I met this notion in relatio to the apperance of life and consciousness. Those who use this term think that neither life nor consciusness is an indpendent substance but they cannot be simply reduced to the level below (i.e. to chemistry in the case of life or to biology in the case of consciousness). They think that such new qulailities "emerge" at a certain level of complexity. Is that what you thought of?
An emergent property is a property which a collection or complex system has, but which the individual members do not have. A failure to realize that a property is emergent, or supervenient, leads to the fallacy of division.
In chemistry, for example, the taste of saltiness is a property of salt, but that does not mean that it is also a property of sodium and chlorine, the two elements which make up salt. Thus, saltiness is an emergent or a supervenient property of salt. Claiming that chlorine must be salty because salt is salty would be an example of the fallacy of division.
In biology, for example, heart is made of heart cells, heart cells on their own don't have the property of pumping blood. You will need the whole heart to be able to pump blood. Thus, the pumping property of the heart is an emergent or a supervenient property of the heart. Claiming that an individual heart cell can pump blood because the heart can would be an example of fallacy of division.
I do not know how closely it is related to the original question, but I would like to hear about recent developments of the description or prediction of "dissipative structures" proposed many years ago by Prigogine and coworkers. He argued that in systems far from equilibrium where there is a constant energy flow spontenously ordered structures appear which are maintained by the energy flow. His famous example is the Benard convection cycles in fluids bwetween two plates at high temperature gradient. This is also a kind of emergent structure. He purported that life might have appeared similarly (which is a complex set of cyclic reactions, as described by stunningly simple and elegant chemoton theory of a Hungarian scientist, Tibor Ganti). The honeycomb-like convection instability is, however, much much simpler than the cyclic reactions of life. Prigogine also hinted at the fact that the actual dissipative structure is determined by the peripheral conditions. I wonder how far that theory has gone, is it possible to predict from the peripheral conditions the properties of the dissipative structure?
I once published a paper on emergent properties in complex human-environment systems - in this case related to global modelling.
There are many (good) definitions of emergence, but in relation to modelling I grew more sceptical over the years. What is emerging from your modelling results that you didn't include in the model yourself? I think that emergence is clearly present in reality, but that we are doing a rather poor job in representing it in operational models.
Easterling, W.E., Kok, K. 2002. Emergent properties of scale in global environmental modeling – Are there any? Integrated Assessment 3: 233-246.
The second part of this question I find it very interesting: How many types of emergent properties do you know? I would check this out http://arxiv.org/ftp/nlin/papers/0506/0506028.pdf
Thank you Oscar Chavoya-Aceves for the reference.
I knew that document.
If you find more, please let me know.
Ponge, Jean-François, 2005. Emergent properties from organisms to ecosystems: towards a realistic approach. Biological Reviews 80, 403-411.
https://www.academia.edu/2197961/Emergent_properties_from_organisms_to_ecosystems_towards_a_realistic_approach
Prof. Jean-François Ponge, thank you for your paper on emergence.
It looks really interesting.
An emergent property may be just one property of the subject of investigation (thinking in economic terms, externality may be considered an emergent property), the whole of which is more than the sum of its parts. Hence there seems to be a "black box" mechanism that transforms the micostates of the system into its macrostructure. Some refer to these dimension as the meso. That does not tell us a lot since the actual causal chain needs to be traced. Hence there needs to be a way to adequately represent the complex macrostructure by way of an evolution from simpler components. This then allows for the unraveling of emergent properties. Cellular automata is a good modeling platform for this kind of issues #2 link.
http://ije.oxfordjournals.org/content/35/3/515.full.pdf
Article Measuring pattern outcomes in an agent-based model of edge-e...
Dear Shian-Loong Bernard Lew,
thank you for your reply and the references.
Any recent reference (less that 2 yrs)/work on emergent properties of complex engineering products (with intertwined physical, cyber, and software components)?
Thank you for this interesting discussion. I'm a medical doctor, interested by the concept of "Disrespectful care" is maternal health mainly during childbirth. From your perspectives, I'm I right to consider "RESPECT" as an emergent property of the relationship between pregnant women and the health providers/facility structure?
For emergent properties in recent years in engineering you can check out results in interfaces of complex oxides where emergent transport, magnetic, ferroelectric, dielectric properties have been found
Perhaps the most fascinating example of emergence is consciousness, i.e., how this state emerges from the interaction of individual neurons that do not possess consciousness themselves. This tempts one to return to Cartesian dualism (the idea that matter [brain] does not bring about the mind), but short of that we get philosophers who reject reductionism without, however, coming up with a satisfactory explanation of the emergence of consciousness.
Vladimir,
I agree with you. Consciousness is a fascinating example of emergent property, like life is.
Pier Luigi
I recommend reviewing the attached link.
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/properties-emergent/
Dear Randall Lee,
many thanks for your suggestion. The document by Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy looks interesting.
Hello Pier,
In the major portion of my work, I develop methodology for discipline-independent-transdisciplinarity, which unites the knowledge of the disciplines into a single coherent, integrated, body of knowledge and understanding. This results in the development of a transdisciplinary language that enhances communication and understanding between the disciplines. The methodology is based on isomorphies—patterns-of-organization (in space, in structure, and/or in process) that occur in and play significant roles in the subjects studied throughout science. Because these isomorphies play their roles in many different disciplines, knowledge of them and the roles they play in one discipline enhances understanding of other disciplines where the isomorphies occur and play their roles.
Emergence is one of these isomorphies. It occurs in physics and chemistry, geology, planetology, and cosmology, from molecular biology and physiology to neurology, from sociology and ecology to biological evolution. Emergence is universal in its occurrence.
With discipline-independent-transdisciplinarity, every part that plays a role in the process of uniting the disciplines into a single body of knowledge and understanding, and every part that plays a role in the transdisciplinary language, has to be valid and understandable in every discipline.
Just as emergence is universal in its occurrence, the definition of emergence has to be understandable universally—in every discipline.
How can a definition for emergence and emergent property that works at the level of physics, with the emergence of atoms, ions, isotopes, and molecules also work at the level of ecology and biological evolution with the emergence of a new species of bird or flower?
This problem vanishes when it is taken into account that emergence is an isomorphy. As a universal isomorphy, emergence occurs in all the disciplines. In the context of the great differences in the subject matters of the various disciplines, what is the common feature of emergence that occurs in each and every one of them?
This will take some explanation. As the name implies, an isomorphy has the same shape or pattern-of-organization in every situation in which it occurs, whether it is at the molecular level, the geologic level, or the ecological level. At each of these levels, the isomorphy is composed of different things. At the molecular level, it would be composed of molecules. At the geologic level it might be composed of landforms, and at the ecological level, it could be composed of plant and animal communities as they vary across the landscape.
What is happening here is that as the isomorphy occurs in progressively more complex situations, the isomorphy tends to occur in different, usually more complex forms. The key point to understand is that the basic pattern-of-organization of the isomorphy (in space, in structure, and/or in process) occurs at each level, even though at each level it is composed of different types of components and is generally progressively more complex.
It is that basic pattern-of-organization (in space, in structure, and/or in process) that provides the core of the universal definition of the isomorphy, the part which is understandable in every discipline.
Isomorphies develop. They occur in simpler forms in situation that are relatively simple with few other factors playing roles, and they occur in more complex forms in more complex situations where there are greater numbers of other factors playing roles. The higher the level where an isomorphy occurs and plays its role, the more other factors will be there playing their roles. Those additional factors and their roles influence the nature of the isomorphy and its roles. Nevertheless, the basic form of the isomorphy will always be there determining its basic role in the situation.
Isomorphies, such as emergence, occur in altered forms and play altered roles in various situations depending on what other factors are there. The fewer other factors that are in the situation in which the isomorphy occurs, the simpler will be the form of the isomorphy—the closer to its basic form it will be. The basic form of an isomorphy occurs in the simplest situation in which the isomorphy occurs. That will be the universal form of the isomorphy, the form that gives it its identity as that particular kind of isomorphy—wherever that isomorphy occurs.
That simplest basic form, a recognizable pattern-of-organization (in space, in structure, and/or in process), provides the information required to create the basic definition of the isomorphy. Because isomorphies occur in altered forms with altered roles depending on the situations in which they occur, that basic definition must be developed, enhanced, to provide appropriate specific definitions for the developed forms of the isomorphy.
