has argued that religion in places like the United
elites in some distant bureaucracy.[8]
States is a spontaneous order,[15] and Troy Camplin argues that artistic and literary production are spontaneous
orders.[16] Paul Krugman too has contributed to spontaneous order theory in his book The Self-Organizing Econ4.2.2 Game studies
omy,[17] in which he claims that cities are self-organizing
systems.
The concept of spontaneous order is closely related with
modern game studies. As early as in the 1940s, historian
Johan Huizinga wrote that in myth and ritual the great instinctive forces of civilized life have their origin: law and 4.3 See also
order, commerce and prot, craft and art, poetry, wisdom
Anonymous
and science. All are rooted in the primeval soil of play.
Following on this in his book The Fatal Conceit, Hayek
Deregulation
notably wrote that a game is indeed a clear instance of a
process wherein obedience to common rules by elements
Extended order
pursuing dierent and even conicting purposes results
Free price system
in overall order.
"I, Pencil" by Leonard Read
4.2.3
Anarchism
Invisible hand
Mutual aid
Anarchists argue that the state is in fact an articial creation of the ruling elite, and that true spontaneous order
would arise if it was eliminated. Construed by some but
not all as the ushering in of organization by anarchist law.
In the anarchist view, such spontaneous order would involve the voluntary cooperation of individuals. According to the Oxford Dictionary of Sociology, the work of
many symbolic interactionists is largely compatible with
the anarchist vision, since it harbours a view of society as
spontaneous order.[9]
4.2.4
Sobornost
The concept of spontaneous order can also be seen in the

works of the Russian Slavophile movements and specically in the works of Fyodor Dostoyevsky. The concept of
an organic social manifestation as a concept in Russia expressed under the idea of sobornost. Sobornost was also
used by Leo Tolstoy as an underpinning to the ideology of
Christian anarchism. The concept was used to describe
the uniting force behind the peasant or serf Obshchina in
pre-Soviet Russia.[10]
Natural law
Natural order
Organised order
Revolutionary spontaneity
Stigmergy
Tragedy of the commons
4.4 References
[1] Norman Barry, The Tradition of Spontaneous Order,
Literature of Liberty: A Review of Contemporary Liberal
Thought, Library of Economics and Liberty, 1982, accessed 2010-12-12
[2] Rothbard, Murray. Concepts of the Role of Intellectuals in
Social Change Toward Laissez Faire, The Journal of Libertarian Studies, Vol IX No. 2 (Fall 1990)
[3] Adam Ferguson on The History of Economic Thought
Website
36
[4] Ferguson, Adam (1767). An Essay on the History of Civil

Society. The Online Library of Liberty: T. Cadell, London. p. 205.
[5] Hayek cited. Petsoulas, Christian. Hayeks Liberalism
and Its Origins: His Idea of Spontaneous Order and the
Scottish Enlightenment. Routledge. 2001. p. 2
[6] Hayek, F.A. The Fatal Conceit: The Errors of Socialism.
The University of Chicago Press. 1991. Page 6.
[7] Hayek cited. Boaz, David. The Libertarian Reader. The
Free Press. 1997. p. 220
[8] Stossel, John (2011-02-10) Spontaneous Order, Reason
[9] Marshall, Gordon; et al. (1998) [1994]. Oxford Dictionary of Sociology (2 ed.). Oxford: Oxford University
Press. pp. 1920. ISBN 0-19-280081-7.
[10] Faith and Order: The Reconciliation of Law and Religion By Harold Joseph pg 388 Berman Wm. B.
Eerdmans Publishing Religion and law ISBN 0-80284852-4 http://books.google.com/books?id=j1208xA7F_
0C&lpg=PA388&ots=p0N6U4zWbf&pg=PA388
[11] The Constitution of Liberty; Law, Legislation and Liberty
[12] The Sensory Order
[13] http://fiesta.bren.ucsb.edu/~{}gsd/595e/docs/41.
%20Polanyi_Republic_of_Science.pdf
[14] Persuasion, Power, and Polity
[15] http://www.amazon.com/
Persuasion-Power-Polity-Democratic-Self-Organization/
dp/1572732571/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=
1302773406&sr=1-4
[16] http://studiesinemergentorder.org/current-issue/
sieo3-195/
[17] The Self-Organizing Economy
4.5 External links

The Tradition of Spontaneous Order, by Norman
Barry, Library of Economics and Liberty
CHAPTER 4. SPONTANEOUS ORDER
Chapter 5
Complex system
This article largely discusses complex systems as a
subject of mathematics and the attempts to emulate
physical complex systems with emergent properties. For
other scientic and professional disciplines addressing
complexity in their elds see the complex systems article
and references.
The notion of self-organizing systems is tied up to work

in nonequilibrium thermodynamics, including that pioneered by chemist and Nobel laureate Ilya Prigogine in
his study of dissipative structures.
5.2 Types of complex systems

A complex system is a system that exhibits some (and
possibly all) of the following characteristics:[1]
5.2.1
Nonlinear systems
The behaviour of non-linear systems is not subject to the

principle of superposition while that of linear systems is
subject to superposition. Thus, a complex nonlinear system is one whose behaviour cannot be expressed as a sum
of the behaviour of its parts (or of their multiples).[5]
feedback loops;
some degree of spontaneous order;
robustness of the order;
emergent organization;
Chaotic systems
numerosity;
[2]
For a dynamical system to be classied as chaotic, it must

have the following properties:[6]
hierarchical organization.
[3]
Examples of complex systems are Earths global climate,

the human brain, social organization, an ecosystem, a living cell, and ultimately the entire universe.
5.1 History
Although it is arguable that humans have been studying
complex systems for thousands of years, the modern scientic study of complex systems is relatively young in
comparison to conventional elds of science with simple system assumptions, such as physics and chemistry.
The history of the scientic study of these systems folAssign z to z2 minus the conjugate of z, plus the original value
lows several dierent research trends.
of the pixel for each pixel, then count how many cycles it took
In the area of mathematics, arguably the largest con- when the absolute value of z exceeds two; inversion (borders are
tribution to the study of complex systems was the dis- inner set), so that you can see that it threatens to fail that third
covery of chaos in deterministic systems, a feature of condition, even if it meets condition two.
certain dynamical systems that is strongly related to
nonlinearity.[4] The study of neural networks was also in1. it must be sensitive to initial conditions,
tegral in advancing the mathematics needed to study com2. it must be topologically mixing, and
plex systems.
37
38
CHAPTER 5. COMPLEX SYSTEM
3. its periodic orbits must be dense.
are made up of cells - all of which are complex systems.
Sensitivity to initial conditions means that each point

in such a system is arbitrarily closely approximated by Dynamic network of multiplicity As well as coupling
other points with signicantly dierent future trajectorules, the dynamic network of a complex sysries. Thus, an arbitrarily small perturbation of the curtem is important.
Small-world or scale-free
rent trajectory may lead to signicantly dierent future
networks[8][9][10] which have many local interactions
behavior.
and a smaller number of inter-area connections are
often employed. Natural complex systems often exhibit such topologies. In the human cortex for ex5.2.2 Complex adaptive systems
ample, we see dense local connectivity and a few
very long axon projections between regions inside
Complex adaptive systems (CAS) are special cases of
the cortex and to other brain regions.
complex systems. They are complex in that they are diverse and made up of multiple interconnected elements
and adaptive in that they have the capacity to change and May produce emergent phenomena Complex systems
may exhibit behaviors that are emergent, which is
learn from experience. Examples of complex adaptive
to say that while the results may be suciently desystems include the stock market, social insect and ant
termined by the activity of the systems basic concolonies, the biosphere and the ecosystem, the brain and
stituents, they may have properties that can only be
the immune system, the cell and the developing embryo,
studied at a higher level. For example, the termites
manufacturing businesses and any human social groupin a mound have physiology, biochemistry and biobased endeavor in a cultural and social system such as
logical development that are at one level of analypolitical parties or communities. This includes some
sis, but their social behavior and mound building is
large-scale online systems, such as collaborative tagging
a property that emerges from the collection of teror social bookmarking systems.
mites and needs to be analysed at a dierent level.
5.3 Topics on complex systems

