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Emergence: Difference between revisions
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So, “wetness” is a property of water, but not of a molecule of H<sub>2</sub>0. “Consciousness” is a property of a brain, but not of the neural activity that ''comprises'' it.<ref>This [[paradox]] has derailed the philosophy of mind for hundred of years.</ref> “[[Bureaucracy]]” is an emergent property of a [[financial services]] organisation, not the individual communications within that organisation that make up the organisation. Well, not many of them, anyway. | So, “wetness” is a property of water, but not of a molecule of H<sub>2</sub>0. “Consciousness” is a property of a brain, but not of the neural activity that ''comprises'' it.<ref>This [[paradox]] has derailed the philosophy of mind for hundred of years.</ref> “[[Bureaucracy]]” is an emergent property of a [[financial services]] organisation, not the individual communications within that organisation that make up the organisation. Well, not many of them, anyway. | ||
===Emergence of a property of components=== | |||
Nonetheless in each case emergence is a property of the whole system, but the ''property'' creating the emergence belongs not to the holistic system where it presents, but only of its individual components, ''where it does not''. So, ''changing ''an emergent property is tricky. It is a classic systems problem. | |||
“Culture” is an emergent property, too: generated by, but not subsisting in, the behaviour of individuals interacting together within the organisation. | |||
“Culture” is an emergent property, too: generated by, but not subsisting in, the | |||
Understanding emergence is a clue to why cultural change in an organisation is so hard, and why top-down attempts to change culture so frequently fail. | Understanding emergence is a clue to why cultural change in an organisation is so hard, and why top-down attempts to change culture so frequently fail. | ||
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Nor can you remove [[bureaucracy]] from an organisation by telling the workers to be less bureaucratic, while keeping the hierarchy structure under which being conservative and doing what you have always done is the safest course of action. Every individual action may be explicable — if a bit conservative — viewed in isolation. You can’t see the bureaucracy in it, and the individual may feel she has no alternative, given the hierarchical structures, but to act that way. | Nor can you remove [[bureaucracy]] from an organisation by telling the workers to be less bureaucratic, while keeping the hierarchy structure under which being conservative and doing what you have always done is the safest course of action. Every individual action may be explicable — if a bit conservative — viewed in isolation. You can’t see the bureaucracy in it, and the individual may feel she has no alternative, given the hierarchical structures, but to act that way. | ||
===Emergence is not the same as complexity=== | |||
Emergent behaviour is often an important component in [[complex system]]s — for example, the phenomenon of “life” as studied in biology, is an emergent property of chemistry, and ''psycho''logical phenomena (like consciousness) may be said to emerge from ''neurobio''logical phenomena that don’t possess them — but ''emergence is not the same as complexity''. | |||
Water is ''wet'' (an emergent property not possessed by its component molecules), but not ''[[complex]]''. Metal is ''shiny'' and ''malleable'', but not complex. | |||
Properties can and do emerge from simple [[algorithm]]ic processes which do pretty weird and wonderful things, but are still not complex. [[Conway’s Game of Life]] creates all kinds of ostensibly “live” artefacts, but even though they seem to glide, and shoot missiles and do all kinds of mechanistically impressive things, they are not complex. They run on deterministic rails. | |||
Where there ''is'' complexity — where genuinely autonomous entities operate in an inchoate environment with imperfect data and ambiguous or changing rules, then emergent properties certainly comes into their own. But one should not confuse “emergent” and “complex” (as mathematicians are prone to do). | |||
===Off the diving board into the pool of ill-considered speculation=== | ===Off the diving board into the pool of ill-considered speculation=== | ||