Russ,
If a paper contains mainly definitions,
arguments, metaphors, categorizations, or
even opinions, then it useful to ask if they are
useful, consistent and complete. A calculation
or a proof can be wrong and easily dismissed,
but a definition or a metaphor is harder
to dismiss. Opinions differ. Here it is more
useful to ask if they are helpful or not.
I think your comparison of abstract types
and emergent properties is interesting, but
for me it seems to capture only one important
aspect. The interesting thing is this: although
software developers rarely use any emergence
at all, nearly every fundamental concept in the
software world is related somehow to emergence,
because it all emerges from patterns of bits.
* Implementation can be considered as the
opposite of emergence: emergent properties
can be described as a high level abstraction
which is implemented by low level elements
(your paper "The reductionist blind spot")
* Objects and data types can be considered as
emergent properties of elementary data
(your new paper "Abstract Data Types and
Constructive Emergence")
* Instructions, procedures and functions
can be considered as emergent properties
of elementary operation codes (opcodes).
Sussman and Abelson defined a procedure
like this: "a procedure is a pattern for
the local evolution of a computational process".
* A code, a language, an interface or API, a virtual
machine or a new level of abstration can be
considered as the emergence of a new system,
because they connect two different systems.
In my opinion the last two cases describe aspects
of emergence which are not completely covered by
the paper, although they are very fundamental.
- J.
----- Original Message -----
From: Russ Abbott
To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group
Sent: Thursday, November 04, 2010 2:47 AM
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] Emergence paper
Jochen,
Do you really think it would have been published if it could be dismissed as
easily as you suggest?
-- Russ Abbott
_____________________________________________
Professor, Computer Science
California State University, Los Angeles
Google voice: 424-235-5752 (424-cell-rja)
blog: http://russabbott.blogspot.com/
vita: http://sites.google.com/site/russabbott/
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