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From: reinke@aisunk.uucp (Robert Reinke)
Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy
Subject: Re: emergence
Summary: emergence = property of system as a whole?
Message-ID: <1990Oct4.173933.7319@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu>
Date: 4 Oct 90 17:39:33 GMT
References: <3531@media-lab.MEDIA.MIT.EDU> <JSP.90Oct3123040@milton.u.washington.edu> <1990Oct4.152527.28413@watdragon.waterloo.edu>
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Reply-To: r-reinke@uiuc.edu (Robert Reinke)
Organization: U of I, Urbana-Champaign
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>In article <JSP.90Oct3123040@milton.u.washington.edu> jsp@milton.u.washington.edu (Jeff Prothero) writes:
>>Perhaps the key characteristic of an 'emergent phenomenon' is that it
>>has interesting characteristics which it possesses *independently* of
>>the underlying (implementation) system? ...

and cpshelley@violet.uwaterloo.ca (cameron shelley) responds:
>  I wish to differ with this, if only in a small detail.  A 'program'
>is a conceptual entity only, what you are talking about here seems
>to be a process.  The behaviour of the program+machine (process) will
>differ quite a bit over various machines and possibly even on same
>machine when run at different times...

I have followed the discussion about emergent properties with interest, and
I think things are getting off track.  Though we are naturally interested
in emergent properties in computer programs/systems, I believe there
is a definition of emergence that need not refer to computers per se, namely:
 
     An emergent property is a property of a system as a whole that is
     not possessed by any of its components.

An example of this (from an introductory Neurobiology course) is a system of 
neurons in the crayfish (lobster? -- some crustacean in any case) which has 
an output that is cyclic over time.  None of the neurons in the system have a
cyclic output behavior independently, nor can the cyclicity be attributed to
any individual relationships; only the system has a whole has cyclic behavior.

Under this definition, "mind" or "intelligence" may be called an emergent 
property of the brain, not becaused it has no relationship to the brain or 
its components, but because it is a property of the brain (and body?) as a 
whole.

I don't doubt that there are problems with this definition, but I can't think
of any offhand.  Anyone?

Bob Reinke (r-reinke@uiuc.edu)
Department of Computer Science
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign