Context: Embracing Complexity
On thinking in terms of complex systems. The concept of emergence is introduced (at the article referenced above) by an example of self-organisation in ant colonies.
Emergence is the point where complex systems acquire a unique dimensional property. This property is succinctly captured by the common trope of “the whole being more than the sum of the parts”.
Holistic emergence is difficult to conceptualise or rigorously define and possesses logical properties associated with paradoxes of (system) self-containment and self-reference. Integrated emergence does not ignite as a mere function of summing all system components, combinations and interactions.
The recursive bootstrap of emergent complexity occurs at the level of logical complements. Emergent properties are not a result of the additive aggregate of all components, sub-systems and dependencies. They are the logical complement of the combinatorial set of all system elements and interactions.
The totality of a complex system is equivalent to the logical negation and ontological absence of that system. This explains how in the gestalt of a combinatorial set (or system), the whole of that system can still be logically added to that system; lemma – it is distributed across the entire system surface as entropy. This is a counter-intuitive result.
It took me quite some time to get to this result. It would also take quite some time to unpack it fully and explain the thought process that led to it.
Daedelus Kite 