5.3.1
Features of complex systems
Complex systems may have the following features:
Relationships are non-linear In practical terms, this

means a small perturbation may cause a large eect
(see buttery eect), a proportional eect, or even
no eect at all. In linear systems, eect is always
directly proportional to cause. See nonlinearity.
Cascading Failures Due to the strong coupling be- Relationships contain feedback loops Both negative
tween components in complex systems, a failure in
(damping) and positive (amplifying) feedback are
one or more components can lead to cascading failalways found in complex systems. The eects of an
ures which may have catastrophic consequences on
elements behaviour are fed back to in such a way
the functioning of the system.[7]
that the element itself is altered.
Complex systems may be open Complex systems are
usually open systems that is, they exist in a
thermodynamic gradient and dissipate energy. In
other words, complex systems are frequently far
from energetic equilibrium: but despite this ux,
there may be pattern stability, see synergetics.
Complex systems may have a memory The history of
a complex system may be important. Because complex systems are dynamical systems they change
over time, and prior states may have an inuence on
present states. More formally, complex systems often exhibit hysteresis.
Complex systems may be nested The components of a
complex system may themselves be complex systems. For example, an economy is made up of
organisations, which are made up of people, which
5.4 See also

Biological organisation
Complex (disambiguation)
Complexity (disambiguation)
Dissipative system
Fractal
Innovation buttery
Practopoiesis
System equivalence
5.7. EXTERNAL LINKS
39
5.5 References
Alfred Hbler, Cory Stephenson, Dave Lyon, Ryan

Swindeman (2011). Fabrication and programming
of large physically evolving networks Complexity,
16(5), pp. 78
[1] Ladyman, James; Lambert, James; Wiesner, Karoline

(2013). What is a Complex System?". European Journal
for Philosophy of Science 3: 3367.
[2] Anderson, P. W. (1972).
More is dierent:
Broken symmerty and the nature of the
hierarchical structure of science..
Science
Bibcode:1972Sci...177..393A.
177:
393396.
doi:10.1126/science.177.4047.393.
[3] Simon, Herbert A. (1991). The architecture of complexity. Springer US.
[4] History of Complex Systems
[5] EPSRC description of Non-linear systems retrieved 11
Aug 2015
[6] Hasselblatt, Boris; Anatole Katok (2003). A First Course
in Dynamics: With a Panorama of Recent Developments.
Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-58750-6.
[7] S. V. Buldyrev, R. Parshani, G. Paul, H. E. Stanley,
S. Havlin (2010). Catastrophic cascade of failures in
interdependent networks. Nature 464 (7291): 08932.
arXiv:0907.1182.
Bibcode:2010Natur.464.1025B.
doi:10.1038/nature08932. PMID 20393559.
[8] A. L. Barabasi, R. Albert (2002).
Statistical
mechanics of complex networks.
Rev.
Mod.
Phys 74:
4794.
arXiv:condmat/0106096.
Bibcode:2002RvMP...74...47A.
doi:10.1103/RevModPhys.74.47.
[9] M. Newman (2010). Networks: An Introduction. Oxford
University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-920665-0.
[10] Reuven Cohen, Shlomo Havlin (2010). Complex Networks: Structure, Robustness and Function. Cambridge
University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-84156-6.
5.6 Further reading

Paolo Sibani & Henrik Jeldtoft Jensen (2013).
Stochastic Dynamics of Complex Systems, ISBN 9781-84816-993-7, World Scientic and Imperial College Press.
Chu, Dominique (2011). Complexity: Against Systems. Theory in Biosciences, Springer Verlag.
Rocha, Luis M. (1999). "Complex Systems Modeling: Using Metaphors From Nature in Simulation
and Scientic Models". BITS: Computer and Communications News. Computing, Information, and
Communications Division. Los Alamos National
Laboratory. November 1999
Ignazio Licata & Ammar Sakaji (eds) (2008).
Physics of Emergence and Organization, ISBN 978981-277-994-6, World Scientic and Imperial College Press.
De Toni, Alberto and Comello, Luca (2011). Journey into Complexity. Udine: Lulu. ISBN 978-14452-6078-5.
5.7 External links

Introduction to complex systems-short course by
Shlomo Havlin
Complex systems in scholarpedia.
(European) Complex Systems Society
(Australian) Complex systems research network.
Complex Systems Modeling based on Luis M.
Rocha, 1999.
CRM Complex systems research group
The Center for Complex Systems Research, Univ.
of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
FuturICT - Exploring and Managing our Future
Chapter 6
Integrative level
An integrative level, or level of organization, is a set
of phenomena emerging on pre-existing phenomena of
lower level. Typical examples include life emerging on
non-living substances, and consciousness emerging on
nervous systems.
of a general classication of phenomena has been especially studied by Douglas Foskett for the Classication
Research Group, and by the Integrative Levels Classication project.
6.3 References
6.1 Levels
The main levels usually acknowledged are those of
matter, life, mind, and society. These are called strata
in Nicolai Hartmann's ontology. They can be further analyzed into more specic layers, such as those of particles, atoms, molecules, and rocks forming the material
stratum, or those of cells, organisms, populations, and
ecosystems forming the life stratum.
The sequence of levels is often described as one of increasing complexity, although it is not clear whether this
is always true: for example, parasitism emerges on preexisting organisms, although parasites are often simpler
than their originating forms.
[1] Nikoletseas, Michael M. (2014). Deus Absconditus - The

Hidden God. ISBN 978-1495336225.
Alexander S., Space, time and deity, London, 1920

Blitz D., Emergent evolution: qualitative novelty and
the levels of reality, Kluwer, 1992
Conger G.P., The doctrine of levels, Journal of philosophy, 22: 1925, 12, p. 309-321
Feibleman James K., Theory of integrative levels,
British journal for the philosophy of science, 5:
1954, 17, p. 59-66
Foskett D.J., The theory of integrative levels and its
relevance to the design of information systems, Aslib
proceedings, 30: 1978, 6, p. 202-208
6.2 Philosophies
Integrative levels are discussed variously in the work of
many philosophers, although few have dealt with this
notion in a systematic way; among them are Samuel
Alexander, Alfred North Whitehead, Conwy Lloyd Morgan, George Conger, John G. Bennett, Ervin Laszlo,
Joseph Needham, James K. Feibleman, Nicolai Hartmann, James Grier Miller, Ken Wilber, and Roberto Poli.
Ideas connected to levels can be found in the works of
both materialist philosophers, like Friedrich Engels, and
anti-materialist ones, like Henri Bergson. A recent theory
utilizing concepts from physics and neurophysiology proposes that God can be conceptualized within the theory
of integrative levels.[1]
Integrative levels, or the disciplines focusing on them,
form the main classes of several knowledge organization
systems, including Rogets Thesaurus, the Bliss bibliographic classication, the Colon classication, and the
Information Coding Classication. Their use as the basis
40
Hartmann N., Die Aufbau der realen Welt: Grundriss der allgemeinen Kategorienlehre, De Gruyter,
1940
Hartmann N., New ways of ontology, Greenwood
Press, 1952
Morgan C.L., Emergent evolution, Williams and
Norgate, London 1923
Needham J., Integrative levels: a revaluation of the
idea of progress, in Time: the refreshing river: essays and addresses, 1932-1942, Allen and Unwin,
London 1943, p. 233-272
Noviko A.B., The concept of integrative levels and
biology, Science, 101: 1945, p. 209-215
Pettersson M., Complexity and evolution, Cambridge University Press, 1996
6.3. REFERENCES
Poli R., Levels, Axiomathes, 9: 1998, 1-2. p. 197211
Poli R., The basic problem of the theory of levels of
reality, Axiomathes, 12: 2001, 3-4, p. 261-283
41
Chapter 7
Chaos theory
For other uses, see Chaos Theory (disambiguation).
sensitive to initial conditionsa response popularly reChaos theory is the eld of study in mathematics that ferred to as the buttery eect.[1] Small dierences in
initial conditions (such as those due to rounding errors in
numerical computation) yield widely diverging outcomes
for such dynamical systems, rendering long-term prediction impossible in general.[2] This happens even though
these systems are deterministic, meaning that their future
behavior is fully determined by their initial conditions,
with no random elements involved.[3] In other words, the
deterministic nature of these systems does not make them
predictable.[4][5] This behavior is known as deterministic chaos, or simply chaos. The theory was summarized
by Edward Lorenz as:[6]
Chaos: When the present determines the
future, but the approximate present does not
approximately determine the future.
A plot of Lorenz attractor for values r = 28, = 10, b = 8/3
Chaotic behavior exists in many natural systems, such

