Emergence

Concepts in Complexity II: Emergence and the Difference Between Order and Organization

by Jon Lawhead

Still very much a draft. 

This paper would not have been possible without the help of Daniel Estrada and Tim Ignaffo.

There are a number of contemporary scientific problems that can benefit from good metaphysical analysis and... more There are a number of contemporary scientific problems that can benefit from good metaphysical analysis and philosophical clarification.  This paper examines one of these problems—explaining the nature of self-organized emergent behavior in dynamical physical systems.  While discussions of emergence have long been the province of metaphysicians, recent advances in network theory and complex systems theory have begun to suggest that there is both philosophical and metaphysical work to be done here, and that a rigorous, mathematically-grounded account of emergence might serve as the foundation upon which we can construct a tremendous number of other novel contributions to our understanding of the world. 

This paper explores the conceptual connection between this mathematically rigorous account of “strong emergence” (developed primarily by Yaneer Bar-Yam) and the still somewhat murky notion of self-organized systems.  I argue that a clear scientific understanding of emergence leads to a natural way of understanding the metaphysics of self-organization and (more generally) the difference between order and organization.  All three of these notions are central to the nascent field of complex systems theory, and getting a strong grasp on their conceptual relationships would represent not only a significant step toward developing a cohesive metaphysics of complex systems, but would also provide the theoretical tools necessary for continued philosophical and scientific work in that area. 

Given the sheer number (and diversity) of fields that stand to benefit from complexity-theoretic insights, this is work that urgently needs to be done.

Complex Adaptive Systems and IS Implementation in the NHS, United Kingdom (Poster)

by Amila S. Wilegoda-Wickramage

Complexity and Information: Measuring Emergence, Self-organization, and Homeostasis at Multiple Scales

by Nelson Fernández

Co-authored with Carlos Gershenson. Submitted to Complexity.

Concepts used in the scientific study of complex systems have become so widespread that their use and abuse has led to... more Concepts used in the scientific study of complex systems have become so widespread that their use and abuse has led to ambiguity and confusion in their meaning. In this paper we use information theory to provide abstract and concise measures of complexity, emergence, self-organization, and homeostasis. The purpose is to clarify the meaning of these concepts with the aid of the proposed formal measures. In a simplified version of the measures (focussing on the information produced by a system), emergence becomes the opposite of self-organization, while complexity represents their balance. We use computational experiments on random Boolean networks and elementary cellular automata to illustrate our measures at multiple scales.

Book Review of Sandra Mitchell (2009) Unsimple Truths. Science, Complexity, and Policy.

by Jeroen Van Bouwel

In: Science & Education (forthcoming).

Emergence And Self-Organization In Urban Structures

by Kinda Al Sayed

Authors:

Al-Sayed K,Turner A

Research on urban growth divides into two strands that barely come together. The first strand is aligned to the view... more Research on urban growth divides into two strands that barely come together. The first strand is aligned to the view that an understanding of cities as socio-spatial phenomena is indispensable for any sensible modelling approach. The second strand is established on assumption-based computational modelling with the perspective that without testing our understanding by reconstructing the phenomena we cannot verify our theoretical propositions about it. It is clear to our understanding that by bridging these two strands we can subject the explanatory models of cities to experimental testing. We acknowledge however the need to explain urban dynamics as a process rather than as an end product for us to base our assumptions on solid evidence. In search for evidence on laws that capture urban dynamics we outline invariants in the historical evolution of two urban structures. The invariants indicate to two processes that govern city growth; a generative process that contributes to structural differentiation and a process of self-organisation that is seen to resemble reaction-diffusion systems famously known in chemistry and biology. At this stage, we cannot verify whether these invariants constitute spatial laws in themselves or whether these invariants are a side effect of another more implicit process. Nonetheless, we assume that the presence of these invariants is conditional for a grid structure to be admitted to the class of natural urban systems. In that, the invariants serve as measures for the characterisation of urban pattern recognition.

Harnessing emergent properties in artificial distributed networks: an experimental framework

by Konstantinos Rousis

Proceedings of the 2011 Workshop on Complex Systems Modelling and Simulation

Reality Chunking

by David Roden

Review of Manual Delanda, Philosophy and Simulation: The Emergence of Synthetic Reason, London: Continuum, 226 pp. Forthcoming in Deleuze Studies.

