Some systems are emergent, but many systems are not.
- Some systems are emergent, but many systems are not.
- The systems that aren't are composed of things that don't add up to anything more than the sum of their parts.
- Default diverging.
- Emergent systems are much more than the sum of their parts.
- Default converging.
- This characteristic shows up in situations where totally local decisions sum up to global coherence.
- It typically requires some consistent asymmetry, so things naturally cohere.
- For example, a shared belief.
- Or a consistent gravity that everything is affected by.
- A norm of "leave it better than you found it," if everyone has some generally consistent notion of what "good" means, will default-converge.
- This is one reason Wikipedia works.
- The norms are coherent and obvious enough that all of the random jostling movements in it all accumulate into something much bigger than the sum of its parts.