Emergence

Biology 361 = Computer Science 361

Bryn Mawr College
Spring 2007

Introduction to "emergence"
Motivations, basic ideas, potentials, problems

Motivations

John Coway's "Game of Life"
Basic ideas
Our contributions this semester?

Your starting thoughts?

Potentials
  1. A broader perspective that opens new directions for exploration of particular systems and system phenomena that have proved difficult to make sense of previously
  2. A broader perspective that integrates understandings of a wide variety of phenomena
  3. A new set of "rules" that apply generally across a wide variety of phenomena at all scales
Problems
  1. Demonstrated in particular cases but still need to better define the broader perspective, add to cases, explore limits
  2. Difficulty in understanding how to go from one level of organization to another, particularly inanimate to animate and animate to conscious
  3. A few likely cases, but remains to see whether broadly so
  4. Human activity emergent or beyond emergent?



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