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Emergence is one of the central concepts within systems and complexity theory,
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as it describes a universal process of becoming or creation.
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A process whereby novel features and properties emerge when we put elementary parts together,
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as they interact and self-organize to create new patterns of organization.
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Emergence, being a highly abstract concept, is literally everywhere,
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from the evolution of the universe to the formation of traffic jams,
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from the development of social movements to the flocking of birds,
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from the cooperation of trillions of cells giving rise to the human body to the formation of hurricanes and financial crises.
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Although the ideas of emergence have been of interest to many for millennia, it has often been seen as something of a mystery.
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But with the development of complexity theory, we increasingly have the computational and conceptual tools to understand it in a structured, scientific fashion.
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During the course, we will be drawing upon different ideas in complex systems theory to build up a framework for understanding emergence in a coherent fashion.
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More specifically, we will explore emergence as a form of nonlinear pattern formation,
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where synergies between elementary parts give rise to self-organization in the formation of a distinct pattern
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that creates new emergent levels of organization that are driven by an evolutionary dynamic.
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After giving an overview of emergence theory, the course is designed around four main sections.
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In the first section we start off by talking about patterns of correlation in general
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before going on to look at synergistic interactions that are the foundations to emergence.
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The next section is focused on pattern formation,
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the question of how the parts come to self-organize to synchronize their states into forming a new level of organization.
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Here, we will talk about the two primary different types of emergence that are often used categorizations:
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what are called strong and weak emergence.
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In the third section we will look at the idea of integrative levels,
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how synergies give rise to pattern formation and the emergence of new levels of organization called integrative levels.
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We will talk about how these different levels come to have their own irreducible internal structure and processes
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that result in a complex dynamic between the micro and macro levels of organization.
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In the last section of the course we will look at how emergence plays out over time within some process.
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We will talk about the edge of chaos hypothesis, how self-organizing emergent systems never quite lock into place
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but instead evolve through a dynamic interplay between order and disorder to create novel phenomena at new levels of complexity.
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This is an introductory course and is non-technical.
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However, it is important to note that the concept of emergence is highly abstract.
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To do it justice, we will have to use high-level abstractions.
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As such, students will need to feel comfortable with formal abstract models.
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The course should be accessible without need for any specific background in science and should be of relevance to many different domains.
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In particular, for those in the areas of computer science, biology and ecology, philosophy, the cognitive sciences,
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and anyone with an interest in better understanding this central concept within the complexity and Systems Theory framework.