Emergence Biology 361 = Computer Science 361 Bryn Mawr College Spring 2006

The Wolfram claim/challenge:

PG conjecture:

Both conductors and planners/architects are themselves products of on ongoing process of emergence. So too is the brain, meaning, purpose, science, and inquiry itself. All are (non-deterministically?) derivitive of properties and interactions that existed at earlier stages of emergence and that persist at lower levels of organization. Having come into existence, each becomes both an influence on lower levels of organization and an ingredient for the creation of new levels.

Agent-based models can do things (have properties?) that cellular automata do not. Agent-based models can be derived from suitable? cellular automata. Simple agent-based models are necessary and sufficient to generate more complex agent-based models that in turn can do things that neither cellular automata nor simple agent-based models can do.

The immediate questions at hand in becoming familiar with agent-based models:

• Is there a meaningful distinction between universes and universes including agents?
• Can agent-based models do things that cellular automata cannot?
• Are there simpler and more complex agent-based models?
• Can we begin to conceive ways of moving from one kind of model to the next?

Assignment for Monday:

• Explore The World of Langton's Ant, including Notes on Emergence
• Comment on it in the course blog

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