EMERGENCE. Steven Johnson

1091

\\ Non Lienar  growth with algorithms \\

 

SUMARY

The idea of the text is a metaphor between the behavior of ant colonies, animal cells, humans and cities. On the whole, the people as the ants, think locally and act locally, but their collective action produces global behavior. The scale of knowledge is reduced in the individuals, but the city has his own intelligence driven by thousands of people who act in different fields producing changes in them. Neighborhoods are themselves polycentric structures, born of thousands of local interactions, shapes forming within the city larger shape.

The sidewalk role is so important in the cities because allow the information exchange is carried by the people. The interactions between neighbors are produced on them, creating tacit consensus that generates groups of people with certain  similarities.

Those interactions enabled cities to create emergent systems. Under the apparently disorder of the cities, the things looks that they are working successfully. This order is all composed of movement and change. Like in the ants world, random local interactions leading to global order.

Cities are higher level organism (than ants)but the humans are far more intelligent than these insects. We consciously make decision, not simply driven by genes and pheromones.

 

RELATIONSHIP WITH THE BOTTOM-UP SYSTEM

This text could be related with the “Bottom-Up” systems because goes from the individuals,  to achieve a main goal, that is going to help the whole group in survival issues. The text is focused also in looking for the behavior of ants colonies and cities, in order to understand the parameters and algorithms that will produce the non linear growth of both of them, driven by the individuals.

 

///by  Carlos Bausá Martínez ///

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