Emergence – The Spontaneity of Order

One of the most tantalizing and painstaking ideas of all time – emergence.

Revisit WNYC’s Radiolab attempt to answer one of life’s eternal questions.

Here’s a summary from WNYC.org

“What happens when there is no leader? Starlings, bees, and ants manage just fine. In fact, they form staggeringly complicated societies, all without a Toscanini to conduct them into harmony. How? That’s our question this hour. We gaze down at the bottom-up logic of cities, Google, even our very own brains. Featured: author Steven Johnson, fire-flyologists John and Elizabeth Buck, biologist E.O. Wilson, Ant expert Debra Gordon, mathematician Steve Strogatz, economist James Surowiecki, and neurologists Oliver Sacks and Christof Koch.”

Emergence

Check out more Radiolab at http://www.wnyc.org/shows/radiolab/

- or their free Podcast in the iTunes Store. Enjoy.

~ by dcumming27 on July 27, 2008.