4/22/00,
4/7/01,11/8/01, 1/5/02 This
site has three purposes, discussing general theory, case studies, and scientific
methods concerning the phenomenon of local emergence. The techniques
concern how to put a timeline under a mathematical microscope, and the
identification of locally emergent structures and processes.
The theory concerns the consequent new understanding of nature and its
place in physics. The case studies bring the technique
and theory together and inform both.
The subject concerns all macroscopic physical events of every scale and kind, sparks, ecological shifts, solar storms, earth quakes, heart beats, storms, epidemics, social change, etc., anything for which one can record some consistent measure over time. One of the first things we perceive in tracing the histories of change is a mix of what seem to be continuous flows mixed with discontinuous events. On closer inspection all continuous flows are actually found to be granular, displaying emergent organization at a larger scale. When continuous flows can be found one then looks to their beginning and end.
The beginning and end of smooth flows are the periods when emergent organization is being built up and dismantled, and when it is most directly exposed to view. Time traces are only one dimensional and do not provide very good descriptions of the processes they reflect, but they do provide good markers, exposing when and where locally emergent organization and disorganization is occurring. The set sequence is a four part series of cascades. I call them Inflation (compound growth), Integration (stabilization), Disintegration (destabilization) and Decay, the phases of change. They are the minimum necessary set of simple progressions forming a bump on a curve (¸¸¸¸.·´ ¯ `·.¸¸¸¸) (as a cycle of great transformative changes and events, "chapters" in the narrative of life) . Where they're found is absolutely everywhere.
The relation to modern physics is useful to consider. It's a matter of looking at the same world using different sets of questions. Modern physics looks for universal rules, concerning all snowflakes or all stars, etc. and local emergence concerns local happenings and how local rules develop in an individual occurrence.
It's the perennial dance of nature. What we find is that
she does not actually 'follow' rules, but makes them fresh over and over
again as she goes. To observe it happening you first find a
beginning or ending continuity and then learn how to study it.
It's made easier with some technique.
...............
This work is about
the flows of history within individual events. There's a basic
structural difficulty. Being outside observers, we look at
things from the outside, and begin our learning from a point of extreme
ignorance of inner workings. The simple appearing flows of
natural events reflect the development of complex distributed relationships
on the inside. These tend to not be visible from the
outside. Every system begins as a 'black box'.
The four cascades provide a window on inner workings.
Another difficulty is that natural organizations are also not definable from any one feature, but exist intermittently, distributed throughout collections of independent parts. They're also often organized in complex hierarchies. To further complicate matters the connections between parts of systems, the pathways through which they are unified, are frequently through passive mediums of exchange such as markets, environments, the blood stream, etc. What people find easier to follow are simple rules, which is probably why we most often look for them. Hopefully what is offered here are some simple rules for exposing oneself to some of nature's most elementary but complex creative behavior.