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From: JAHAYES@MIAMIU.BITNET (Josh Hayes)
Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy
Subject: Re: emergent properties
Message-ID: <90290.101921JAHAYES@MIAMIU.BITNET>
Date: 17 Oct 90 15:19:21 GMT
References: <60045@bbn.BBN.COM>
Organization: Miami University - Academic Computer Service
Lines: 24

Let me toss in a quick comment wrt emergent properties in the
ecological realm. There has been some debate over the nature of
ecosystems and ecological communities, whether they exhibit
properties characterizable as "emergent".
 
The point of THAT debate, and perhaps of this one as well, is
to vitiate the reductionist approach: if there is some property
of the "system" which cannot be ascribed to any particular sub-
portion of the system, then the traditional approach of taking
it into its component parts will be unable to address that par-
ticular property.
 
For example, if the putative emergent property we are interested
in is consciousness, it may well emerge not simply from the various
brain regions/neural nodes/ganglia/etc., but from them and the
way they are themselves constructed and interlaced. Consciousness
could easily not RESIDE in any one location, but be a consequence
of the overall structure. There can be some minimum configuration
that exhibits the property of interest, and examination of smaller
selections will be of little or no value.
--------
Josh Hayes, Zoology Dept, Miami University, Oxford OH 45056
jahayes@miamiu.acs.muohio.edu, jahayes@miamiu.bitnet
Disclaimer: I'm a marine biologist, not a neuro-type. Just interested.