HOW TO DEFINE EMERGENCE
As an isomorphy, emergence occurs in diverse situations in the subject matters of all the disciplines.
As an isomorphy, emergence has a simplest basic form that occurs in the simplest situation in which emergence exists and plays its role.
As an isomorphy, emergence develops, occurring in simpler forms in simple situations where few other factors are playing roles, and occurring in more developed. more complex forms in more complex situations where greater numbers of other factors are playing roles.
As an isomorphy, the simplest basic form of emergence occurs within the developed forms, giving them their identity as instances of emergence.
Emergence is defined by the qualities it has in its basic form. Emergence is further defined, developed stage by developed stage, by the additional factors that play roles that alter the nature of emergence and that alter the nature of the roles emergence plays. The content of a definition of a case of emergence reveals what stage of the development of emergence that case is.
What Emergence Is
At its simplest stage, emergence is the coming into existence, as a consequence of the motion of matter, of a pattern-of-material-organization that was not there just previously. The pattern-of-material-organization is newly existent—emergent.
Any group of material objects has a group-pattern-of-organization composed of the objects and the distance and direction relations between them. The motion of even one of the objects will initiate new distance and direction relations between the object that moves and all the other objects in the group—resulting in a newly existent group-pattern-of-organization, a newly emergent pattern-of-material-organization.
FOUNDATIONAL STAGES OF EMERGENCE DUE TO SIX DIFFERENT FACTORS
Emergence Due to Sequential-Enhancement
As one of the objects of a group of objects moves among the other objects, there is a continuous change of the distance and direction relations of that moving object with the other objects. There is continuous creation of emergent pattern-of-material-organization due to the continuous change of distance and direction relations.
The motion of an object through space is a sequentially occurring process. Consequently, the change of distance and direction relations due to that motion occurs sequentially. There is a continuous sequential emergence of newly occurring pattern-of-material-organization.
The occurrence of something new in a situation constitutes an enhancement of that situation. The occurrence of new part of the ongoing motion, the occurrence of the new distance and direction relations between the moving object and the other objects, the occurrence of the continuous sequence of new group-patterns-of-organization, are all sequentially occurring enhancements of the situation—sequential-enhancement.
The simplest, basic, form of emergence, that based on the motion of an object in relation to other objects in its group, with consequent emergence of new group-pattern-of-organization, is emergence due to sequential-enhancement.
Emergence Due to Combinatorial-Enhancement
When well separated objects move into close association with one another, they together form a group. A group comes into existence—it emerges as a consequence of the converging motion of the objects. The coming into existence of the group, as a consequence of the converging objects, is an enhancement of the situation—combinatorial-enhancement.
With the emergence of the group there is also the emergence of hierarchic organization. The group, as a whole, constitutes the top level of the hierarchic organization, and the individual objects that are the components of the group constitute the lower level.
An emergent hierarchic level generally has qualities that do not occur at lower levels. As a simple example, a group is always larger than any individual component of the group. A more complex example occurs in multilevel hierarchic organization where each level exists as a combination of the components of the lower levels such that the components of each level are different in what they are from the components of lower levels. An atom is different from the elementary particles of which is composed, and a molecule is different from the atoms of which it is composed.
It can also happen that an emergent quality, property, level, object, or system can have one or more qualities that also occurred as qualities of the lower level components. Isomorphies are the perfect example. A particular isomorphy can occur at multiple levels of a highly complex hierarchy. This often happens with the development of an isomorphy.
The hierarchical organization of material reality—from protons, atoms, and molecules, to planets, stars, and galaxies—from organelles, cells, and organisms, to social systems and ecosystems—is the result of emergence due to combinatorial-enhancement.
Emergence Due to Adjacent-Relation
When one object is moving on a direct path towards another object, the motion will bring the two objects closer and closer together, until there is no space between them. A new organizational pattern emerges—adjacent-relation. With adjacent-relation there are the two objects existing there together as a group. There is the direction-relation between them, but because there is no space between the objects, there is no distance-relation—an emergent group-pattern-of-material-organization with a direction-relation but no distance-relation.
When there is no space between the objects, the substantiality of the one object will be in direct contact with the substantiality of the other object.
The contact-relation comes into existence—the contact relation emerges.
The basic definition of emergence states that emergence occurs when the motion of matter results in the coming into existence of a pattern-of-material-organization (in space, in structure, and/or in process) that was not there just prior. This descriptive-definition is centered on pattern-of-organization, and in this case adjacent-pattern-of-organization emerges. But with the emergence of the contact-relation, something additional happens—the emergence of a supraorganizational-factor.
The situation where contact emerges has organizational aspects, such as the direction- and the adjacent-relations between the objects, but there is more involved in the emergence of contact. This event is based on the nature of matter, its materiality, its substantiality.
In prior cases of emergence, the matter played three distinct roles. It occupied space, it moved, and it was a component of a pattern-of-organization. Now the matter plays another role due to its substantiality—one part touches another part, one part contacts another part.
The emergence of the supraorganizational-factor, contact, is the result of the roles of the adjacent-relation between objects and the inherent substantiality of those objects.
Emergence Due to Blocked Motion
When one object is moving on a direct path towards another object, the motion will eventually result in a collision between the objects. The motion of the one object will result in a push against the other object. This push is the emergent factor.
Motion and sequential-enhancement play their roles here, continuously changing the distance relation between the objects, shrinking the pattern-of-organization between them until combinatorial-enhancement occurs and they become a group. Eventually the two objects constitute a group with no space between them, and emergence due to adjacent relation occurs in conjunction with the substantiality of the objects, with the consequent emergence of the supraorganizational-factor, the contact relation. The one object plays a blocking role, and the momentum of the other object plays a role that results in the emergent push.
Multiple factors play roles here that result in the emergence of push.
Push, like contact, is a supraorganizational-factor. There are organizational factors involved, such as the direction relation between the objects, and the directional orientation of the push, but there is more involved in the emergence of push. This event is based on the nature of matter, its materiality, its substantiality, now interrelating with motion and the consequent momentum the moving object has when blocked.
Emergence Due to Push
In a group of objects that are not moving relative to one another, when one of the objects moves, comes into contact with, and pushes against one of the other objects, that second object will begin to move relative to the other objects in the group. The motion resulting from the push will change the distance and direction relations of that newly moving object with all the other objects in the group. New group-pattern-of-organization will emerge.
This is a two-stage emergence event—the emergence of the motion due to the push, and the emergence of the new pattern-of-organization due to the motion of the pushed object. With the emergence of motion there is the concurrent emergence of new pattern-of-organization.
Motion is a supraorganizational-factor. There are organizational factors involved with motion, such as the direction of the motion, but for motion to occur there must be a role for substantiality—it is matter that moves.
With emergence due to push, there are two concurrent emergent products, the motion of the pushed object, and the emergent group-pattern-of-organization. The emergence of the supraorganizational-factor, motion, results in the concurrent emergence of new pattern-of-organization.
The emergence of the two prior supraorganizational-factors, contact and push, did not result in the emergence of new pattern. Neither contact nor push itself results in change of direction or distance relations between objects. Change of direction and distance relations requires the supraorganizational-factor motion.
Emergence Due to Coherence
Units of matter stick together, they bond, they cohere. This is a stage in the development of combinatorial-enhancement. Units of matter not only come together to form a group, they join together, in a variety of ways, to form structure. For example, when atoms join together to create molecules, each type of molecule has a specific pattern-of-structural-organization of the component atoms.
Coherence is a supraorganizational-factor based on the nature of matter, its materiality, its substantiality. Like the previous supraorganizational-factors, coherence has organizational aspects, such as the directional relation between the coherent objects, and their positional-orientation to one another—what side of the one object is coherent to what side of the other object. And, as with the other supraorganizational-factors, there is more to coherence than the organizational factors. Matter bonds to matter in a variety of ways, from covalent bonding of atoms to Velcro strips sticking together, with all these different ways of bonding the result of what matter is, the result of the intrinsic nature of what it is that is substantial.
When coherence occurs—when coherence emerges—structure emerges.
When the supraorganizational-factor coherence emerges, the organizational-factor structure emerges.
Structure is an emergent form of pattern-of-material-organization.
When coherence occurs, a new pattern-of-organization emerges, and it does so in an emergent form of pattern-of-material-organization.
Thus, as when motion is emergent there is concurrent emergence of group-pattern-of–material-organization, when coherence is emergent there is concurrent emergence of structural-pattern-of-material-organization.