as weather and climate.[7][8] This behavior can be studied through analysis of a chaotic mathematical model, or
through analytical techniques such as recurrence plots and
Poincar maps. Chaos theory has applications in several
disciplines, including meteorology, sociology, physics,
engineering, economics, biology, and philosophy.
7.1 Introduction
Chaos theory concerns deterministic systems whose behavior can in principle be predicted. Chaotic systems are
predictable for a while and then 'appear' to become random. The amount of time for which the behavior of a
chaotic system can be eectively predicted depends on
three things: How much uncertainty we are willing to tolerate in the forecast, how accurately we are able to measure its current state, and a time scale depending on the
dynamics of the system, called the Lyapunov time. Some
A double rod pendulum animation showing chaotic behavior.
examples
of Lyapunov times are: chaotic electrical cirStarting the pendulum from a slightly dierent initial condition
cuits,
about
1 millisecond; weather systems, a few days
would result in a completely dierent trajectory. The double
(unproven);
the
solar system, 50 million years. In chaotic
rod pendulum is one of the simplest dynamical systems that has
systems, the uncertainty in a forecast increases exponenchaotic solutions.
tially with elapsed time. Hence, doubling the forecast
studies the behavior of dynamical systems that are highly time more than squares the proportional uncertainty in
42
7.2. CHAOTIC DYNAMICS

the forecast. This means, in practice, a meaningful prediction cannot be made over an interval of more than
two or three times the Lyapunov time. When meaningful predictions cannot be made, the system appears to be
random.[9]
7.2 Chaotic dynamics
43
trajectories. Thus, an arbitrarily small change, or perturbation, of the current trajectory may lead to signicantly
dierent future behavior.
In some cases, the last two properties in the above
have been shown to actually imply sensitivity to initial
conditions,[12][13] and if attention is restricted to intervals,
the second property implies the other two[14] (an alternative, and in general weaker, denition of chaos uses only
the rst two properties in the above list).[15] The most
practically signicant property, sensitivity to initial conditions, is redundant in the denition, since it is implied
by two (or for intervals, one) purely topological properties, which are therefore of greater interest to mathematicians.
Sensitivity to initial conditions is popularly known as the
"buttery eect", so-called because of the title of a paper
given by Edward Lorenz in 1972 to the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Washington,
D.C., entitled Predictability: Does the Flap of a Butterys Wings in Brazil set o a Tornado in Texas?. The apping wing represents a small change in the initial condition of the system, which causes a chain of events leading
to large-scale phenomena. Had the buttery not apped
its wings, the trajectory of the system might have been
vastly dierent.
A consequence of sensitivity to initial conditions is that

if we start with only a nite amount of information about
the system (as is usually the case in practice), then beyond
a certain time the system will no longer be predictable.
The map dened by x 4 x (1 x) and y (x + y) mod 1 This is most familiar in the case of weather, which is gendisplays sensitivity to initial x positions. Here, two series of x and erally predictable only about a week ahead.[16] Of course,
y values diverge markedly over time from a tiny initial dierence.
this does not mean that we cannot say anything about
Note, however, that the y coordinate is eectively only dened
events far in the future; some restrictions on the system
modulo one, so the square region is actually depicting a cylinder,
are present. With weather, we know that the temperature
and the two points are closer than they look
will never reach 100 C or fall to 130 C on earth, but
[10]
we
are not able to say exactly what day we will have the
In common usage, chaos means a state of disorder.
hottest
temperature of the year.
However, in chaos theory, the term is dened more precisely. Although no universally accepted mathematical In more mathematical terms, the Lyapunov exponent
denition of chaos exists, a commonly used denition measures the sensitivity to initial conditions. Given two
originally formulated by Robert L. Devaney says that, for starting trajectories in the phase space that are innitesia dynamical system to be classied as chaotic, it must mally close, with initial separation Z0 end up diverging
have these properties:[11]
at a rate given by
1. it must be sensitive to initial conditions
2. it must be topologically mixing
|Z(t)| et |Z0 |
where t is the time and is the Lyapunov exponent. The

rate of separation depends on the orientation of the initial separation vector, so a whole spectrum of Lyapunov
exponents exist. The number of Lyapunov exponents is
equal to the number of dimensions of the phase space,
7.2.1 Sensitivity to initial conditions
though it is common to just refer to the largest one. For
Main article: Buttery eect
example, the maximal Lyapunov exponent (MLE) is most
often used because it determines the overall predictabilSensitivity to initial conditions means that each point ity of the system. A positive MLE is usually taken as an
in a chaotic system is arbitrarily closely approximated by indication that the system is chaotic.
other points with signicantly dierent future paths, or Also, other properties relate to sensitivity of initial con3. it must have dense periodic orbits
44
CHAPTER 7. CHAOS THEORY
ditions, such as measure-theoretical mixing (as discussed example, 58 5 5+8 5 58 5 (or approximately
in ergodic theory) and properties of a K-system.[5]
0.3454915 0.9045085 0.3454915) is an (unstable) orbit of period 2, and similar orbits exist for periods 4, 8, 16, etc. (indeed, for all the periods specied by
7.2.2 Topological mixing
Sharkovskiis theorem).[18]
Sharkovskiis theorem is the basis of the Li and Yorke[19]
(1975) proof that any one-dimensional system that exhibits a regular cycle of period three will also display regular cycles of every other length, as well as completely
chaotic orbits.
7.2.4 Strange attractors
The map dened by x 4 x (1 x) and y (x + y) mod 1 also

displays topological mixing. Here, the blue region is transformed
by the dynamics rst to the purple region, then to the pink and
red regions, and eventually to a cloud of vertical lines scattered
across the space.
Topological mixing (or topological transitivity) means

that the system will evolve over time so that any given region or open set of its phase space will eventually overlap
with any other given region. This mathematical concept
of mixing corresponds to the standard intuition, and the
mixing of colored dyes or uids is an example of a chaotic
system.
The Lorenz attractor displays chaotic behavior. These two plots

demonstrate sensitive dependence on initial conditions within the
region of phase space occupied by the attractor.
Some dynamical systems, like the one-dimensional

