Re: A question for the emergentists among you

Posted by Douglas Roberts-2 on Oct 10, 2009; 3:15pm
URL: http://friam.383.s1.nabble.com/A-question-for-the-emergentists-among-you-tp3799888p3800104.html

Robert,

It's supposed to be *my* job to ask embarrassing practical questions.

The answer, of course, is to provide a vehicle around which to hold at-length discussions on whether, or not, the term "emergence" applies to said phenomenon.

Silly.  You should have known that.

--Doug

On Sat, Oct 10, 2009 at 7:58 AM, Robert Holmes <[hidden email]> wrote:

What's the point of determining whether a phenomenon is emergent or not? What useful stuff can I actually do with that knowledge?

In other areas of my life, classification can have actionable consequences. For example, I can use the sophisticated pattern-matching algorithms and heuristics embedded in my brain to work out that the three animals wandering through my house can be categorized as "cats" and not "dogs". And that is useful, because it tells me that I should buy cat food and not dog food when I go to PetCo.

So what is an equivalent example with emergence? Once I've attached the "emergent" label to a phenomenon, then what?

-- Robert

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============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org