EMERGENCE AT HIGHER LEVELS
Foundationally, emergence in its simplest form, is based on (a) material components, (b) relations between those components, (c) pattern-of-material-organization, (d) motion, and (e) sequential-enhancement.
These foundational components are present in all developed forms of emergence, together giving each case, form, stage, or level of emergence its intrinsic identity as an instance of emergence.
At each hierarchic level there are emergent factors, emergent patterns-of-material-organization, that did not occur at, nor play roles at, prior lower levels, but that can play their roles at the level at which they are emergent, and also at levels that are higher yet. These emergent factors can play roles in the nature of emergence at the higher hierarchic levels of the organization of material reality—resulting in the developed forms of emergence.
At high levels, hundreds or thousands of factors can be involved in the process of emergence, as for example in the process of biological evolution. Nonetheless, the foundational components of the process of emergence, the foundational form of emergence, will be there within these highly complex forms of emergence, making it possible to identify the highly complex forms as cases of emergence.
To understand the complex forms of emergence, it is necessary to identify the foundational components and their roles as they occur within the highly developed forms. Because the basic components themselves will likely be in developed form, it might take some effort to recognize them.
This is an abbreviated description of the basic nature of emergence. Here is a link to a more detailed version:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/265407712_THE_INTRINSIC_NATURE_OF_EMERGENCE
Regards,
Vincent
Article THE INTRINSIC NATURE OF EMERGENCE
Dear Vincent,
Thank you for your contribution and congratulations for your study on emergence.
I also appreciate your interdisciplinary approach.
I will read more carefully your paper on emergence.
Best wishes
Pier Luigi
Many thanks for the thought provoking discussion. Will read your paper and try to understand what you were saying above.
Where do you both stand on the idea of intelligent design or emergence of life from simpler starting materials - simple to complex. I have read two books recently both with very convincing arguments. Can't remember the authors and titles - but will add tomorrow.
Andrew
Thank you, Andrew.
Please, let us know the titles and authors of the books you mentioned.
Pier Luigi
This is a proceeding paper. See the complete online document at:
http://journals.isss.org/index.php/proceedings55th/issue/view/11
Dear Prof. Jean-François Ponge,
Thanks for your precious link!
Pier Luigi
Thanks Jean-Francois for the link to an area I know nothing about. Hope to get some further knowledge - notice that there were some circular economy paper within the conference list.
the two books are:
Signature of the cell -Stephen C Meyer - a critique of intelligent design of the information contained in DNA. He seems to be surrounded by controversies with regard to the accuracy and understand of some key scientific information that me uses as evidence.
Incomplete nature - Terence. W. Deacon Again some interesting ideas about self organisation and emergent properties. He seems to be accused of plagiarism.
I guess there most have been developments after these, so does anybody have any newer thoughts on these subjects?
Andrew
I wrote a paper on the subject, trying to find a materialistic (neither holistic nor reductionist) base for emergence:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/7665214
Article Emergent properties from organisms to ecosystems: towards a ...
Thanks Andrew for your suggestions and thanks Prof. Ponge for sharing your paper.
Pier Luigi
Thanks Pier - I think your question is a very important one and central to the mechanisms by why life arose from chemicals or other processes.
Some of the contributors (Jean) above have much more knowledge of this subject matter, so I'm very interested in what they have written. Thanks for allowing this discussion to take place.
Andrew
Hello Pier,
I have now uploaded to ResearchGate an improved version of the paper, The Intrinsic Nature of Emergence. The new version has illustrations.
Vesterby, Vincent. 2011. The Intrinsic Nature of Emergence—With Illustrations. Proceedings of the 55th Annual Meeting of the ISSS, Hull, U.K.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/316609942_The_Intrinsic_Nature_of_Emergence--With_Illustrations
Article The Intrinsic Nature of Emergence--With Illustrations
Hello Vincent,
Many thanks for the updated version of your work on Emergence.
The following question was added as a comment to the paper, The Intrinsic Nature of Emergence - - With Illustrations.
“I have a simple question: for discussing the emergence, is there any difference between life and non-life forms. . .?”
Here is my answer:
Simple question?! . . . LOL!
Still, I will provide as simple an answer as I can that is yet complex enough to clarify the difference between emergence as it occurs with abiotic situations and emergence as it occurs with biotic systems. There are several sections from my previous papers that are relevant to your question..
A large part of the difference in emergence in abiotic and biotic situations is the difference in complexity between abiotic and biotic situations, and the difference in the manner in which they each become complex. It will be necessary first to provide a descriptive-definition of the intrinsic nature of complexity, and to clarify the difference in the roles of quantitative and qualitative aspects in complex situations. This will be followed with a discussion of the manner in which abiotic and biotic situations become complex, which reveals why biotic systems can become so much more complex than abiotic situations.
On the Nature of Complexity
From:
Vesterby, Vincent. 2008. Measuring Complexity: Things That Go Wrong and How to Get It Right. 3rd International Workshop on Complexity and Philosophy. 2007. Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Study, Stellenbosch, South Africa. Emergence: Complexity and Organization, 10:2:90-102.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/254453242_Measuring_Complexity_Things_That_Go_Wrong_and_How_to_Get_It_Right
“All situations, including all systems, are made up of components and relations between those components. Complexity is quantity and diversity of components and relations. Anything that increases these factors increases complexity. There are six basic quantities to the complexity of any situation—first, how many components there are, second, how many different kinds of components, and third, how many of each kind; fourth, how many relations there are, fifth, how many different kinds of relations, and sixth, how many of each kind. More detailed quantitative analyses of complexity are possible, such as how many relations a particular component has and how many different kinds they are, but the six basic quantities are minimal for understanding the quantitative aspects of complexity. A method that neglects any of these six is incapable of providing an adequate quantitative analysis of complexity.
“Determining the degree of complexity of a situation or system by way of its six basic quantities is just a beginning. There is more to the meaning of this basic definition than the obvious quantitative aspect. Diversity of components and relations means different kinds of components and relations. The definition includes what they are and what roles they play such that the definition is really about a pattern of interrelations, about a pattern of organization that has the quantitative factors as aspects of what it is. Complexity is quantity and diversity of components and relations, which together constitute a pattern of organization. Ultimately, it is organizational complexity that we must learn how to measure, how to live with, and how to manage.”
________________________________________
The Distinct Roles of Quantity and Diversity in Creating Complexity
From:
Vesterby, Vincent. 2016. Universal Resilience Patterns in Complex Networks—Analysis of the Paper by Gao, Barzel, and Barabási.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/305491254_Universal_Resilience_Patterns_in_Complex_Networks-Analysis_of_the_Paper_by_Gao_Barzel_and_Barabasi
“Complexity is quantity and diversity of components and relations, together resulting in complexity of pattern-of-organization of structure and processes. Any increase in these interrelated factors will increase the complexity of the situation. There are differences in the type of complexity that develops depending on which of these four factors of complexity increases. When quantity of components and quantity of relations increase without significant increase of diversity of components and relations, the system develops quantitative complexity. Liquids and gases are examples. When diversity of components and relations increases, the system develops qualitative complexity. Volcanic magmas, living systems, social systems, and ecosystems are examples of qualitative complexity.
“In general, increases in the quantity of components lead to systems that are less complex than the systems that result from increases in diversity of components. Quantitative complexity is simpler in nature than qualitative complexity. This occurs because systems with fewer types of components generally have fewer types of relations, while systems with more types of components have more types of relations. A system with only one or a few types of components is limited in the possible diversity of relations. A system with many types of components can have much greater diversity of relations.
“Water is a simple type of complex system with few types of components and few resulting types of relations. Living cells and ecosystems are highly complex types of systems with great diversity of components and tremendous diversity of resulting types of relations.
“In simple complex systems each type of component and each type of relation occurs in large quantity. These systems are quantitatively complex due to quantity of components and relations, yet simple in the patterns-of-organization of the components and relations.
“In highly complex systems each type of component and each type of relation generally have relatively fewer occurrences throughout the system. These systems are qualitatively complex due to diversity of components and relations, and can have intricate patterns-of-organization of the components and relations.
“A distinction between systems that are quantitatively complex and systems that are qualitatively complex is that systems with relatively low diversity of components and relations also have fewer levels of hierarchic organization, while the greater the diversity of components and relations, the greater is the capacity of the system to develop more levels of hierarchic organization.
