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I was struck by the idea that emergence “isn’t exactly the same for each person”.  I think our discussion in class on Wednesday showed the accuracy of that observation pretty clearly.  I’ve started thinking of emergence less as a phenomenon and more of a tool for identifying patterns across different disciplines.  The challenge to overcome now is to adequately define or communicate a concept of emergence that is useful as a standard to call upon when talking about observable patterns.  We debated the idea that emergence is exclusively a product of humans and therefore did not exist before humans.  I agree that the concept of emergence is a product of humans, but the phenomena it describes are not.  I also think that the idea that “organization can exist without either a conductor or an architect” is another way of approaching that debate.  Just because organization can exist because of a creator, like in the case of a car or computer, doesn’t mean it necessarily has to.  Similarly, the concept of emergence exists because humans came up with it, but it could have existed if we hadn’t come up with it.