Brigno, in a comment to my reblog of Kateopolis’ starlings. It immediately brought to mind the concept of emergence.
It is a concept which has particularly captivated my dad, who I hope will describe it a bit in a comment below. Its solid Wikipedia article quotes an academic’s description in saying that emergence is
“…the arising of novel and coherent structures, patterns and properties during the process of self-organization in complex systems… The common characteristics are: (1) radical novelty (features not previously observed in systems); (2) coherence or correlation (meaning integrated wholes that maintain themselves over some period of time); (3) A global or macro “level” (i.e. there is some property of “wholeness”); (4) it is the product of a dynamical process (it evolves); and (5) it is “ostensive” - it can be perceived. [Another quality is] supervenience — downward causation.”
This may seem utterly pedantic, but emergence is a powerful process that may explain many presently mysterious phenomena, such as the development of consciousness.
The spectacular Errol Morris film Fast, Cheap & Out of Control discusses emergence in at least two of its four threads: the behavior of the naked mole rats (and animals, and humans, in general) and the interconnectivity of the simple robots (their function as a system exceeds their complexity as units, as is true of human civilization).
Indeed, the quality of starlings flocking is exemplary of emergent behavior, as are many insect societies, climate patterns, physical qualities, and more. Perhaps thought, language, culture, and history are as well.
Note: see also Placebo’s excellent post on consciousness and patterns, in which she discusses materialism in neuroscience, divergencies in individuals’ experiences, and some practical applications of these ideas.