“Both the simpler complex systems, like a body of water, and the highly complex systems, like an animal or a forest ecosystem, are composed of atoms and molecules. The factors responsible for temperature occur at the level of atoms and molecules. Thus both the simpler complex systems and the highly complex systems can have emergent qualities of the system as a whole, such as temperature.
“Atoms and molecules are hierarchically low level components of complex systems. Thus temperature is a quality resulting from low levels in the hierarchic organization of a system. Systems that are quantitatively complex do not have much hierarchic organization above the level of molecules. Systems that are qualitatively complex can have many hierarchic levels above that of molecules, that is, qualitatively complex systems can have many hierarchic levels above the levels where the processes result in temperature.
“In systems with few hierarchic levels, quantitative factors play the predominant roles in determining the intrinsic nature of the system. In systems with many hierarchic levels, qualitative factors that occur in the higher levels play the predominant roles that determine what the system is.”
________________________________________
Foundationally, the abiotic and biotic processes of emergence as described in the paper, The Intrinsic Nature of Emergence, are essentially the same. At the levels of elementary particles, atoms, and the simpler molecules, the processes described in the paper predominate in both abiotic and biotic cases. With the emergence of the more complex replicative molecules such as RNA and DNA, the situation changes radically.
In simplest terms, life has an inherent process—a biological mechanism, a biological subsystem—that generates new components, new patterns-of-organizations within the DNA molecule, within the genetic code. Combinatorial-enhancement is one of the basic processes that result in emergence. When the newly generated components combine with the other already existing components, new kinds of emergent products occur. Due to the diversity of the newly emergent components, the processes of biological emergence are tremendously enhanced, resulting in the sophisticated complexity of biological systems—their great diversity and intricacy of the ordered interactions of structure and process between the components.
Sophisticated Complexity
From:
Vesterby, Vincent. 2008. Measuring Complexity: Things That Go Wrong and How to Get It Right. 3rd International Workshop on Complexity and Philosophy. 2007. Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Study, Stellenbosch, South Africa. Emergence: Complexity and Organization, 10:2:90-102.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/254453242_Measuring_Complexity_Things_That_Go_Wrong_and_How_to_Get_It_Right
“The types of serious problems we face are occurring in highly developed systems, in situations of extreme complexity. There is an additional aspect of complexity that characterizes highly complex systems. The six basic quantities of complexity, plus all the more detailed quantities, interrelating all together, develop into sophisticated complexity.
“As additional factors occur and play roles in a situation, the organization of that situation changes, it develops. Like nearly all factors of the origins, organization, and change of reality, organizational complexity develops, originating in simple form, and becoming progressively more complex with the roles of additional factors. The sequence of stages of development from single celled organisms up to ecosystems occurs at the most highly developed end of the development of organizational complexity. The sophisticated organizational complexity of these systems is unique due to the great diversity and intricacy of the ordered interactions of structure and process between the components.
“These forms of organization are sophisticated compared to the complexity of prior stages. Sophisticated complexity is the most highly developed form of organizational complexity that is known. This is not the complexity derived from simple interactions of simple components. This is not the relatively simple complexity of crystals with their billions of components arranged in more or less precise order. Nor is it the simple complexity of the ordered relations that occur with fractals. Even the complexity generated with cellular automata is simple by comparison. This sophisticated complexity is beyond the initial stages of the complexity derived from the often complex interactions of complex components. It is beyond the impressive geologic complexity that occurs with the chemistry of the hot stew of diverse components of a rising volcanic magma, as it eats its way up through the layers of various kinds of rock, before it reaches the surface and creates a volcano. Here the great diversity of atoms and molecules that become involved with a rising magma leads to a great diversity of relations, which in turn results in a great diversity of structure and process.
“However, because of the heat and dynamics of the magma, the structure of the molecules and minerals that are created there, and the length and complexity of the chemical pathways that create them, are limited. Hence, magmas tend to be similar if they have similar sources and materials that they pass through. Such a magma that came up a billion years ago was much like one that is coming up today, and also like one that will occur a billion years from now. Even though the process of the rising magma adds new types of components to the system, thus increasing its complexity, that increase can go only so far as all the interactions between the components go as far as they can in the conditions of the magma. Despite its incredible complexity, a rising magma, which can be as large as a mountain, is actually simple relative to the complexity of a single living cell, which is too small for us to see.
“Sophisticated systems are distinct from other situations and systems in that the development of progressive increase in complexity continues. They do this by way of subsystems that generate diversity, that generate new types of components that play roles as building blocks. Like the magma, the cell increases its complexity by a process of adding new types of components. The difference between the complexity that can be achieved by the magma’s process of adding new components and what can be achieved by the cell’s process is that the magma’s process has only a limited diversity of additional components available to it, while the cell’s process can generate a virtually limitless diversity of new\components. This results in new emergent pathways of development—new components, new relations, new patterns of material organization. Magmas are limited in their development because each of the various chemical pathways goes to its limit and stops, not creating any more new combinations of the available set of basic components. The same thing happens with virtually all the chemical pathways of sophisticated systems—except as those pathways get altered as a consequence of the special subsystems that generate new types of components.
“With magmas, there occurs the developmental sequence: from diversity of components, to diversity of relations, to diversity of structure and process. With sophisticated systems, there is the same sequence. However, with the generation of new types of components the sequence goes on, not running to a natural end state, resulting then in greater diversity of modularity, both in structure and process. This, in turn, results in a greater number of hierarchies, greater diversity of hierarchic organization, and an increase in the number of hierarchic levels, both in structure and in process, a building of complexity upon complexity. All of these stages of development from increase in diversity of components to additional levels of hierarchic organization results in the great diversity and intricacy of the ordered interactions of structure and process between the components characteristic of sophisticated complexity.
“Observation of this diversity and intricacy of ordered interrelation reveals an increase in the significance of individual components and the specific roles they play. With a crystal any component can play the roles of any other component. Removing a single atom or molecule does not alter the nature of the whole. Even removing the entire outer layer on all sides of the crystal does not alter the nature of the overall organization. With a living cell, the loss of a single phospholipid of the cell membrane would have no significant effect, while the loss of the whole outer layer, which is a modular component of the system, would result in the disintegration of the cell. Increase of significance of individual components means less significance of quantification and more significance of qualitative understanding. Ultimately, it is highly developed organizational complexity, sophisticated complexity, that we must learn how to live with, and how to manage.
“It is here with sophisticated complexity that a transition is required from quantitative analysis to qualitative analysis. It is here that the requisite tools for problem solving must be derived from understanding. The questions are no longer simply How much?, How many?, or How strong? The additional question now is, In what manner? This question is answered by the analysis of organization, both that of structure and that of process.
“Five examples of sophisticated systems
“The first example of a sophisticated system is a biological cell. There is within the internal system of molecular biology of the cell a mechanism, the DNA/RNA system, that produces proteins. The proteins and their roles are, in large part, the components of the structure and processes that give the cell its existence and that make the cell what it is. When that special mechanism creates, by way of mutations, new types of proteins that then play roles in the structure and processes of the cell, the cell is thereby changed. Because there is a vast number of possible types of proteins that can be created by the cell, and when the creation of new proteins contributes to the process of building upon what is already there, the process of creating new components results in a progressive increase of the diversity and intricacy of ordered interactions of structure and process between the components of the cell, that is, a progressive increase in complexity such that cells are examples of sophisticated complexity.
“The second example of a sophisticated system is a population of cells living together. Cells reproduce, they divide, thereby creating new cells. The internal cellular mechanisms involved with the process of cell division can produce new cells that are slightly different from one another. There is no known limit to the diversity of cells that can be created in this way. With increasing diversity of cell types there can occur an increasing diversity of interactions between those cells, leading to diversity and intricacy of ordered interactions between the members of the population, such as competition, symbiosis, predator/prey relations, and mating with transfer of genetic material as occurs with bacteria.
“The third example of a sophisticated system is a biological brain. Such a brain is an organ that has evolved the capacity to receive data, transform it into thoughts and knowledge, manipulate that knowledge, and create new concepts. The ability of a brain to work with what it has to create diverse new concepts is, again, vast. Adding those new concepts to the knowledge and conceptual basis already present in the mind leads to increasing diversity and intricacy of ordered interrelations of meaning and understanding.
