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I came into the course with these questions:

1) What are some examples of systems that have no element of emergence at all? Or is there emergence in everything at a certain level?

2) How exactly will we be examining emerging systems and what will we learn from them?

3) How can I link what I have learned in Biology and Psychology to emergence?

I feel like my questions have been answered. I now find myself interested in the material that we ended with related to agent based modeling, in relation to thinking an evolution. My questions now are related to the exploration and definition of limits as well as to how to go from one level of organization (thinking) to another (evolution), or from inanimate to animate and animate to the conscious…

I really enjoyed the course of Emergence and feel that it has truly changed the way I view many things. I began the course knowing very little about the field of emergence and thought that emergence was actually a something very complicated to learn about. However, I quickly realized that the field of emergence is actually quite the opposite. Emergence is a field that tries to understand and make sense of many of the most complicated questions by breaking complex matters down into smaller parts. I have learned that emergence is a field of questions more than of answers. This was especially evident in our discussion of randomness and disorganization.

            I found it to be very useful to explore emergence in the way that we did, especially by looking at complex ideas and models and breaking them down into smaller parts so that we could examine the different elements interacting in simple ways and giving rise to complex outcomes. My favorite part of the course was coming to the realization that maybe complicated things are not as complex as we think they are. In all of my college years I had never taken a course that had conveyed that message. I found Netlogo to be very useful in modeling emergence because it really enabled me to see things that may otherwise have been very difficult to see. By creating and working on models throughout the semester I was able to gain insight into the operation of the system that I was trying to model through the observation of patterns. I realized that computer models just as natural phenomena are organized systems and that modeling has the great ability to show something that was not as obvious before. It was especially interesting when I would design a model and create certain codes and then get an unexpected outcome. By working with computer models I was able to repeatedly see this happen and realized that new properties can arise from simple interactions without any intention.  

The organization of this course was very interesting as we began by exploring a very general idea of what emergence was followed by an examination of deterministic and non-deterministic systems. Next we learned about randomness and I found our discussion and readings on this topic to be very interesting. I have always valued technology, but have gained a deeper appreciation of what it can do from this course. It became increasingly clear throughout the semester that computers have enabled us to see things that are otherwise very difficult to observe. Computer modeling was especially helpful in that it provided a way for sometimes vague ideas to be explored and to figure out if the way in which I was thinking even made sense. In conclusion, emergence has given me a new lens with which I can inspect and approach different phenomena. I’m glad I took this course and will definitely make use of the skills and insight I gained from working with computer models.