Toss Me in the Stew and Give it a Stir

My last post was intended to be a brief primer on emergence, but I haven't yet said what causes emergent behavior. One defining characteristic of emergence is that the whole is much more than the sum of the parts. But what causes this to happen?

It boils down to two things: diversity and interconnectedness. If all of the bits of me were the same, I would not be human. I would be more like a sponge. Or some giant patch of mold. And if all the bits of me were not interconnected, I would not be able to accomplish the dance of coordination which results in my fingers typing this sentence.

The same holds true for any type of emergent phenomenon. The structure of cities, the behavior of corporations, the explosion of life on this planet -- all of it depends on a diverse pot of ingredients mixed together in a complex interconnected stew. Too much uniformity or not enough mixing, and the resultant dish is a dull unimaginative gruel. However, if you can manage the right balance of individuality and community, entirely unpredictable yet wonderful things can happen. This isn't just nice, poetic thinking; there's good solid math hiding behind these ideas.

So anyway, in the spirit of mixing it up a bit, I've finally joined Facebook. My music, movies, and books have all made the transition from the physical to the non-physical. Perhaps it was indeed time to join an online community as well. And perhaps it will give me some interesting, and shall we say emergent, ideas.