Over the weekend Nancy and I went to the Four Seasons Bookstore in Shepherdstown, WV. As I looked through the used book section, a particular book jumped out at me. It was Emergence by Steven Johnson (2001).
As Johnson describes: Emergence is what happens when an interconnected system of relatively simple elements self-organizes to form more intelligent, more adaptive higher-level behavior. It is a bottom-up model rather than being engineered from top-down. Emergence begins at the ground level when agents residing on one scale start producing behavior that lies a scale above them. This movement from low-level rules to higher-level sophistication is what we call emergence.
This is exactly how I envision deep changes coming about in today's world. That is, largely through grassroots movements -- in particular, as more people begin to remember who and what they are (as spiritual beings currently having a physical life). As this happens, we will naturally outgrow deeply entrenched social divisions.
Interestingly, this is also one of my core music concepts in how I envision ensembles going beyond what is written on the page to create music collectively that is fresh and different each time it is performed. I have had this vision for many years and now there is a word for it.
As Johnson describes: Emergence is what happens when an interconnected system of relatively simple elements self-organizes to form more intelligent, more adaptive higher-level behavior. It is a bottom-up model rather than being engineered from top-down. Emergence begins at the ground level when agents residing on one scale start producing behavior that lies a scale above them. This movement from low-level rules to higher-level sophistication is what we call emergence.
This is exactly how I envision deep changes coming about in today's world. That is, largely through grassroots movements -- in particular, as more people begin to remember who and what they are (as spiritual beings currently having a physical life). As this happens, we will naturally outgrow deeply entrenched social divisions.
Interestingly, this is also one of my core music concepts in how I envision ensembles going beyond what is written on the page to create music collectively that is fresh and different each time it is performed. I have had this vision for many years and now there is a word for it.
RSS Feed