Refining the Concept of “Emergence” in the Modeling of Archaeological Phenomena.

by Matthew D. Harris

Presentation given at Society for American Archaeology 77th Annual meeting, Memphis, TN, April 20th 2012.

Throughout archaeological literature the concept of “Emergence” is used routinely; commonly referring to the becoming... more Throughout archaeological literature the concept of “Emergence” is used routinely; commonly referring to the becoming of one entity (e.g. social structure) into a distinct yet related entity. A goal of computational Agent Based Models (ABM) of archaeological data and theory is often the emergence of a pattern, dynamic, or phenomena. In this context, the use
of “Emergence” needs to be explicit in order to better interpret findings and ultimately develop theory. This paper will discuss the philosophy of emergence, its use in ABM, and begin a framework for a more effective use of this complex concept.

Normativity: A Crucial Kind of Emergence

by Jedediah Allen

Human Development, 2011, 54, 106-112.

Witherington argues that the anti-structuralist stance of certain... more Human Development, 2011, 54, 106-112.

Witherington argues that the anti-structuralist stance of certain Dynamical Systems (DS) approaches undermines the essential role of emergence for understanding mental phenomena. If structure is intended to include representation, then we agree. We offer a model of representation that is ultimately grounded in the emergence of normativity in systems that are Far From thermodynamic Equilibrium (FFE). A cascade of further emergences provides the essential elements for a fully naturalized account of representation, learning, and development.

Emergent Constructivism (Commentary)

by Jedediah Allen

Child Development Perspectives, 2011, 5, 164-165.

The stated tenets of neo-constructivism (Newcombe, this issue) have both a descriptive aspect and a prescriptive... more The stated tenets of neo-constructivism (Newcombe, this issue) have both a descriptive aspect and a prescriptive aspect — describing contemporary themes and shifts in developmental research, as well as advocating those themes and shifts. We endorse all of them, both descriptively and prescriptively, but would like to suggest that they do not go far enough in certain directions to be able to give a full prescriptive orientation.

Stepping Off the Pendulum: Why Only an Action-based approach Can Transcend the Nativist-Empiricist Debate

by Jedediah Allen

This paper has been selected by the Jean Piaget Society as a target article for commentary and response in its official journal of Cognitive Development

We argue that the nativist-empiricist debate in developmental psychology is distorted, both theoretically and... more We argue that the nativist-empiricist debate in developmental psychology is distorted, both theoretically and methodologically, by a shared framework of assumptions concerning the nature of representation. In particular, both sides of the debate assume models of representation that make the emergence of representation impossible. This, in turn, distorts conceptions of cognitive development by forcing developmentally new representation to be constructed out of some already available (innate) foundation of atomistic representations — it forces a foundationalism.
Contemporary nativists and empiricists differ with respect to the size and scope of such foundations, but are equally committed to some form of foundationalism. In further consequence, this foundationalism distorts methodologies by rendering any form of developmental emergence of representation impossible, and, thus, renders control conditions in experiments for such kinds of development (and their precursors) seemingly irrelevant. In precluding representational emergence, foundationalisms motivate an assumption that infants perceive the world in the same way as adults (adultomorphism) because the possibility of the developmental emergence of perceptual representation is already conceptually excluded.
In this discussion, we focus most strongly on the currently dominant nativist framework, and, in particular, on two seminal sets of studies: Baillargeon’s drawbridge studies and Wynn’s addition and subtraction studies. We begin with an historical overview of the growth of developmental nativist frameworks, showing how they emerged out of a synergy between a competence-performance distinction and the methodology of infant looking studies. Both of these enabling conditions for the historical rise of nativist positions are themselves flawed. We then proceed to a discussion of extant criticisms of the two focal sets of studies. We argue that these criticisms explore various empirical and conceptual alternatives to the standard nativist interpretations of such studies — alternatives that avoid the adultomorphisms of standard interpretations, and, thus, are open to the possibility of anti- foundationalist developmental emergence of representation.
We then explore some non- and anti-nativist positions, showing that they too involve a foundationalist commitment, which thus weakens their criticisms of nativist positions, and argue that the common foundationalism follows from a common assumption about the nature of representations: that representation is fundamentally constituted as encodings.
Finally, we outline an approach to modeling representation that is not committed to foundationalism because it explicitly models representational emergence. This is an action based approach, akin to Piaget’s model. Ironically, it was the (invalid) rejection of Piaget’s model that fueled much of the growth of nativism in the first place.

