Emergence

A property of complex systems where higher-order behavior or patterns arise from interactions among simpler components. Often unpredictable from the individual parts alone. Emergence shows us the processes by which complex patterns and behaviors arise from simple interactions among components. For example, ant colonies build complex, giant nests without a central blueprint with small, simple acts performed by indicidual ants. Similarly, traffic moves spontaneously without accidents on freeways even though the indicidual vehicles are moving at high speed. From a birds-eye view, it looks like all the vehicle units are moving as one. Understanding emergence helps organizations:

• Explain system-level intelligence without centralized control
• Design decentralized AI systems