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My initial questions for the course:

• What are examples of emergent systems outside of the sphere of biology?

• What repercussions will the ideas of emergence have in the fields of biology and computer science?

• Is emergence a result of progressive adaptation/interaction with a given environment?

I think that my questions have been answered for the most part, but having come to a better understanding of the ideas of emergence has raised many more questions. I came into the course with a very limited view of what emergence was about but I have learned over the course of the semester that emergence provides interesting implications about the way we view science. Approaching complexity as a result of the interactions of much simpler parts was an idea I had never previously been exposed to and offers a whole different perspective of understanding natural phenomena. Another topic
I was fascinated by was that of a deterministic versus nondeterministic universe.

Additionally, coming from an environment where learning was generally one directional, the setup of the class new to me. I think that the facilitated discussion environment helped me become more aware and open to other ways of learning.

Another aspect of the course I which I learned a lot from was modeling with Netlogo. Through the process of modeling I gained more of an appreciation for the usefulness of technology in furthering our understanding of science. I learned that modeling forces you to simplify complex ideas into their essential parts.

Final questions:

Is there a way to model long term decision making? Perhaps this can be explored through modeling the Prisoner’s Dilemma or the Hawk Dove Game. This made me think more about whether there is a significant jump between instinctual actions and conscious decision making. Can we model conscious decision making using a deterministic system?