See also: EmergentBehavior, EmergentProperty

WardCunningham is really into these. -- StevenNewton

I'd like to learn more about them. What are they? Can you give me some examples?

''GameOfLife? (See also UltraStructure, which could be relevant.)''


Take a frying pan or skillet full of half opened paper-clips and shake it for a while.   They will come out in chains and clumps.   If not you didn't shake things long enough or you didn't open the clips up enough!

So:  a collection of sticky but disconnected items tends to form clumps when shaken up -- long enough and if not shaken enough to fall apart and if they are stick enough.  

[irony]
{
   This is the answer to life, death, and the universe.
}

This is how my brain spells things:-{

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See ''Complexity : The Emerging Science at the Edge of Order and Chaos'' (ISBN 0671872346).  (Note that the book is targeted at the general public, so it is not very technical)

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CategoryEmergence