logistic map dened by x 4 x (1 x), are chaotic everywhere, but in many cases chaotic behavior is found
only in a subset of phase space. The cases of most interest arise when the chaotic behavior takes place on an
Topological mixing is often omitted from popular ac- attractor, since then a large set of initial conditions will
counts of chaos, which equate chaos with only sensitiv- lead to orbits that converge to this chaotic region.
ity to initial conditions. However, sensitive dependence
An easy way to visualize a chaotic attractor is to start with
on initial conditions alone does not give chaos. For exa point in the basin of attraction of the attractor, and then
ample, consider the simple dynamical system produced
simply plot its subsequent orbit. Because of the topologiby repeatedly doubling an initial value. This system has
cal transitivity condition, this is likely to produce a picture
sensitive dependence on initial conditions everywhere,
of the entire nal attractor, and indeed both orbits shown
since any pair of nearby points will eventually become
in the gure on the right give a picture of the general
widely separated. However, this example has no topologshape of the Lorenz attractor. This attractor results from
ical mixing, and therefore has no chaos. Indeed, it has
a simple three-dimensional model of the Lorenz weather
extremely simple behavior: all points except 0 will tend
system. The Lorenz attractor is perhaps one of the bestto positive or negative innity.
known chaotic system diagrams, probably because it was
not only one of the rst, but it is also one of the most
complex and as such gives rise to a very interesting pat7.2.3 Density of periodic orbits
tern, that with a little imagination, looks like the wings of
For a chaotic system to have a dense periodic orbit means a buttery.
that every point in the space is approached arbitrarily closely by periodic orbits.[17] The one-dimensional
logistic map dened by x 4 x (1 x) is one of the
simplest systems with density of periodic orbits. For
Unlike xed-point attractors and limit cycles, the attractors that arise from chaotic systems, known as strange attractors, have great detail and complexity. Strange attractors occur in both continuous dynamical systems (such as
7.2. CHAOTIC DYNAMICS

the Lorenz system) and in some discrete systems (such as
the Hnon map). Other discrete dynamical systems have
a repelling structure called a Julia set which forms at the
boundary between basins of attraction of xed points
Julia sets can be thought of as strange repellers. Both
strange attractors and Julia sets typically have a fractal
structure, and the fractal dimension can be calculated for
them.
7.2.5
45
a three-dimensional system with just ve terms, that had
only one nonlinear term, which exhibits chaos for certain
parameter values. Zhang and Heidel [21][22] showed that,
at least for dissipative and conservative quadratic systems,
three-dimensional quadratic systems with only three or
four terms on the right-hand side cannot exhibit chaotic
behavior. The reason is, simply put, that solutions to such
systems are asymptotic to a two-dimensional surface and
therefore solutions are well behaved.
Minimum complexity of a chaotic While the PoincarBendixson theorem shows that a continuous dynamical system on the Euclidean plane cansystem
not be chaotic, two-dimensional continuous systems with
non-Euclidean geometry can exhibit chaotic behavior.[23]
Perhaps surprisingly, chaos may occur also in linear systems, provided they are innite dimensional.[24] A theory
of linear chaos is being developed in a branch of mathematical analysis known as functional analysis.
7.2.6 Jerk systems

In physics, jerk is the third derivative of position, and as
such, in mathematics dierential equations of the form
Bifurcation diagram of the logistic map x r x (1 x). Each

vertical slice shows the attractor for a specic value of r. The
diagram displays period-doubling as r increases, eventually producing chaos.
(...
)
J x, x
, x,
x =0
are sometimes called Jerk equations. It has been shown,
that a jerk equation, which is equivalent to a system of
three rst order, ordinary, non-linear dierential equations is in a certain sense the minimal setting for solutions showing chaotic behaviour. This motivates mathematical interest in jerk systems. Systems involving a
fourth or higher derivative are called accordingly hyperjerk systems.[25]
Discrete chaotic systems, such as the logistic map, can

exhibit strange attractors whatever their dimensionality.
In contrast, for continuous dynamical systems, the
PoincarBendixson theorem shows that a strange attractor can only arise in three or more dimensions. Finitedimensional linear systems are never chaotic; for a dy- A jerk systems behavior is described by a jerk equation,
namical system to display chaotic behavior, it has to be and for certain jerk equations, simple electronic circuits
either nonlinear or innite-dimensional.
may be designed which model the solutions to this equaThe PoincarBendixson theorem states that a two- tion. These circuits are known as jerk circuits.
dimensional dierential equation has very regular behav- One of the most interesting properties of jerk circuits is
ior. The Lorenz attractor discussed above is generated by the possibility of chaotic behavior. In fact, certain wella system of three dierential equations such as:
known chaotic systems, such as the Lorenz attractor and
dx
= y x,
dt
dy
= x xz y,
dt
dz
= xy z.
dt
the Rssler map, are conventionally described as a system

of three rst-order dierential equations, but which may
be combined into a single (although rather complicated)
jerk equation. Nonlinear jerk systems are in a sense minimally complex systems to show chaotic behaviour, there
is no chaotic system involving only two rst-order, ordinary dierential equations (the system resulting in an
equation of second order only).
where x , y , and z make up the system state, t is time, An example of a jerk equation with nonlinearity in the
and , , are the system parameters. Five of the terms magnitude of x is:
on the right hand side are linear, while two are quadratic;
a total of seven terms. Another well-known chaotic attractor is generated by the Rossler equations which have d3 x
d2 x dx
only one nonlinear term out of seven. Sprott [20] found dt3 + A dt2 + dt |x| + 1 = 0.
46
Here, A is an adjustable parameter. This equation has

a chaotic solution for A=3/5 and can be implemented
with the following jerk circuit; the required nonlinearity
is brought about by the two diodes:
Barnsley fern created using the chaos game. Natural forms
In the above circuit, all resistors are of equal value, except (ferns, clouds, mountains, etc.) may be recreated through an
RA = R/A = 5R/3 , and all capacitors are of equal Iterated function system (IFS).
size. The dominant frequency will be 1/2RC . The
output of op amp 0 will correspond to the x variable, the
output of 1 will correspond to the rst derivative of x and
case of Birkho, turbulence and astronomical problems
the output of 2 will correspond to the second derivative.
in the case of Kolmogorov, and radio engineering in the
case of Cartwright and Littlewood. Although chaotic
planetary motion had not been observed, experimental7.3 Spontaneous order
ists had encountered turbulence in uid motion and nonperiodic oscillation in radio circuits without the benet of
Under the right conditions, chaos will spontaneously a theory to explain what they were seeing.
evolve into a lockstep pattern. In the Kuramoto model, Despite initial insights in the rst half of the twentieth
four conditions suce to produce synchronization in a century, chaos theory became formalized as such only afchaotic system. Examples include the coupled oscillation ter mid-century, when it rst became evident to some sciof Christiaan Huygens' pendulums, reies, neurons, the entists that linear theory, the prevailing system theory at
London Millenium Bridge resonance, and large arrays of that time, simply could not explain the observed behavior
Josephson junctions.[26]
of certain experiments like that of the logistic map. What
had been attributed to measure imprecision and simple
"noise" was considered by chaos theorists as a full component of the studied systems.
7.4 History
The main catalyst for the development of chaos theory
was the electronic computer. Much of the mathematics
of chaos theory involves the repeated iteration of simple
mathematical formulas, which would be impractical to
do by hand. Electronic computers made these repeated
calculations practical, while gures and images made it
possible to visualize these systems. As a graduate student in Chihiro Hayashi's laboratory at Kyoto University,
Yoshisuke Ueda was experimenting with analog computers and noticed, on Nov. 27, 1961, what he called randomly transitional phenomena. Yet his advisor did not
agree with his conclusions at the time, and did not allow
[36][37]
Chaos theory got its start in the eld of ergodic theory. him to report his ndings until 1970.
Later studies, also on the topic of nonlinear dierential An early pioneer of the theory was Edward Lorenz whose
equations, were carried out by George David Birkho,[30] interest in chaos came about accidentally through his
Andrey Nikolaevich Kolmogorov,[31][32][33] Mary Lucy work on weather prediction in 1961.[7] Lorenz was usCartwright and John Edensor Littlewood,[34] and Stephen ing a simple digital computer, a Royal McBee LGP-30,
Smale.[35] Except for Smale, these studies were all di- to run his weather simulation. He wanted to see a serectly inspired by physics: the three-body problem in the quence of data again and to save time he started the simAn early proponent of chaos theory was Henri Poincar.
In the 1880s, while studying the three-body problem,
he found that there can be orbits that are nonperiodic,
and yet not forever increasing nor approaching a xed
point.[27][28] In 1898 Jacques Hadamard published an inuential study of the chaotic motion of a free particle gliding frictionlessly on a surface of constant negative curvature, called "Hadamards billiards".[29] Hadamard was
able to show that all trajectories are unstable, in that all
particle trajectories diverge exponentially from one another, with a positive Lyapunov exponent.
7.4. HISTORY
47
ing device.[43] Arguing that a ball of twine appears to be
a point when viewed from far away (0-dimensional), a
ball when viewed from fairly near (3-dimensional), or a
curved strand (1-dimensional), he argued that the dimensions of an object are relative to the observer and may be
fractional. An object whose irregularity is constant over
dierent scales (self-similarity) is a fractal (examples
include the Menger sponge, the Sierpiski gasket, and
the Koch curve or snowake, which is innitely long
yet encloses a nite space and has a fractal dimension of
circa 1.2619). In 1982 Mandelbrot published The Fractal Geometry of Nature, which became a classic of chaos
theory. Biological systems such as the branching of the
circulatory and bronchial systems proved to t a fractal
model.[44]
Turbulence in the tip vortex from an airplane wing. Studies of