Luhmann in Byzantium. A systems theory approach for historical network analysis

by Johannes Preiser-Kapeller

Working Paper for the Conference "The Connected Past: people, networks and complexity in archaeology and history", March 24-25th 2012, University of Southampton, GB; http://connectedpast.soton.ac.uk/schedule/
The slides of the presentation you will find here: http://oeaw.academia.edu/JohannesPreiserKapeller/Talks/74834/Luhmann_in_Byzantium._A_systems_theory_approach_for_historical_network_analysis

While Social Network Analysis (SNA) has become an accepted research tool in historical studies in the last decades,... more While Social Network Analysis (SNA) has become an accepted research tool in historical studies in the last decades, actual theoretical foundations for the approach to depict and analyse past social realities in the form of nodes and ties have remained as many-voiced and sometimes under-determined as in other fields of network analysis. A theoretical framework from which historical network analysis may benefit is the systems theory established by the sociologist Niklas LUHMANN (1927–1998). In Luhmann´s theory, social systems are systems of communication; in modern society, Luhmann identified several differentiated communication systems such as politics, religion or economy. For the analysis of Byzantine society, we combine Luhmannʼs framework with the concepts of SNA: we understand ties between nodes as potential channels of communication which can pertain to any communication system. And while communications between individuals in a specific institutional framework such as state administration or the church may primarily pertain to one system, we have to account for “multiplex” ties of communication and an overlap of various communication systems on the same set of nodes (who, in Luhmannʼs theory, are not per se part of any of these social systems, which only consist of communications). This approach also enables us either to examine communication ties (their density, distribution patterns, etc.) of one system separately or to concentrate on the structural position of individuals within the general social framework. Thus, we demonstrate that Luhmann can provide a coherent and at the same time flexible framework for historical network analysis.

Causal and Explanatory Autonomy: Comments on Menzies and List

by Juhani Yli-Vakkuri

Co-authored with Ausonio Marras. Published in Cynthia Macdonald and Graham Macdonald, eds., Emergence in Mind. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010.

The chapter argues that Menzies and List's defence of the claim that higher‐level properties have causal powers... more The chapter argues that Menzies and List's defence of the claim that higher‐level properties have causal powers independent of those of their physical realizers conflates questions about the causal powers of properties with questions about their explanatory roles. Menzies and List's argument shows only that explanations in terms of higher‐level properties are sometimes more appropriate than explanations in terms of physical properties, but no conclusions about the causal powers of properties can be drawn from this without assuming a questionable version of the interventionist theory of causation.

Quantum complexity, Emergence and Computation by Measurement: On what computers reveal about physical laws, and what physical laws reveal about computers

by Mile Gu

Emergence Colour and the Knowledge Argument: So what if Mary didn't know

by Elizabeth Schier

Design e emergência: concepção de projeto no design contemporâneo

by Rui Alão

dissertação de Mestrado em Design na Universidade Anhembi Morumbi, São Paulo, Brasil

O presente trabalho investiga uma proposta projetual de design que possa incorporar a dinâmica de fenômenos... more O presente trabalho investiga uma proposta projetual de design que possa incorporar a dinâmica de fenômenos emergentes. Através da noção de emergência no contexto dos sistemas complexos adaptativos e da noção de  metadesign, objetiva pensar um projeto que possa viabilizar o papel do designer como o de um profissional que pensa problemas de caráter sistêmico em nossa sociedade. Desse modo, procura-se apontar para novas possibilidades  para a concepção de projeto, bem como sugerir novos tipos de articulação entre designer e sociedade.

More really is different

by Mile Gu

Introduction: Rethinking the Public: Innovations In Research, Theory and Politics

by Nick Mahony

Conclusion: Rethinking the Public: innovations in research, theory and politics

by Nick Mahony

Introduction to The Dialogic Emergence of Culture, ed. Tedlock and Mannheim, 1–32

by Bruce Mannheim