On Emergence and Decision Making in Complex Systems

Posted by Stephen Guerin on
URL: http://friam.383.s1.nabble.com/On-Emergence-and-Decision-Making-in-Complex-Systems-tp521791p521792.html

Hello Sudhira,

> I was wondering if we were to make decisions in complex
> systems, how one can distinguish outcomes of decision-making
> with emergence. When modelling complex systems, the emergent
> phenomenon of the system can be captured through different
> scenarios. But if one were forced to make decisions on a
> complex system, how is that the emergence and outcomes of
> decision-making be looked at?

I know I'm not grasping the full meaning of your question but here is a shot
at a response:

A distributed system of decision-makers can exhibit emergent properties. eg.
flocking behavior from boids making a decision where to move next. Flocking,
like all examples of emergence I've encountered, involves spontaneous
symmetry breaking (I'd be interested if someone has a counter example).

So assuming symmetry breaking is a necessary condition of emergence, you
could start to distinguish emergent outcomes by looking at their symmetries.



> How is that one distinguish emergence with the outcomes of choice
> (decisions) exercised by different stakeholders?

Using the flocking example again, I think of the outcome of the stakeholders
(boids) to be their next position in time. The emergent outcome, however, is
the flocking behavior (symmetry break in linear momentum of the population).

I hope that helps more than it confuses :-)

-Steve

________________________________________
Stephen.Guerin at Redfish.com
www.Redfish.com
624 Agua Fria Street, Santa Fe, NM 87501
mobile: [phone]
office: Santa Fe, NM [phone] / London, UK [phone]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Sudhira H S [mailto:hs.sudhira at gmail.com]
> Sent: Friday, May 12, 2006 12:17 AM
> To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Friam;
> CAS-Group at yahoogroups.com
> Subject: [FRIAM] On Emergence and Decision Making in Complex Systems
>
> Hi,
>
> I was wondering if we were to make decisions in complex
> systems, how one can distinguish outcomes of decision-making
> with emergence. When modelling complex systems, the emergent
> phenomenon of the system can be captured through different
> scenarios. But if one were forced to make decisions on a
> complex system, how is that the emergence and outcomes of
> decision-making be looked at?
>
> I think the emergent phenomenon can be one of the realisation
> of a decision. Suppose in the case of multi-objective /
> multi-stakeholder environment, I try and capture the
> behaviours of different groups. How is that one distinguish
> emergence with the outcomes of choice
> (decisions) exercised by different stakeholders? I would
> request any pointers / literature on the same.
>
> Kind Regards,
>
> Sudhira H. S.
> --
> --------------------------------------------------------------
> --------------------------------------------------
> Research Student, Ph.D.,
> Centre for Sustainable Technologies and Department of
> Management Studies, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore -
> 560 012, Karnataka State, INDIA
> Email: sudhira at mgmt.iisc.ernet.in, hs.sudhira at gmail.com
> --------------------------------------------------------------
> --------------------------------------------------
>
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