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What surprised me the most in this course was the emphasis on simplicity. Whenever I thought about systems before, I usually focused on how complicated they are and how different bigger systems are from smaller, less organized ones. It was strange in some ways, talking about how complex systems are the result of simple interactions among simple elements. It cleared up some confusion on my end and I think that it gave me a new way of seeing the world more clearly. It made me realize that having too complicated a set up doesn't work; elegance is the key. Complicated models are unappealing and systems fall apart if the individual interactions are too complex (or at least that's my understanding; feel free to refute it).

What we talked about also really helped to frame many of my interests. I've always had a hard time explaining to people why I liked biology so much; I would talk about how life organizes itself on the cellular, organismal and ecological levels and how each part affects the whole without the whole being the sum of the parts. I would touch on a lot of topics we talked about without giving them a proper context or explaining how they were connected. Perhaps the best thing this course has given me is the right vernacular; knowing the name of what one is interested in generally helps.

I'm not sure if I'm ready to go beyond emergence. While there are some things that it can't explain, it helps to give perspective on a lot of problems we face today. It's so difficult to incorporate different view points and approaches into one's own explorations; it's not as easy as switching gears while driving. We tend to get stuck in one way of thinking and it's hard to realize it and stop it. I liked this class so much because it had such a different approach and many of the thoughts that I've been chewing on for a long time were articulated so well and expanded upon. There won't ever be a grand unified theory, but we can dig ourselves out of the hole we're in by looking at approaches like these and going even further.