the critical point beyond which a system creates turbulence were
important for chaos theory, analyzed for example by the Soviet
physicist Lev Landau, who developed the Landau-Hopf theory
of turbulence. David Ruelle and Floris Takens later predicted,
against Landau, that uid turbulence could develop through a
strange attractor, a main concept of chaos theory.
ulation in the middle of its course. He was able to do

this by entering a printout of the data corresponding to
conditions in the middle of his simulation which he had
calculated last time. To his surprise the weather that the
machine began to predict was completely dierent from
the weather calculated before. Lorenz tracked this down
to the computer printout. The computer worked with 6digit precision, but the printout rounded variables o to
a 3-digit number, so a value like 0.506127 was printed
as 0.506. This dierence is tiny and the consensus at
the time would have been that it should have had practically no eect. However, Lorenz had discovered that
small changes in initial conditions produced large changes
in the long-term outcome.[38] Lorenzs discovery, which
gave its name to Lorenz attractors, showed that even detailed atmospheric modelling cannot, in general, make
precise long-term weather predictions.
In 1963, Benoit Mandelbrot found recurring patterns at
every scale in data on cotton prices.[39] Beforehand he
had studied information theory and concluded noise was
patterned like a Cantor set: on any scale the proportion of
noise-containing periods to error-free periods was a constant thus errors were inevitable and must be planned for
by incorporating redundancy.[40] Mandelbrot described
both the Noah eect (in which sudden discontinuous
changes can occur) and the Joseph eect (in which persistence of a value can occur for a while, yet suddenly
change afterwards).[41][42] This challenged the idea that
changes in price were normally distributed. In 1967,
he published "How long is the coast of Britain? Statistical self-similarity and fractional dimension", showing that a coastlines length varies with the scale of the
measuring instrument, resembles itself at all scales, and
is innite in length for an innitesimally small measur-
In December 1977, the New York Academy of Sciences

organized the rst symposium on Chaos, attended by
David Ruelle, Robert May, James A. Yorke (coiner of
the term chaos as used in mathematics), Robert Shaw,
and the meteorologist Edward Lorenz. The following
year, independently Pierre Coullet and Charles Tresser
with the article Iterations d'endomorphismes et groupe
de renormalisation and Mitchell Feigenbaum with the
article Quantitative Universality for a Class of Nonlinear Transformations described logistic maps.[45][46]
They notably discovered the universality in chaos, permitting the application of chaos theory to many dierent
phenomena.
In 1979, Albert J. Libchaber, during a symposium organized in Aspen by Pierre Hohenberg, presented his experimental observation of the bifurcation cascade that leads
to chaos and turbulence in RayleighBnard convection
systems. He was awarded the Wolf Prize in Physics in
1986 along with Mitchell J. Feigenbaum for their inspiring achievements.[47]
In 1986, the New York Academy of Sciences coorganized with the National Institute of Mental Health
and the Oce of Naval Research the rst important
conference on chaos in biology and medicine. There,
Bernardo Huberman presented a mathematical model of
the eye tracking disorder among schizophrenics.[48] This
led to a renewal of physiology in the 1980s through the
application of chaos theory, for example, in the study of
pathological cardiac cycles.
In 1987, Per Bak, Chao Tang and Kurt Wiesenfeld published a paper in Physical Review Letters[49] describing for
the rst time self-organized criticality (SOC), considered
to be one of the mechanisms by which complexity arises
in nature.
Alongside largely lab-based approaches such as the Bak
TangWiesenfeld sandpile, many other investigations
have focused on large-scale natural or social systems that
are known (or suspected) to display scale-invariant behavior. Although these approaches were not always welcomed (at least initially) by specialists in the subjects
examined, SOC has nevertheless become established as
48
a strong candidate for explaining a number of natural
phenomena, including earthquakes (which, long before
SOC was discovered, were known as a source of scaleinvariant behavior such as the GutenbergRichter law describing the statistical distribution of earthquake sizes,
and the Omori law[50] describing the frequency of aftershocks), solar ares, uctuations in economic systems
such as nancial markets (references to SOC are common in econophysics), landscape formation, forest res,
landslides, epidemics, and biological evolution (where
SOC has been invoked, for example, as the dynamical mechanism behind the theory of "punctuated equilibria" put forward by Niles Eldredge and Stephen Jay
Gould). Given the implications of a scale-free distribution of event sizes, some researchers have suggested that
another phenomenon that should be considered an example of SOC is the occurrence of wars. These investigations of SOC have included both attempts at modelling
(either developing new models or adapting existing ones
to the specics of a given natural system), and extensive
data analysis to determine the existence and/or characteristics of natural scaling laws.
In the same year, James Gleick published Chaos: Making a New Science, which became a best-seller and introduced the general principles of chaos theory as well as
its history to the broad public, though his history underemphasized important Soviet contributions.[51] Initially
the domain of a few, isolated individuals, chaos theory
progressively emerged as a transdisciplinary and institutional discipline, mainly under the name of nonlinear systems analysis. Alluding to Thomas Kuhn's concept of a
paradigm shift exposed in The Structure of Scientic Revolutions (1962), many chaologists (as some described
themselves) claimed that this new theory was an example
of such a shift, a thesis upheld by Gleick.

system always evolves in the same way from a given
starting point.[53][55] Thus, given a time series to test for
determinism, one can
1. pick a test state;

