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Weak Emergence and Complexity

Thorén, Henrik LU and Gerlee, Philip (2010) p.879-886
Abstract
In this paper we consider Mark Bedau’s notion of weak emer- gence (WE) and relate it to various attempts to objectively construe complexity. We argue that the heavy reliance on a specific notion of complexity risks rendering the concept superfluous. Furthermore we discuss what sort of systems might reasonably be understood as exhibiting emergence at all and point out that the macro-level needs to be at least min- imally structured. A worry may thus be formed that macro- level generalisations provide the sort of short-cut that is ex- plicitly excluded from WE thus potentially making the con- cept apply only to chaotic systems of limited interest (in this context).
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
and
organization
publishing date
type
Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding
publication status
published
subject
keywords
weak emergence, emergence, complexity, predictability, chaos
host publication
Artificial Life XII Proceedings of the Twelfth International Conference on the Synthesis and Simulation of Living Systems
editor
Fellerman, Harold ; Dörr, Mark ; Hanczy, Martin ; Ladegaard Laursen, Lone ; Mauer, Sarah ; Merkle, Daniel ; Monnard, Pierre-Alain ; Støy, Kasper and Rasmussen, Steen
pages
17 pages
publisher
MIT Press
external identifiers
  • scopus:84874728757
ISBN
978-0-262-29075-3
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
cac56b85-024c-40e7-ac7b-42366ed92ff8 (old id 1718757)
alternative location
http://mitpress.mit.edu/books/full_pdfs/Artificial_Life_XII.pdf
http://mitpress.mit.edu/sites/default/files/titles/alife/0262290758chap151.pdf
date added to LUP
2016-04-04 11:12:49
date last changed
2022-01-29 21:31:02
@inproceedings{cac56b85-024c-40e7-ac7b-42366ed92ff8,
  abstract     = {{In this paper we consider Mark Bedau’s notion of weak emer- gence (WE) and relate it to various attempts to objectively construe complexity. We argue that the heavy reliance on a specific notion of complexity risks rendering the concept superfluous. Furthermore we discuss what sort of systems might reasonably be understood as exhibiting emergence at all and point out that the macro-level needs to be at least min- imally structured. A worry may thus be formed that macro- level generalisations provide the sort of short-cut that is ex- plicitly excluded from WE thus potentially making the con- cept apply only to chaotic systems of limited interest (in this context).}},
  author       = {{Thorén, Henrik and Gerlee, Philip}},
  booktitle    = {{Artificial Life XII Proceedings of the Twelfth International Conference on the Synthesis and Simulation of Living Systems}},
  editor       = {{Fellerman, Harold and Dörr, Mark and Hanczy, Martin and Ladegaard Laursen, Lone and Mauer, Sarah and Merkle, Daniel and Monnard, Pierre-Alain and Støy, Kasper and Rasmussen, Steen}},
  isbn         = {{978-0-262-29075-3}},
  keywords     = {{weak emergence; emergence; complexity; predictability; chaos}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  pages        = {{879--886}},
  publisher    = {{MIT Press}},
  title        = {{Weak Emergence and Complexity}},
  url          = {{http://mitpress.mit.edu/books/full_pdfs/Artificial_Life_XII.pdf}},
  year         = {{2010}},
}