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From: bwk@mbunix.mitre.org (Barry W. Kort)
Newsgroups: comp.ai
Subject: Re: Question on Chinese Room Argument
Summary: Emergent Properties?  What emergent properties???
Keywords: Dysfunctionality
Message-ID: <45184@linus.UUCP>
Date: 23 Feb 89 00:09:28 GMT
References: <Feb.19.18.25.26.1989.15723@elbereth.rutgers.edu> <9359@megaron.arizona.edu>
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Reply-To: bwk@mbunix.mitre.org (Barry Kort)
Organization: The Ferchachta Corporation, Yechupetz, NU
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In article <9359@megaron.arizona.edu> mike@arizona.edu (Mike Coffin) asks:

 > Why is it so hard for some people to accept the fact that a system
 > can have properties that none of its components have?

While it is certainly possible (and even desirable) for a system
to exhibit emergent properties beyond the properties of the component
parts of the system, our daily experience with politics and
bureaucracy continues to remind us that large systems are considerably
less functional than one would naively expect.

--Barry Kort