【读文章，背单词】本周主题：Emergence（涌现）

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根据上一周的反馈，调整了选材的难度，并且来源不再局限于Quora

活动规则照旧：

1、给出文中加粗GRE词汇的近义词回复在本帖下，1-2个即可，注意选取的单词不能改变原句意思，并且搭配合理
2、点评他人的回复

对于单词的搭配，可以直接在Google里搜索，也可以使用语料库查询，具体操作见：https://bbs.gter.net/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=1791889

活动参与者均有加分。

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In the preface, I defined emergence as simply as possible: order arising out of chaos. A more nuanced definition is higher-order complexity arising out of chaos in which novel, coherent structures coalesce through interactions among the diverse entities of a system. Emergence occurs when these interactions disrupt, causing the system to differentiate and ultimately coalesce into something novel.

Key elements of this definition are chaos and novelty. Chaos is random interactions among different entities in a given context. Think of people at a cocktail party. Chaos contains no clear patterns or rules of interaction. Make that a cocktail party in which no single culture prevails, so that no one is sure how close to stand to others, whether to make eye contact, or whether to use first or last names. Emergent order arises when a novel, more complex system forms. It often happens in an unexpected, almost magical leap. The cocktail party is actually a surprise party, and everyone knows where to hide and when to sing “Happy Birthday.”

Emergence produces novel systems—coherent interactions among entities following basic principles. In his bestseller Emergence, science writer Steven Johnson puts it this way: “Agents residing on one scale start producing behavior that lies one scale above them: ants create colonies; urbanites create neighborhoods; simple pattern-recognition software learns how to recommend new books.”1 Emergence in human systems has produced new technologies, towns, democracy, and some would say consciousness—the capacity for self-reflection.


Source: http://peggyholman.com/papers/en ... -what-is-emergence/

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Understanding Complex Adaptive Systems

As an early member of the Santa Fe Institute, John Holland has played a critical role in the
nascent field of Complex Adaptive Systems, beginning with his work with genetic algorithms in
computer science. His first, and highly influential book in the area of complex systems, Hidden
Order (1995), focused on genetic algorithms and built upon this modeling paradigm to explore
the properties of adaptation. In his most recent book, Emergence: From Chaos to Order (1998)
Holland probes further into the idea of emergence, another essential property of complex
systems, discussing both examples of emergence, and proposing a methodology for modeling
emergence. In the process, he succeeds in establishing a more concrete pathway for moving
beyond vague notions of “the whole exceeding the sum of its parts” to achieve a more rigorous analytical treatment of emergence.

...

Two ostensibly disparate systems - a game of checkers (Chapter 4) and the central nervous system (Chapter 5) - highlight the principal traits of emergence. In both cases, through
modeling these systems via a so-called Checkersplayer computer program and neural networks, one finds that “more comes out than was put in.” In the checkers example, a few well-defined rules of interaction can generate complex, unanticipated and perpetually novel strategies.

...

Evaluation and Outlook

One of the important contributions of Holland’s current work, is his ability to place the ideas and
models of complexity in the context of a broader scientific enterprise. A recurrent theme of the book relates to the idea of the reductionism that characterizes most of the work in the sciences.
Holland begins to reconcile this paradox between complexity and reductionism in the following
manner. Rather than holding to the notion “that all phenomena in the universe are reducible to
the laws of physics” one should recognize that “all phenomena are constrained by the laws of
physics” (p. 188). This subtle shift in perspective allows for emergent behavior, while
recognizing that these complex emergent characteristics may arise from a small set of building
blocks constrained by relatively simple rules.

Source: http://web.mit.edu/esd.83/www/notebook/EmergenceReview.PDF