“The fourth example of a sophisticated system is a social system at the level of multicellular organisms. The basic components of a social system are the individual organisms, which reproduce new organisms. Through various processes, such as sexual reproduction, the genetic makeup of the offspring is different from that of the parent organisms, and the diversity of the members of the social group is changed. With people, diversity of personal traits such as personality, strength, intelligence, and talent as in creativity, sports, or performance lends diversity to the manner in which they relate socially to one another. As the population grows, the increasing diversity of individuals and the increasing ways in which they interrelate adds diversity and intricacy to the ordered interrelations of the culture of a society.
“The fifth example of a sophisticated system is an ecosystem. An ecosystem is a community of organisms together with the abiotic environment in which they live and with which they interact. Different types of ecosystems are differentiated by (a) the types of physical conditions, e.g. mountains or plains, terrestrial or aquatic, (b) the types of organisms that live there, and (c) the types of interactions that occur between the living components and the abiotic components. Change of factors of any of these three can change the nature of the ecosystem. One of the ways in which this happens is through the evolution of the organisms that make up the biotic aspect. Newly evolved species can have new characteristics and through them new forms of interrelations with both the biotic and the abiotic components of the ecosystem, thereby bringing about changes in the nature of the system. There are no known limits to the evolution of new species, and thus virtually no limit to the change effects they can have on the ecosystems in which they live. As in the previous examples, changes building upon prior structure and process can result in progressive increase of diversity and intricacy of ordered interrelations.
“The interrelations and development of these stages
“The five systems, cell, cell population, organ, social system, and ecosystem, are some of the levels of the natural hierarchy of biological organization. Each higher level is either entirely or to some lesser extent existentially dependent on the prior levels. In the sequence of examples of sophisticated systems, the cells of the first example occur in a group to form the second example, a population of interacting cells. In the third example a population of cells occur coherently bound in the form of an organ, a brain. A brain is one component of an organism, which is the component of the fourth example, a social system. And a social system constitutes an organized component of the fifth example, the ecosystem in which it exists.
“There is a continuity of development from one level to another, from the lowest level to the highest level. All the factors present at all the levels, all the components and all the relations between them at all the levels, play their individual roles in concert to create this development of increasing hierarchy.
“By way of the DNA/RNA subsystem, cells create a diversity of proteins. By way of cell division, a diverse population of cells is created. It is the process of creating diversity of proteins at the first stage that provides the diversity of cell types at the second stage. The process of creating diversity at the second stage, by way of a different mechanism, is dependent on the operation within each of its components of the process of the first stage. Because there are two hierarchic levels, and because the first stage of sophisticated system plays a role in the process of the second stage, that is, there are two stages of sophisticated system playing roles in the nature of the second stage, that higher level second stage is more complex than the first stage. The transition from one stage to the next is a situation development, but the difference in form and complexity of the factor sophisticated system is factor development. With factor development a factor occurs in relatively simple form in a relatively simpler situation, and in more complex form in more complex situations where more factors are playing roles. Factor development occurs with emergence of each of the five stages represented by the five examples.
“As the cells divide and create new cells at the second stage, the first stage, the creation of a diversity of proteins, is still there within each cell and still playing its role. The second stage, a population of cells, a group of interrelating cells, is still there, coherently so, and still playing their roles as they occur in the form of a brain. Individual animals that live in social groups, from fish to people, have brains that play significant roles in the processes of their societies. And social groups of animals play roles in the ecosystems in which they occur and with which they interact. At the highest level of sophisticated system, all the lower levels are still there and still playing their roles.
“Sophisticated complexity is the consequence of a specific pattern of material organization, a specific pattern of system organization, wherein there is an ongoing internal mechanism whereby new types of components are created such that there occurs a progressive development of diversity and intricacy of ordered interrelation within the system. This pattern of system organization occurs in all of the stages of the factor development of sophisticated complexity as those stages occur in the overall situation development from the first stage, a living cell, through the intervening stages, to the fifth stage, an ecosystem. Living cells are a type of relatively low level component of ecosystems, and it is interesting to note that this pattern of organization, that turns both the cell and the ecosystem into sophisticated systems, occurs as an intrinsic quality of the low level cell, a component of the whole, and as an intrinsic quality of the ecosystem, that is as a quality of the whole.
“Four of these stages of the development of sophisticated systems produce a diversity of unit components—molecules, cells, individual organisms, and species. The brain stage, while its existence is the result of the operation of the two lower level stages of sophisticated systems, its form of this factor is distinct from that of the other stages. Instead of unit components of one sort or another, the brain mechanism produces connections between already existing components, making it a significantly different form of sophisticated system.
“With natural hierarchy, it is typical for factors of lower levels to still be there playing their roles within higher levels, and it is also common for prior stages of development to be continuing their roles in structure and process. It can also happen that a factor of a lower level can occur again in developed form at a higher level. Additionally, a factor can occur in a significantly different form and yet still be that factor, such as creating connections between units rather than simply creating units. To realistically understand the whole, it is necessary to understand the nature of the lower levels and the nature of how they are related. To understand the nature of sophisticated complexity as it occurs at the level of the ecosystem, it is necessary to understand this factor at all the lower levels and prior stages.
“The modern generalist mode of analysis and understanding uses these factors, these patterns of organization, as tools for exploration, analysis, and further understanding. One of these factors is universal in that it is the universal pattern of organization within which all other patterns occur. That universal pattern is development. Development is sequential-difference, like the letters in a word, the words of a conversation, or the motion of something through space. All patterns of organization have aspects of their origins, structure, and change that are based on sequential-difference. There are two basic modes of sequential-difference, two basic modes of development. One occurs with the sequential-difference from one part of space to another, or from one part of material structure to another. The other occurs with the sequential-difference from one part of an ongoing change to a following part of that change. All patterns have aspects of both in their manner of existence. Understanding these factors and using them as tools of analysis involves both the spatial/structural and the temporal/change aspects of their character.
“Development as a tool is based on development as the intrinsic organization of reality. Because it is universal, it provides a universal viewpoint in which all other factors of the existence and nature of reality can be placed in their appropriate relations to one another. The use of development in this manner is one of the defining features of the modern generalist mode. As an intellectual tool, development provides a universal framework for understanding everything, including sophisticated complexity and the problems we have with sophisticated systems.”
________________________________________
The forgoing describes why emergence with biological systems is different from emergence as it occurs with nonbiological situations and systems. Biological systems have a subsystem, a biological mechanism, that generates diversity of components that enables diversity of emergence, which in turn creates the great diversity and intricacy of the ordered interactions of structure and process between the components of living systems and systems with living systems as components, such as social systems and ecosystems.
There is more.
1. Understanding why emergence is determinate—why the existence and intrinsic qualities of what goes before determine the existence and intrinsic qualities of what follows—why the existence and intrinsic qualities of the components determine by way of combinatorial-enhancement the emergence and intrinsic qualities of the emergent whole.
2. Understanding the difference that occurs with factor development—how factors that play roles in both abiotic and biotic emergence play simple roles with the abiotic situations but play more complex roles in the biotic systems.
3. Understanding the differences and the interrelations between the roles of cause in the processes of emergence and the roles of allowing-situations in emergence.
4. Understanding the roles in the process of emergence of existential-pathway-development—the relations between component-existential-pathway-development and situation-existential-pathway-development.
5. And so on with other general factors, such as hyperhierarchical organization of structure and process, and structural-logic.
Kind regards,
Vincent
Article Measuring Complexity: Things That Go Wrong and How to Get It Right
Article Universal Resilience Patterns in Complex Networks—Analysis o...
Hello Vincent,
thank you for your conspicuous contribution, which I want to read carefully.
Pier Luigi
Hello Pier,
I have uploaded another paper about emergence to ResearchGate.
This paper discusses aspects of the role of emergence in the universe, and the importance of understanding those roles for the purpose of understanding life and mind. It points out why knowledge of lower levels, while required as a component of a full understanding of higher levels, is inadequate by itself due to the emergence of other factors in the intervening levels that are also required components for the full understanding of the higher levels.
This paper is relevant to the comments Shian-Loong Bernard Lew made about the need for there “. . . to be a way to adequately represent the complex macrostructure by way of an evolution from simpler components.”
It is also relevant the comments Gyorgy Banhegyi made concerning the relation of emergence and reduction, “they cannot be simply reduced to the level below (i.e. to chemistry in the case of life or to biology in the case of consciousness).”