2. search the time series for a similar or nearby state;
and
3. compare their respective time evolutions.
Dene the error as the dierence between the time evolution of the test state and the time evolution of the nearby
state. A deterministic system will have an error that either remains small (stable, regular solution) or increases
exponentially with time (chaos). A stochastic system will
have a randomly distributed error.[56]
Essentially, all measures of determinism taken from time
series rely upon nding the closest states to a given test
state (e.g., correlation dimension, Lyapunov exponents,
etc.). To dene the state of a system, one typically relies on phase space embedding methods such as Poincar
plots.[57] Typically one chooses an embedding dimension
and investigates the propagation of the error between two
nearby states. If the error looks random, one increases the
dimension. If the dimension can be increased to obtain
a deterministically looking error, then analysis is done.
Though it may sound simple, one complication is that as
the dimension increases, the search for a nearby state requires a lot more computation time and a lot of data (the
amount of data required increases exponentially with embedding dimension) to nd a suitably close candidate. If
the embedding dimension (number of measures per state)
is chosen too small (less than the true value), deterministic data can appear to be random, but in theory there
is no problem choosing the dimension too large the
method will work.
The availability of cheaper, more powerful computers broadens the applicability of chaos theory. Currently, chaos theory continues to be a very active
area of research,[52] involving many dierent disciplines (mathematics, topology, physics, social systems,
population modeling, biology, meteorology, astrophysics, When a nonlinear deterministic system is attended by
information theory, computational neuroscience, etc.).
external uctuations, its trajectories present serious and
permanent distortions. Furthermore, the noise is amplied due to the inherent nonlinearity and reveals totally
7.5 Distinguishing random from new dynamical properties. Statistical tests attempting
to separate noise from the deterministic skeleton or inchaotic data
versely isolate the deterministic part risk failure. Things
become worse when the deterministic component is a
It can be dicult to tell from data whether a physical or nonlinear feedback system.[58] In presence of interactions
other observed process is random or chaotic, because in between nonlinear deterministic components and noise,
practice no time series consists of a pure signal. There the resulting nonlinear series can display dynamics that
will always be some form of corrupting noise, even if traditional tests for nonlinearity are sometimes not able
it is present as round-o or truncation error. Thus any to capture.[59]
real time series, even if mostly deterministic, will contain The question of how to distinguish deterministic chaotic
some (pseudo-)randomness.[53][54]
systems from stochastic systems has also been discussed
All methods for distinguishing deterministic and in philosophy. It has been shown that they might be
stochastic processes rely on the fact that a deterministic observationally equivalent.[60]
7.6. APPLICATIONS
49
ecological systems, such as hydrology. While a chaotic
model for hydrology has its shortcomings, there is still
much to be learned from looking at the data through the
lens of chaos theory.[78] Another biological application is
found in cardiotocography. Fetal surveillance is a delicate balance of obtaining accurate information while being as noninvasive as possible. Better models of warning signs of fetal hypoxia can be obtained through chaotic
modeling.[79]
7.6.3 Other areas

A conus textile shell, similar in appearance to Rule 30, a cellular
automaton with chaotic behaviour.[61]
7.6 Applications
Chaos theory was born from observing weather patterns, but it has become applicable to a variety of
other situations. Some areas beneting from chaos
theory today are geology, mathematics, microbiology,
biology, computer science, economics,[62][63][64]
engineering,[65] nance,[66][67] algorithmic trading,[68][69][70] meteorology, philosophy, physics, politics,
population dynamics,[71] psychology, and robotics. A
few categories are listed below with examples, but this
is by no means a comprehensive list as new applications
are appearing.
7.6.1
Computer science
In chemistry, predicting gas solubility is essential to manufacturing polymers, but models using particle swarm optimization (PSO) tend to converge to the wrong points.
An improved version of PSO has been created by introducing chaos, which keeps the simulations from getting stuck.[80] In celestial mechanics, especially when observing asteroids, applying chaos theory leads to better predictions about when these objects will come in
range of Earth and other planets.[81] In quantum physics
and electrical engineering, the study of large arrays
of Josephson junctions benetted greatly from chaos
theory.[82] Closer to home, coal mines have always been
dangerous places where frequent natural gas leaks cause
many deaths. Until recently, there was no reliable way to
predict when they would occur. But these gas leaks have
chaotic tendencies that, when properly modeled, can be
predicted fairly accurately.[83]
Chaos theory can be applied outside of the natural sciences. By adapting a model of career counseling to include a chaotic interpretation of the relationship between
employees and the job market, better suggestions can
be made to people struggling with career decisions.[84]
Modern organizations are increasingly seen as open complex adaptive systems, with fundamental natural nonlinear structures, subject to internal and external forces
which may be sources of chaos. The chaos metaphor
used in verbal theoriesgrounded on mathematical models and psychological aspects of human behavior provides
helpful insights to describing the complexity of small
work groups, that go beyond the metaphor itself.[85]
Chaos theory is not new to computer science and has

been used for many years in cryptography. One type
of encryption, secret key or symmetric key, relies on
diusion and confusion, which is modeled well by chaos
theory.[72] Another type of computing, DNA computing, when paired with chaos theory, oers a more efcient way to encrypt images and other information.[73]
Robotics is another area that has recently beneted from
chaos theory. Instead of robots acting in a trial-and-error
type of renement to interact with their environment,
It is possible that economic models can also be improved
chaos theory has been used to build a predictive model.[74]
through an application of chaos theory, but predicting the
Chaotic dynamics have been exhibited by passive walking
health of an economic system and what factors inuence
biped robots.[75]
it most is an extremely complex task.[86] Economic and nancial systems are fundamentally dierent from those in
the physical and natural sciences since the former are in7.6.2 Biology
herently stochastic in nature, as they result from the interFor over a hundred years, biologists have been keeping actions of people, and thus pure deterministic models are
track of populations of dierent species with population unlikely to provide accurate representations of the data.
models. Most models are continuous, but recently sci- The empirical literature that tests for chaos in economics
entists have been able to implement chaotic models in and nance presents very mixed results, in part due to
and more gencertain populations.[76] For example, a study on models confusion between specic tests for chaos
[87]
eral
tests
for
non-linear
relationships.
of Canadian lynx showed there was chaotic behavior in
the population growth.[77] Chaos can also be found in Trac forecasting is another area that greatly benets
50
[6] Danforth, Christopher M. (April 2013). Chaos in an

Atmosphere Hanging on a Wall. Mathematics of Planet
Earth 2013. Retrieved 4 April 2013.
[7] Lorenz, Edward N. (1963). Deterministic non-periodic
ow. Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences 20 (2): 130
141. Bibcode:1963JAtS...20..130L. doi:10.1175/15200469(1963)020<0130:DNF>2.0.CO;2.
[8] Ivancevic, Vladimir G.; Tijana T. Ivancevic (2008).
Complex nonlinearity: chaos, phase transitions, topology
change, and path integrals. Springer. ISBN 978-3-54079356-4.
The red cars and blue cars take turns to move; the red ones only
move upwards, and the blue ones move rightwards. Every time,
all the cars of the same colour try to move one step if there is
no car in front of it. Here, the model has self-organized in a
somewhat geometric pattern where there are some trac jams
and some areas where cars can move at top speed.
[9] Sync: The Emerging Science of Spontaneous Order, Steven

Strogatz, Hyperion, New York, 2003, pages 189-190.
[10] Denition of chaos at Wiktionary;
[11] Hasselblatt, Boris; Anatole Katok (2003). A First Course
in Dynamics: With a Panorama of Recent Developments.
[12] Elaydi, Saber N. (1999). Discrete Chaos. Chapman &
Hall/CRC. p. 117. ISBN 1-58488-002-3.

from applications of chaos theory. Better predictions
of when trac will occur would allow measures to be
[13] Basener, William F. (2006). Topology and its applicataken for it to be dispersed before the trac starts, rather
tions. Wiley. p. 42. ISBN 0-471-68755-3.
than after. Combining chaos theory principles with a few
other methods has led to a more accurate short-term pre- [14] Vellekoop, Michel; Berglund, Raoul (April 1994). On
diction model (see the plot of the BML trac model at
Intervals, Transitivity = Chaos. The American Matheright).[88]
matical Monthly 101 (4): 3535. doi:10.2307/2975629.
JSTOR 2975629.
Chaos theory also nds applications in psychology. For

example, in modeling group behavior in which heteroge- [15] Medio, Alfredo; Lines, Marji (2001). Nonlinear Dynamneous members may behave as if sharing to dierent deics: A Primer. Cambridge University Press. p. 165. ISBN
grees what in Wilfred Bion's theory is a basic assumption,
0-521-55874-3.
the group dynamics is the result of the individual dynamics of the members: each individual reproduces the group [16] Watts, Robert G. (2007). Global Warming and the Future
of the Earth. Morgan & Claypool. p. 17.
dynamics in a dierent scale, and the chaotic behavior of
[89]
the group is reected in each member.
[17] Devaney 2003
[18] Alligood, Sauer & Yorke 1997
7.7 See also

