Russell's on to something, here. What RussA refers to as "structure" is predicate or operator dependent. (I don't go as far as Russell and boil it all down to meaning. Meaning is just one kind of operator.) There is no such thing as an "unstructured component". Hence, there is no such thing as a "structured entity from unstructured components".
But there are operators that apply to the components and that do not apply to the collection of components and vice versa. So, the structure of the collection can (usually will) be different from the structure of the components. As for Owen's pragmatic approach, I'd constrain the areas of convergence studied even more (way tighter than ABM). I'd recommend picking 3 concrete examples and work particularly with them. Systems with components such that: 1) the operators apply equally well with the system as with the components (like the systems RussA was trying to find a word for recently), 2) the operators don't, in general, apply to both systems and their components, but that can be tweaked so that they do apply, and 3) the set of operators on the systems and the set of operators on the components are disjoint. (1) represents trivial (or no) emergence. (2) represents weak emergence. and (3) represents strong emergence. Of course, perhaps we can't formalize any systems+components so that we realize (3). But failing to find that 3rd concrete example would be a learning experience. Thus spake russell standish circa 09/14/2009 09:55 PM: > I still think meaning is essential. The reason why something is > structured rather than unstructured is that the structure means > something to somebody. > > [...] > > On Mon, Sep 14, 2009 at 10:30:52PM -0600, Nicholas Thompson wrote: >> I agree with >> >> Thus spake Russ Abbott circa 09/14/2009 09:18 PM: >>> I would nominate that concept--i.e., the ability to create a >>> structured entity from unstructured components--as the >>> commonality among "emergent" phenomena. (That's why I like the >>> notion of level of abstraction as representative of emergence.) >> >> This is also, as we will see, the position of William Wimsatt, I >> think. -- glen e. p. ropella, 971-222-9095, http://agent-based-modeling.com ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org