Emergence Is Why It Is Not Possible to Explain Life Solely With Physics and Chemistry.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/317905122_Emergence_Is_Why_It_Is_Not_Possible_to_Explain_Life_Solely_With_Physics_and_Chemistry
Article Emergence Is Why It Is Not Possible to Explain Life Solely W...
Hello Vincent,
Thank you for sharing your paper about emergence.
I am going to read it, soon.
I echo Pier's comment, thanks for sharing.
I will make a real attempt to try and understand the information you have been sending us at the weekend. Though not by field, I really want to get my head around emergence and how it has influenced the evolutionary process.
Thanks Andrew
Hello Andrew,
You commented, “. . . emergence and how it has influenced the evolutionary process.”
The evolutionary process is a process of emergence, the emergence of new species for example.
Emergence is the process whereby structural and/or process patterns-of-material-organization come into existence.
There are two primary aspects of emergence—the event of coming into existence and the prior process that leads to that event.
There is the actual event of coming into existence of the emergent pattern-of-material-organization—the event of the existence of a newly created atom in a star, the event of the existence of a newly created protein molecule in a cell, the event of the existence of the first individual of a new species of organism in an ecosystem.
With the prior process, each event of the new existence of an emergent pattern-of-material-organization, whether of an atom, a protein, or a new species, is a consequence of a preceding process that culminates in that event of new existence—the creative process of emergence.
With a living organism, any variation in the processes leading to an emergent pattern can render that pattern more or less fit for the role it plays within the organism or between the organism and its environment. Whatever that role, whether it be with the anatomy, metabolism, physiology, reproduction, or ecology of the organism, any changes are subject to the evolutionary process.
Emergent pattern of structure and process permeates the deep structure of an organism, and as every emergent pattern is subject to the evolutionary process, that process also permeates the deep structure of the organism. Because emergent pattern occurs at every level, from the creation of proteins to the creation of organelles or organ systems within the organism, to the interrelations of the organism with its environment, evolution occurs at every level.
Hi Vincent,
I'm I right in thinking that evolution is the mechanism by which that change occurs. The constraints imposed by earlier evolution must then restrict what is now possible in the evolved system. A new emergent property can then only be possible in the new constraints, it will limit the range of possibilities that yield reproductive advantage against the earlier evolved forms?
Is the emergency also the creator of the constraint? so once it progresses in a given direction it can't reverse what as already happened. Is emergence this generation of a one way path?
Andrew
Hello Andrew,
A number of years ago the systems community became preoccupied with the notion of constraint. A great deal of thought was, and still is, put into what situations, systems, and even science cannot do because of constraints. This focus on constraints and limitations put a severe constraint on progress in understanding systems and seriously mislead students on the nature of science and its effectiveness at discovering new knowledge.
What a system or science cannot do is the least interesting thing about them. The important point is not what relations an entity cannot have with other entities, but rather what relations it does have, and what are the consequences of the relations that do occur. It is not interesting that a single atom cannot talk to you, but it is interesting that enough atoms together in the right configuration can talk to you. The important thing is not what atoms cannot do. What is important is what they do.
Both emergence in general and emergence in the form of biological evolution are creative. They create emergent pattern-of-organization of structure and process. When trying to understand biological evolution it is best to focus on this creative aspect rather than on what the process does not or cannot create. The following paragraphs provide a brief description of how emergence plays this creative role in biological evolution.
Within an animal’s body various types of processes of emergence create emergent patterns-of-organization of structure and processes. These emergent patterns play roles that enable the animal to continue living, to survive in its environment, and to reproduce. Variations in the processes of emergence can result in variations of the emergent patterns of structure and process. These variations can result in the patterns of structure and process being more or less fit for the roles they play within the animal.
The emergent patterns that can be passed on to progeny through reproduction tend to become permanent if they enhance the ability to continue living, the ability to survive in the environment, or the ability to reproduce effectively. They tend to become permanent if they enhance the fitness of the organism. Those emergent patterns that lessen the fitness of the organism tend to be eliminated.
This ongoing process, generation by generation, of (a) accumulating emergent patterns that enhance fitness and (b) the elimination of emergent patterns that diminish fitness, progressively changes the overall pattern-of-organization of the organism.
Within an organism, there are two primary stages of emergence that play roles in biological evolution. First there are the various of forms of emergence that initially create all the emergent patterns of structure and process. And second, there is the stage where the fit patterns accumulate and the unfit patterns are eliminated, which results in the emergent pattern of the organism as a whole entity.
Biological evolution is thus a two stage process of emergence. The creation of variety and a natural sorting of that variety by fitness, the two together creating the nature of the organism as an entity.
Due to the inherent creative nature of the process of emergence, especially emergence based on combinatorial-enhancement, and due to the accumulation of emergent changes that enhance fitness, there occurs a tendency toward progressive enhancement of both the fitness of organisms and the complexity of living systems, and also of systems with living systems as components such as social systems and ecosystems. (link below)
The primary role of emergence in the universe is enhancement—the creation of newly existing patterns-of-organization of material structure and process. When a newly existing pattern emerges in a situation, there can occur new relations between that pattern and other patterns in the situation. The emergence of a pattern-of-organization enables the occurrence of new interrelations between the components of the situation.
Because emergent pattern-of-material-organization enables new interrelations, the notion of emergent properties (which are patterns-of-organization) playing roles of constraint on future possibilities of emergence in the evolutionary process is not a significantly productive notion for understanding biological evolution. What counts is what happens, not what does not happen. The process of biological evolution is monumentally versatile in its creative capacity.
The discipline-independent-transdisciplinarity that I develop is a method for improving communication between specialists in different disciplines. (links below) It is based on isomorphies, which are patterns-of-organization that occur in, and play roles in the intrinsic nature of, two to many different situations, including the subject matters of the different disciplines. Understanding isomorphies, and the ability to identify them in unfamiliar situations and in the various disciplines, provides an entry way into those situations and disciplines—something is already known about them.
An isomorphy can occur at any, or even all, of the levels of the hierarchic organization of material reality. They also can occur in various cases all across any particular level. In general, isomorphies are ubiquitous—which is why they are so useful for communication throughout the disciplines. When researching an unfamiliar subject isomorphies should be expected.
In biological evolution the abundant cases of convergent evolution are cases of isomorphies. With biological evolution, isomorphies should be expected. The occurrence, and multiple reoccurrence, of isomorphies is one more reason to be cautious about predicting what evolution cannot create due to a prior emergent pattern playing a role as a constraint.
Vesterby, Vincent. 2008. Are Ecosystems Alive? Proceedings of the 52nd Annual Meeting of the ISSS, Madison, Wisconsin, USA.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/299445917_ARE_ECOSYSTEMS_ALIVE
Vesterby, Vincent. 2012. From Bertalanffy to Discipline-Independent-Transdisciplinarity. Proceedings of the 56th Annual Meeting of the ISSS, San Jose, CA, USA.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/299389290_From_Bertalanffy_to_Discipline-Independent-Transdisciplinarity
Vesterby, Vincent. 2013. Discipline-Independent-Transdisciplinarity: The Essentials.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/299397879_Discipline-Independent-Transdisciplinarity_The_Essentials
Vesterby, Vincent. 2013. Six PowerPoint presentations about Discipline-Independent-Transdisciplinarity. First Global Conference on Research Integration and Implementation. Canberra, Australia.
Search ‘Vesterby’ at http://i2sconference.digitalposter.com.au/posters-search/
Conference Paper ARE ECOSYSTEMS ALIVE?
Article From Bertalanffy to Discipline-Independent-Transdisciplinarity
Working Paper Discipline-Independent-Transdisciplinarity: The Essentials
If a system has a structure and if that structure has a foundation, then an extension of that foundation introduces new structure components that have extra properties. These properties are emergent.
http://vixra.org/abs/1709.0213
Dear Vincent Vesterby,
I read your paper titled "The Intrinsic Nature of Emergence" that I liked.
I think we should use the term "emergence" when we have a system with MANY COMPONENTS that are interconnected. By INTEGRATION of the properties of the single constituents, we obtain the EMERGENT PROPERTIES of the whole system.
More information can be found in the book that I have written, titled "Untangling Complex Systems: A Grand Challenge for Science."
https://www.crcpress.com/Untangling-Complex-Systems-A-Grand-Challenge-for-Science/Gentili/p/book/9781466509429
If you look carefully, then you will see that universe has a modular design. All elementary particles are elementary modules and together they constitute all modules that exist in the universe. Some modules constitute modular systems. Modular systems are life forms. So they implement the evolution of life on planets. Modular design can occur in a stochastic way and when intelligent species have arrived it can be done in an intelligent way, which proceeds much faster. It is clear that the modular structure of objects let new capabilities emerge easier than in monolithic design.