7.8 References
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[3] Kellert 1993, p. 56
[4] Kellert 1993, p. 62
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7.9. SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE
53
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the Canadian lynx data: a close look at BDS statistic.
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7.9.1 Articles
Sharkovskii, A.N. (1964). Co-existence of cycles
of a continuous mapping of the line into itself.
Ukrainian Math. J. 16: 6171.
Li, T.Y.; Yorke, J.A. (1975). Period Three Implies Chaos. American Mathematical Monthly 82
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Crutcheld; Tucker; Morrison; J.D.; Packard;
N.H.; Shaw; R.S (December 1986). Chaos.
Scientic American 255 (6): 3849 (bibliography
p.136). Bibcode:1986SciAm.255...38T. Online
version (Note: the volume and page citation cited for
the online text dier from that cited here. The citation here is from a photocopy, which is consistent
with other citations found online, but which don't
provide article views. The online content is identical to the hardcopy text. Citation variations will be
related to country of publication).
Kolyada, S.F. (2004). Li-Yorke sensitivity and
other concepts of chaos. Ukrainian Math. J. 56
(8): 124257. doi:10.1007/s11253-005-0055-4.
Strelio, C.; Hbler, A. (2006). Medium-Term
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doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.96.044101.
PMID
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Hbler, A.; Foster, G.; Phelps, K. (2007).
Managing Chaos: Thinking out of the Box (PDF).
Complexity 12 (3): 1013. doi:10.1002/cplx.20159.
7.9.2 Textbooks
Alligood, K.T.; Sauer, T.; Yorke, J.A. (1997).
Chaos: an introduction to dynamical systems.
Springer-Verlag. ISBN 0-387-94677-2.
Baker, G. L. (1996). Chaos, Scattering and Statistical Mechanics. Cambridge University Press. ISBN
0-521-39511-9.
Badii, R.; Politi A. (1997). Complexity: hierarchical
structures and scaling in physics. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-66385-7.
54
Bunde; Havlin, Shlomo, eds. (1996). Fractals and
Disordered Systems. Springer. ISBN 3642848702.
and Bunde; Havlin, Shlomo, eds. (1994). Fractals
in Science. Springer. ISBN 3-540-56220-6.
Collet, Pierre, and Eckmann, Jean-Pierre (1980). Iterated Maps on the Interval as Dynamical Systems.
Birkhauser. ISBN 0-8176-4926-3.
Devaney, Robert L. (2003). An Introduction to
Chaotic Dynamical Systems (2nd ed.). Westview
Press. ISBN 0-8133-4085-3.
Gollub, J. P.; Baker, G. L. (1996). Chaotic dynamics. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-52147685-2.

Thompson J M T, Stewart H B (2001). Nonlinear
Dynamics And Chaos. John Wiley and Sons Ltd.
ISBN 0-471-87645-3.
Tullaro; Reilly (1992). An experimental approach
to nonlinear dynamics and chaos. Addison-Wesley.
ISBN 0-201-55441-0.
Wiggins, Stephen (2003). Introduction to Applied
Dynamical Systems and Chaos. Springer. ISBN 0387-00177-8.
Zaslavsky, George M. (2005). Hamiltonian Chaos
and Fractional Dynamics. Oxford University Press.
ISBN 0-19-852604-0.
Guckenheimer, John; Holmes, Philip (1983). Non- 7.9.3 Semitechnical and popular works
linear Oscillations, Dynamical Systems, and Bifur Christophe Letellier, Chaos in Nature, World Scications of Vector Fields. Springer-Verlag. ISBN 0entic Publishing Company, 2012, ISBN 978-981387-90819-6.
4374-42-2.
Gulick, Denny (1992). Encounters with Chaos.
McGraw-Hill. ISBN 0-07-025203-3.
Gutzwiller, Martin (1990). Chaos in Classical and
Quantum Mechanics. Springer-Verlag. ISBN 0387-97173-4.
Hoover, William Graham (2001) [1999]. Time Reversibility, Computer Simulation, and Chaos. World
Scientic. ISBN 981-02-4073-2.
Kautz, Richard (2011). Chaos: The Science of Predictable Random Motion. Oxford University Press.
ISBN 978-0-19-959458-0.
Kiel, L. Douglas; Elliott, Euel W. (1997). Chaos
Theory in the Social Sciences. Perseus Publishing.
ISBN 0-472-08472-0.
Moon, Francis (1990). Chaotic and Fractal Dynamics. Springer-Verlag. ISBN 0-471-54571-6.
Abraham, Ralph H.; Ueda, Yoshisuke, eds. (2000).

The Chaos Avant-Garde: Memoirs of the Early Days
of Chaos Theory. World Scientic. ISBN 978-981238-647-2.
Barnsley, Michael F. (2000). Fractals Everywhere.
Morgan Kaufmann. ISBN 978-0-12-079069-2.
Bird, Richard J. (2003). Chaos and Life: Complexit
and Order in Evolution and Thought. Columbia University Press. ISBN 978-0-231-12662-5.
John Briggs and David Peat, Turbulent Mirror: : An
Illustrated Guide to Chaos Theory and the Science of
Wholeness, Harper Perennial 1990, 224 pp.
John Briggs and David Peat, Seven Life Lessons
of Chaos: Spiritual Wisdom from the Science of
Change, Harper Perennial 2000, 224 pp.
Ott, Edward (2002). Chaos in Dynamical Systems.

Cunningham, Lawrence A. (1994). From Random

Walks to Chaotic Crashes: The Linear Genealogy
of the Ecient Capital Market Hypothesis. George
Washington Law Review 62: 546.
Strogatz, Steven (2000). Nonlinear Dynamics and

Chaos. Perseus Publishing. ISBN 0-7382-0453-6.
Predrag Cvitanovi, Universality in Chaos, Adam

Hilger 1989, 648 pp.
Sprott, Julien Clinton (2003). Chaos and TimeSeries Analysis. Oxford University Press. ISBN 019-850840-9.
Leon Glass and Michael C. Mackey, From Clocks to

Chaos: The Rhythms of Life, Princeton University
Press 1988, 272 pp.
Tl, Tams; Gruiz, Mrton (2006). Chaotic dynamics: An introduction based on classical mechanics.
Teschl, Gerald (2012).
Ordinary Dierential
Equations and Dynamical Systems. Providence:
American Mathematical Society. ISBN 978-08218-8328-0.
James Gleick, Chaos: Making a New Science, New

York: Penguin, 1988. 368 pp.
John Gribbin. Deep Simplicity. Penguin Press Science. Penguin Books.
L Douglas Kiel, Euel W Elliott (ed.), Chaos Theory
in the Social Sciences: Foundations and Applications,
University of Michigan Press, 1997, 360 pp.