So modular design and construction are part of nature's structure and are implemented by the creator at very deep levels.
See: Modularity in the universe; http://vixra.org/abs/1804.0379
Thou shalt construct in a modular way; Article Thou shalt construct in a modular way
Dear Hans van Leunen,
Thank you for your message.
Modular network is just one kind of all the possible networks in nature.
There are also regular, random, small world, scale-free, and hierarchical networks....
What do you think?
Pier Luigi
I took part in an effort to componentize the generation of software, especially embedded software. This effort was started because the cost of software generation started to grow above the revenue of the hardware in which the embedded software was planned to perform its functionality. The hardware industry already implemented a modular design and construction of hardware and a lively components market supports this way of manufacturing. Nobody can now build a computer as a monolithic construct because the costs would be monstrous. The results of the investigation are reported in "Story of a war against software complexity"; http://vixra.org/abs/1101.0061 and "Managing the software generation process"; http://vixra.org/abs/1101.0062 . Software is still built in the same inefficient way that leads to costly and less robust results.
The Hilbert Book Model Project devotes a special chapter to modular construction; https://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Hilbert_Book_Model_Project#Modules_and_modular_systems
All of physical reality emerges from a simple foundation.
Tracing the structure of physical reality by starting from its fundamentals; http://dx.doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.2.16452.07047
Hello Pier,
Thank you for your response.
I agree with you that it is the integration of the properties of the constituents that results in the emergence of the properties of the whole system.
And yes, “. . . we should use the term emergence when we have a system with MANY COMPONENTS that are interconnected.”
But I am wondering here, are you saying that the term emergence should be used only for those situations where there are many components?
What about situations with few components where new properties and objects come into existence due to the integration of the properties of the components?
For example, it takes only two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom for the water molecule to come into existence, with all the new properties water has as compared to the properties of separate hydrogen atoms and oxygen atoms.
Another simple example is the creation of a bench by using bricks and a board. Two orderly stacks of bricks with the board resting on them results in the new existence of an object, a bench, which has properties that the individual bricks or the board do not have.
If we use this criterion, “By INTEGRATION of the properties of the single constituents, we obtain the EMERGENT PROPERTIES of the whole system,” should we also use the term emergence for situations with few interconnected components that result in the occurrence of new properties and objects?
I have purchased a copy of your book.
Best regards,
Vincent
Dear Vincent,
Many thanks for purchasing my book!
You are right. The term emergence can be used also for situations with few interconnected components that result in the occurrence of new entities and properties.
I hope you enjoy reading my book!
Best regards.
Pier Luigi
All my papers are openly accessible on http://vixra.org/author/j_a_j_van_leunen
The Hilbert Book Model Project is published on https://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Hilbert_Book_Model_Project
and is treated on https://www.researchgate.net/project/The-Hilbert-Book-Model-Project
Hello Naila,
What is it that you are saying is “not unexplainable?
Regards,
Vincent
Water is the emergent property of hydrogen and oxygen two. In my view, the way to probably unravel water constituent element is to use reversed osmosis or stochastic principles?
If water is the emergent property from the interaction of hydrogen and oxygen, In my view, the way to unravel water properties is to modelled reverse osmosis?
Perhaps we should not only ask "what is an emergent property" but "what is not an emergent property." Whatever the most fundamental things of matter are in the universe and all they do by themselves when they are isolated, e.g., fundamental fermions (quarks, electrons) or bosons (photons, gluons). Those might be called "non-emergent" and everything about them when isolated "non-emergent properties". Everything else that is made of these: from atoms and all they do, to butterflies and galaxies and all they do, would seem to be emergent phenomena with emergent properties. I mean, can you really predict the luster and resilience of Gold from fermions and bosons? Or the weirdness of Boron? Or right and left handed spiral galaxies? But even this is not a perfect answer (e.g., fermions supposedly didn't exist as they do now at time of big bang, so they are emergent phenomona too). And we can't bail out by saying, "well we only mean with respect to non-equilibrium stuff" because equilibrium is just a matter of waiting. Nothing is really in it yet. Thus, my answer to "what is an emergent property" is: everything about everything that is going on anywhere (except maybe for God--but even they do inexplicably emergent stuff too). So in conclusion I think I must simply answer "everything about everything" is an emergent property. Sorry to the philosophers if I accidentally created an emergency for emergency. But I'm sure someone else has brought this point up before--hopefully a philosopher. I'm just your average joe chemist rummaging around researchgate on a Friday afternoon, looking at who is reading our new paper on electron transfer, when I should have taken off early to hang out with my family. Never again.
:-)
Dear Bryan, I really enjoyed reading your answer.
I agree with you. In my book "Untangling Complex Systems: A Grand Challenge for Science," I show that Complex Systems can be described as networks. Different Complex Systems are represented by different types of networks. Each kind of network has its own emergent properties...
Thanks, Bryan.
I have been investigated the interdisciplinary subject of Complex Systems for many years.
I hope you enjoy reading my book. It has been published by CRC press. Its link is https://www.crcpress.com/Untangling-Complex-Systems-A-Grand-Challenge-for-Science/Gentili/p/book/9781466509429
Otherwise, you can find it in Amazon.
I've recently heard that consciousness is best understood as an emergent system, and that gravity may be an emergent system rather than what ever it is now (I'm a psychologist, not a physicist). Emergence seem to be that something is "larger than the sum of its parts", but that doesn't quite cut it for me. The other ELI5 i could find didn't help as much either. So what is emergence, and why is it important?
Dear Prof. Kambeiz Talebi,
thank you for your contributin and question.
The concept of emergence is useful when we deal with Complex Systems. Complex Systems can exhibit properties that are unpredictable. These properties emerge from Complex Systems. It is in these cases that it is useful to talk about emergent properties.
A proper theory of physical reality is a self-creating model. Int that theory everything emerges from the foundation of that model.
The Hilbert Book Model shows that such model is possible.
http://vixra.org/abs/1904.0388
Thanks Hans van Leunen for your suggestion!
Did you write that book?
Pier Luigi
The book is my scientific inheritance, but it is still regularly updated. Vixra offers a very efficient revision service. and you can publish there free of cost and without registration. Arxiv requires registration and endorsement. See https://www.researchgate.net/project/The-Hilbert-Book-Model-Project/update/5d1a51a6cfe4a7968db0a7fd
Hi,
For emerging properties of new organizations, you can be refereed to the following reference:
Katz, J., & Gartner, W. B. (1988). Properties of emerging organizations. Academy of management review, 13(3), 429-441.
Well, it seems that ALL properties of ALL real systems ARE emergent - this is just another formulation of the non-stop dynamic change of ALL real systems - organic and inorganic. We simply forgot/neglected that ALL systems around us non-stop change in time - grow, mature and die (and repeat again).
Does this naive answer make sense?
Thanks Val Bykovsky for your answer.
Ok, all the properties might be conceived as emergent. However, there are some that are not predictable and others that are. So, it is worth distinguishing them.
Well, the emergence is a physical phenomenon, whereas prediction is a human/math/computational/whatever activity.
So to me, an emergent property is just a well-understood, that is, understood in all its completeness property of a real phenomenon.
So your question, Pier, seems to be really valuable for a better understanding of complex dynamics of real-world phenomena.
My best, Val
While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.
(KJV, 2 Corinthians 4:18)
What do you, Valery A. Tartakovsky, want to mean with your statement?
Free interpretation
Apparently, the Apostle had in mind the human possibilities and the scale of the cosmos.
The observer is one of the elements that form the system. Elements are observable as long as an observer exists, but this interval is small in comparison with the lifetime of the system; therefore, the properties of the elements are temporal for the observer. The properties of the system change little within the observation interval, otherwise, the observer will not survive, therefore the properties of the system are eternal for the observer.
On the scales under consideration, the properties of the holistic climate system are the emergent properties.
Emergent behavior within complexity means that newly risen entities that act according to newly risen rules were created through interactions of their constituting parts. Those parts are members of the next lower level within the hierarchy of emergent structures or directly the base medium of the complex system.