Arvind Kumar, Chaos, Fractals and SelfOrganisation; New Perspectives on Complexity
in Nature , National Book Trust, 2003.
Hans Lauwerier, Fractals, Princeton University
Press, 1991.
Edward Lorenz, The Essence of Chaos, University
of Washington Press, 1996.
Alan Marshall (2002) The Unity of Nature: Wholeness and Disintegration in Ecology and Science, Imperial College Press: London
Heinz-Otto Peitgen and Dietmar Saupe (Eds.), The
Science of Fractal Images, Springer 1988, 312 pp.
Cliord A. Pickover, Computers, Pattern, Chaos,
and Beauty: Graphics from an Unseen World , St
Martins Pr 1991.
Ilya Prigogine and Isabelle Stengers, Order Out of
Chaos, Bantam 1984.
Heinz-Otto Peitgen and P. H. Richter, The Beauty
of Fractals : Images of Complex Dynamical Systems,
Springer 1986, 211 pp.
55
7.10 External links

Hazewinkel, Michiel, ed.
(2001), Chaos,
Encyclopedia of Mathematics, Springer, ISBN 9781-55608-010-4
Nonlinear Dynamics Research Group with Animations in Flash
The Chaos group at the University of Maryland
The Chaos Hypertextbook. An introductory primer
on chaos and fractals
ChaosBook.org An advanced graduate textbook on
chaos (no fractals)
Society for Chaos Theory in Psychology & Life Sciences
Nonlinear Dynamics Research Group at CSDC,
Florence Italy
Interactive live chaotic pendulum experiment, allows users to interact and sample data from a real
working damped driven chaotic pendulum
Nonlinear dynamics: how science comprehends
chaos, talk presented by Sunny Auyang, 1998.
David Ruelle, Chance and Chaos, Princeton University Press 1993.
Nonlinear Dynamics. Models of bifurcation and

chaos by Elmer G. Wiens
Ivars Peterson, Newtons Clock: Chaos in the Solar

System, Freeman, 1993.
Gleicks Chaos (excerpt)
Ian Roulstone and John Norbury (2013). Invisible

in the Storm: the role of mathematics in understanding weather. Princeton University Press. ISBN
0691152721.
David Ruelle, Chaotic Evolution and Strange Attractors, Cambridge University Press, 1989.
Peter Smith, Explaining Chaos, Cambridge University Press, 1998.
Ian Stewart, Does God Play Dice?: The Mathematics
of Chaos , Blackwell Publishers, 1990.
Steven Strogatz, Sync: The emerging science of spontaneous order, Hyperion, 2003.
Yoshisuke Ueda, The Road To Chaos, Aerial Pr,
1993.
M. Mitchell Waldrop, Complexity : The Emerging
Science at the Edge of Order and Chaos, Simon &
Schuster, 1992.
Sawaya, Antonio (2010). Financial time series analysis : Chaos and neurodynamics approach.
Systems Analysis, Modelling and Prediction Group

at the University of Oxford
A page about the Mackey-Glass equation
High Anxieties The Mathematics of Chaos
(2008) BBC documentary directed by David Malone
The chaos theory of evolution - article published in
Newscientist featuring similarities of evolution and
non-linear systems including fractal nature of life
and chaos.
Jos Leys, tienne Ghys et Aurlien Alvarez, Chaos,
A Mathematical Adventure. Nine lms about dynamical systems, the buttery eect and chaos theory, intended for a wide audience.
Chapter 8
Emergence (disambiguation)
Emergence is the process of complex pattern formation
from more basic constituent parts.
8.4 See also

Emergency (disambiguation)
Emergent (disambiguation)
8.1 Literature
Emergence (novel), a 1984 science ction book by
David R. Palmer
Emergence: The Connected Lives of Ants, Brains,
Cities, and Software, a 2001 book by Steven Berlin
Johnson
Emergence, a science ction book by Ray Hammond
8.2 Music
Emergence (Whit Dickey album), 2009
mergence (Natasha St-Pier album), 1996
Emergence, a 1992 album by R. Carlos Nakai
Emergence (Miroslav Vitous album), 1985
Emergence (Neil Sedaka album), 1971
Emergence: The Music of TNA Wrestling, the fth
studio album of TNA Wrestling
8.3 Other
Emergence, the process of return to baseline physiologic function of all organ systems after the cessation
of administration of general anesthetic agent(s)
Emergence (Star Trek: The Next Generation), a 1994
Star Trek: The Next Generation episode
Emergence International, a worldwide community
of Christian Scientists
56
Chapter 9
Emergence: The Connected Lives of Ants,

Brains, Cities, and Software
Emergence: The Connected Lives of Ants, Brains,
Cities, and Software is a book written by media theorist
Steven Berlin Johnson, published in 2001. Early review
drafts had the subtitle What the New Science Can Teach
Us About Our Minds, Our Communities, and Ourselves
instead of the Connected life... [1]
9.4 References
9.1 Report
Emergence refers to the ability of low-level components
of a system or community to self-organize into a higherlevel system of sophistication and awareness. Johnson
notes that this self reorganizing stems from the bottom up
rather than directed by an external control factor. Johnson gives examples of feedback, self-organization and
adaptive learning. He presents 5 fundamental principles
to support his hypothesis:
More is dierent.
Ignorance is useful.
Encourage random encounters.
Look for patterns
Pay attention to your neighbors.
9.2 Quote
The whole is sometimes smarter than the sum of its
parts.
9.3 Achievements
New York Times - Notable book
Voice Literary Supplement Top25 books of the
year
Esquire Magazine Best book of the year
57
[1] Johnson, Steven Berlin. (2001). Emergence: The Connected Lives of Ants, Brains, Cities. Scribner. New York,
NY. ISBN 0-684-86875-X 9780684868752 0684868768
9780684868769
58
CHAPTER 9. EMERGENCE: THE CONNECTED LIVES OF ANTS, BRAINS, CITIES, AND SOFTWARE
9.5 Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

9.5.1
Text
Emergence Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emergence?oldid=686832053 Contributors: CYD, The Anome, WillWare,

ChangChienFu, Heron, Bdesham, Michael Hardy, Owl, Lexor, Pnm, Kku, Karada, Ronz, Angela, Andres, Palfrey, Pipis, TonyClarke,
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Emergence

Beginnings Are Endings

Strong and weak emergence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Objective or subjective quality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

In religion, art and humanities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Emergent properties and processes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Emergent structures in nature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Non-living, physical systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Living, biological systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Emergent change processes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

1.10 External links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Disorganized complexity vs. organized complexity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Sources and factors of complexity

Varied meanings of complexity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Complexity in molecular recognition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

2.10 Further reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

2.11 External links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

History of the idea

Psychology and education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Dissertations and theses on self-organization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Types of complex systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Complex adaptive systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Topics on complex systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Features of complex systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Sensitivity to initial conditions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Density of periodic orbits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Minimum complexity of a chaotic system . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Distinguishing random from chaotic data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Semitechnical and popular works . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

7.10 External links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Emergence: The Connected Lives of Ants, Brains, Cities, and Software

Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

A termite cathedral mound produced by a termite colony is a

basis of psychological phenomena, whereby economic

The formation of complex symmetrical and fractal patterns by

In philosophy, emergence typically refers to

This idea of emergence has been around since at least the

the game of chess illustrates ... why any laws

1.1.2 Strong and weak emergence

The ability to reduce everything to simple

1.1.3 Objective or subjective quality

1.2 In religion, art and humanities

Grassin, ed. Emerging Literatures, Bern, Berlin, etc. :

1.3 Emergent properties and processes

One reason why emergent behaviour is hard to predict

1.4. EMERGENT STRUCTURES IN NATURE

ganised. A hierarchical organisation is one example that

Giants Causeway in Northern Ireland is an example of a complex

natural environment, is another example of an emergent

Systems with emergent properties or emergent structures

1.4 Emergent structures in nature

Water crystals forming on glass demonstrate an emergent, fractal

However, crystalline structure and hurricanes are said to

Ripple patterns in a sand dune created by wind or water is an

nomena, from the physical to the biological domain.

Symphony of the Stones carved by the Goght River at Garni Gorge

emergent structure involves shape interactions played

Non-living, physical systems

In physics, emergence is used to describe a property, law,

Electrical networks: The bulk conductive response