There is an existing misunderstanding about what emergents are. Basically, they are either bulk properties of the system (strength of metals, an opinion in society, the surface tension of the water) or virtual entities arising through the interaction of lower-level systemic hierarchy (molecules from atoms, biomolecules, cells, tissues, organs, bodies, societies).
The immunity of living things is a miraculous emergence should be studied more.
How come plant seeds can survive over thousands years with the help of its immunity?:
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2012/2/120221-oldest-seeds-regenerated-plants-science/
https://evolutionnews.org/2016/08/how_a_dry_seed/
Without the immunity, all living things can be easily attacked by the microorganisms in its surroundings and decay in just few days.
Dear Prof. Ligen Yu ,
I agree with you. The properties of the immune systems to recognize antigens and fight them is astonishing. Unfortunately, an immune system can also go awry when it does not identify the cells of the organism which belongs to...
The question of what is an emergent property seems clear to me. At least in the sense that I wrote above. However, the principle (algorithm) of detecting (selecting) an emergent property for a specific system, e.g., for a climate, is unclear to me.
Many properties of elementary particles emerge from the structure of elementary particles.
That structure emerges from an orthomodular lattice.
Preprint Representing basic physical fields by quaternionic fields
Dear @Pier Luigi Gentili
Several yet simple entities interacting to form a more complex, but collective behavior may be referred to as emergent property. Details may be accessed through:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emergence
Thanks!
"Emergent" is a philosophical term going back to 19th-century debates about evolution, implying properties that do not preexist in a system or substrate. Life and consciousness, in this view, are emergent properties.
Emergence plays a central role in theories of integrative levels and of complex systems. In philosophy, systems theory, science, and art, emergence occurs when an entity is observed to have properties its parts do not have on their own, properties or behaviors which emerge only when the parts interact in a wider whole. Jeffrey Goldstein provided a current definition of emergence (Goldstein, 1999). He initially defined emergence as: "the arising of novel and coherent structures, patterns and properties during the process of self-organization in complex systems." Emergence has the following aspects: synergism, novelty, irreducibility, unpredictability, coherence/correlation and historicity. Self-organization is the spontaneous often seemingly purposeful formation of spatial, temporal, spatiotemporal structures or functions in systems composed of few or many components. In physics, chemistry and biology it occurs in open systems driven away from thermal equilibrium. Emergence is a fundamental quality of self-organizing systems. Aspects of self-organisation are: systemness, complexity, cohesion, openness, bottom-up-emergence, downward causation, non-linearity, feedback loops, circular causality, information, relative chance, hierarchy, globalization and localization, unity in plurality (generality and specifity) (Arshinov and Fuchs 2003)
Structures exist that automatically extend to more complicated structures.
For example, Hilbert spaces extend to the Hilbert repository
Wikipedia definition (emergence occurs when an entity is observed to have properties its parts do not have on their own) is good enough for me. It is important to note that there are different ways how the emergent behavior of a complex system could reveal itself.
Here is one example. The system consists of a finite number of elements. All those elements are different from each other to some degree. Over time new elements emerged in the system. However, nobody could predict (based on current elements and the sum of elements) which new element would emerge and when. That is emergent behavior. I discussed several such models of humankind in my articles and my book "Subsurface History of Humanity: Direction of History."
Thanks for your answer, Victor Torvich and congratulations on your book. It sounds interesting.
Do you know my book titled "Untangling Complex Systems: A Grand Challenge for Science"? In my book, I show that we can describe Complex Systems as networks and the emergent properties they show are the functions of the networks' architectures.
I have gone through a number of replies to the question above and have a related question of my own. I would appreciate your response. What is your view on treating fire accidents as an emergent phenomena in a system?
The system should have its natural boundaries, and within these boundaries, emergent properties should be distinguished. After a fire, a new system is likely to form. This is where the borderline between evolution and revolution arises.
My comments on emergent properties and physical complex systems are attached.
Indeed, "Beauty will save the world" (Dostoevsky, novel The Idiot), but maybe it would be better to ask Mr. William Ockham to sharpen the razor?
What is emergence has already become clear, almost! But how to distinguish emergent properties in nature, how to use the consequences of emergence?
Honestly, we do not have a definite answer to this question yet in the terms of a theory. During years, there came across my path a lot of texts, articles, books, one of them remained in the memory as the most accessible to non-specialists. Steven Johnson's book on emergence [1]. It is a good starting point for everyone, including scientists from not related fields of research.
Another very rich source of knowledge about emergence is computer programs simulating it. Yes, by making our own hands dirty and try to program it. It was the best school to me (software on domain decomposition a.k.a. splitting area into equally big subdomains, and software simulating dynamic recrystallization are two publicly available software pieces of this kind, see RG for details)
The 'simplest' programming way is to study cellular automata as means of description of complex systems (CS), see [2,3] and citations there for introductions, where are described self-organization, emergence, self-replication, self-repair (healing), and many other phenomena observed within CSs.
Other programming methods encompass: agent-based models, crowd behavior, social systems, military combat systems, ecosystems, immune system, etc. The number of available software is increasing.
The best working definition of emergence is this:
Emergents are arising due to and through mutual interactions of systemic parts at a lower-level of the system. Systemic parts are interacting with a limited number of its neighbors. The nature of those interactions is nonlinear. An emergent is a virtual entity existing above the level of its constituting parts, is dynamically stable, and maintain its existence for prolonged periods of time.
Once the lower-level environment gets sufficiently disturbed or is unable to provide interactions among its parts, the emergent structures cease to exist abruptly.
Another way to describe the same is based on information. The system must provide some sort of low-level information processing in order to be capable to create and maintain emergent. Hence, the system must use energy and/or information to maintain its emergent in their existence.
References:
[1] Steven Johnson: "Emergence", Penguin Books (2002) 1-288
[2] Jiri Kroc, Karel Balihar, & Martin Metejovic, "Complex Systems and Their Use in Medicine: Concepts, Methods and Bio-Medical Applications", ResearchGate (2019) DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.29919.30887
[3] Jiri Kroc, Peter Sloot & Alfonz Hoekstra: "Introduction to Modeling of Complex Systems Using Cellular Automata", In book: Simulating Complex Systems by Cellular Automata (Understanding Complex Systems), Springer Berlin Heidelberg (May 2010) DOI: 10.1007/978-3-642-12203-3_1
“What makes life emerge”? Try in the lab to apply the individual components we assign generally to life: nothing interesting will happen!
This is because life is not a property of something, but any thing presupposes life as a natural property of a productive, all-embracing Consciousness that performs both non-locally and enclosure-independently (cf. Structure wave theory on RG).
Dreaming is likely an emergent property of the brain, meaning that dreaming is a property of the human brain, even though not all parts of the brain participate in dreaming, and individual brain cells likely do not dream at all.
Emergent properties describe qualities of complex systems which cannot be found within their individual parts, and whose function is interdependent with the performance of such parts.
Following the example given by Isaam Sinjab above: pumping blood is an emergent property of a heart which cannot be assigned to its smaller constituents, i.e. a heart cell does not pump blood. However the heart’s function of “pumping blood” is not found outside of its parts performance, such as the movement of cells responsible for the contraction and relaxation of the myocardium. Similarly, such movement is only possible in the context of the overall function of “pumping blood”. The two can therefore said to arise interdependently.
@Gemma f. Lopez Is it conceivable that genetics might ever become sufficiently sophisticated to be able to predict the formation of the heart and associated neurological controls from the DNA structure and bio-chemistry/physics alone. If so, then what of emergence?
More fundamentally, at what point in very early evolution of life does it seem likely that emergence first occurs?
In other words, emergent properties are properties of a group of items, whether insects, atoms or buildings, that you would not find in any of the individual items. Examples of emergent properties include cities, the brain, ant colonies and complex chemical systems.Oct 9, 2018
https://sciencing.com › ... › Biology
What Are Emergent Properties? - Sciencing
Three systems, termed here BUBBLEs, WAVEs and CRYSTALs, have been identified as exhibiting emergent properties. They are non-hierarchical assemblages of individual components, with amplification and connectedness being two main principles that govern their build-up, maintenance and mutual relationships.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov › pmc
Emergent properties from organisms to e
Page (2009) describes three types of emergence: "simple", "weak", and "strong". According to Page, simple emergence is generated by the combination of element properties and relationships and occurs in non-complex or “ordered” systems (see Complexity) (2009).Oct 10, 2021
https://www.sebokwiki.org › wiki
Emergence - SEBoK
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