Case Study: Sendai Mediatheque l Toyo İto, Matsuro Sasaki

Reading Text: Emergence l Steven Johnson

Steven Johnson explains the ‘Emergence’ in a very good way in terms of understanding the relation between architecture and the city. He is defining the complex system in various scales(from micro scale to macro scale) with comparing the ants, body cells and cities and he takes our attention with the swarm logic of ants’ colony.

Swarm intelligence is the collective decentralized behavior. It is a system which is formed by simple individuals and it is transforming to complexity by interacting with each individuals and surroundings. For instance, ants manage to do their tasks for finding food and building shelter. But there is no reason, no logic about what they are doing. It is impossible to do it by itself; they are really successful when they work together. They get information from their surroundings and neighbors, in that way they do their tasks. This is the result of interaction which means it becomes ant colony and this example is also shows how ‘local information can develop global wisdom’. Also our body cells are precise example which proves the same swarm logic by creating the whole body with those simple cells.

According to the learning form ground level, there are 5 main topics to point out:

More is different: The more simple elements in numbers, can work more efficiently compared to 1 or 2 elements. For instance, only large amount of ants can create the colony.

Ignorance is useful: The simplicity is crucial for creating complexity. Learning from ants, each ant do only one task and they do not even know why they do.

Encourage random encounters: Different information and situations can create complexity in large scale. Ants behave individually and do their random unplanned tasks. They can adapt in any condition and they can change their tasks.

Look for patterns in the signs: As it is understandable, it is better to follow signs which priors leave. This is way to improve globally. To give an example from ants, they do not talk to each other. They work with their pheromones to find food and create path to build shelter.

Pay attention to your neighbors: Last but not least, this is how the complexity works; sharing information and interaction. Ants see the neighbors and change their tasks. Because they can not survive on their own.

Ultimately, this is where everything is getting clear. Cities bring minds together and the similar swarm logic of ants can be thought in human scale. Cities exist with their neighborhoods. If interaction needs a place, Steven Johnson points out the sidewalks of the city. It is a place that gives us a chance to get/share information and interaction with others (fluidity and continuity place for information). We are all individuals living randomly, but we are providing the exact amount of local interactions to achieve global wisdom. In other words, we are all a part of the whole complex system. By individually sharing information affects the whole complexity. As a result, Emergence is the ability to get and respond the information according to needs of global wisdom.

After analyzing Johnson’s examples and also Toyo Ito’s mediatheque, they changed my way of thinking about the complexity. Now I can say that also complexity can become from a simple element. I am very intrigued with the fact that there are so many patterns in our environment which has similar patterns in our lives. I would like to research about these patterns. It would great to learn how we can learn more from the micro systems in nature and implement them to our macro system. In that case learning more from nature, helps me more about understanding the advanced architecture.

It is rightly said that we are at the highest point of understanding our universe. Our knowledge about this sphere of activity that we are centered on and the totality of all the matter and energy that exists in the vastness is still limited yet we make fun of people who still believes that the earth is the center of the universe.  Even thou we don’t have a full understanding of how this system functions and we still cannot prove the hypothesis yet we are quite certain of this conclusion.

The principle of emergence suggest that we need to change our understanding of how the universe is arranged. We believe in complex mathematical and physical laws that guide the heavenly bodies in their paths but this fails to consider that the heavenly bodies are in fact large collections of independent particles that have joined together based on certain rules.

(In his study Emergence: The Connected Lives of Ants, Brains, Cities, and Software, media theorist Steven Johnson argues that emergence is the essential idea for our age. Emergence is an alternative way of understanding complex systems. A hierarchical, top-down system attempts to use a centralized decision-making process based on abstract rules to guide behavior. The emergent position looks at complex systems differently: a small number of rules that are processed by individual units are the best method of explaining the aggregate behavior. While a statistical analysis of an emergent system will lead to abstract mathematical laws, these laws do not explain why individual units behave the way they do.)

Emergence refers to the ability of low-level components of a system or community to self-organize into a higher-level system of sophistication and awareness.- Johnson

Steven Johnson says emergence is what happens when the whole is smarter than the sum of its parts. In the given text the author gives the great example of the ants. Ant colonies have this miraculous ability to pull off complex engineering feats, resource management without an actual leadership dictating what any ant should be doing at any time.

He states that the ants function in a decentralized manner without any specific guidelines directed from the top. Each individual ant knows its specific task which has to be carried out. Ants are social beings who live and work in a collective manner to build the foundation of the future generation of ants and the protection of the colonies.

Johnson gives examples of feedback, self-organization and adaptive learning. He presents five fundamental principles to support his hypothesis:

• More is different.

-        A single ant or few ants will react n behave in a different manner than 1000 ants in the same situation. The entire system has to be observed it order to know the global behavior.

• Ignorance is useful.

-        It is better to build a densely interconnected system with simple elements and let the more sophisticated behavior trickle up.

• Encourage random encounters.

-        It is important to have these encounters, ant colonies rely heavily on random interactions exploring a defined space without any predefined orders. Without these encounters they would not be able to identify new food source.

• Look for patterns

-        The knack of pattern detection allows ants to smell the pheromones of fifty forages imparts information about the global state.

• Pay attention to your neighbors.

-        This is something that humans need to learn from the ants, observing and solving problems locally will regulate the colony effectively.

Johnson tries to make this connection between the human societies which functions in a top down manner to ant’s colony which behaves the opposite. The potential of such smart systems fascinates Johnson. He states that how human cities are affected by emergence and that there is a strong need to look at things differently.

He looks into another example similar patterns is human body cells. The sums of all the cells create a whole body there is no us without them. This is similar to the thousands to tireless ants which makes up the colony. Our cities work very close to this pattern. Usually there is a master plan, developed by urban planners yet each neighborhood has its own pattern and are distinct from one another. Johnson further states that similar population groups attract each other. Artists move to the art quarter, bankers and stock brokers move to the financial district. Interactions happen on sidewalks and public spaces.

Like Johnson I am too fascinate with the ant colonies. It is interesting that how the behavior these humble creatures can be the answer to human problems. The effect on micro level neighborhood planning to a macro level urban planning has to be paid attention to.

Reference: http://currents.cwrl.utexas.edu/fall04/leslie.html

Reference: http://archive.oreilly.com/pub/a/network/2002/02/22/johnson.html

Steven Johnson: Emergence

Steven Johnson’s Emergence refers to the possibilities of simple components to form a highly developed structure. The systems ability to organize is maintained by a bottom up structure instead of an all above control. He analyzes those topics with various examples, especially by the colonies of ants.

Although a single ant has a very rudimental brain the species is dominant on the planet in sheer numbers and occurrence. And even though a single ant is not able to survive, as a swarm they are very successful. Each ant colony has a queen, but nevertheless it is not literally ‘ruled’ by it. The colony is controlled by sheer swarm intelligence, which is directed from the bottom – not the top. Every single ants behavior refers to the behavior of the rest of the ants. If there is too many cleaner ants, some change their duty. If there is a place with food, ants leave pheromones on their track, attracting other ants to the food source. Learning from the ants, there are five main points that form swarm intelligence:

• More is different: there needs to be a ‘critical mass’ of ants to make intelligent assessments. One or two ants cannot represent any data. But a few thousands can and eventual mistakes or statistical odds are evened out.
• Ignorance is useful: The simplicity of the ant is important to the success. ‘It is easier to build a densely interconnected system with simple elements,  and let the more sophisticated behavior tickle up.’ (p78)
• Encourage random encounters: As the system is completely decentralized it relies on random interactions between exploring ants. This is important to find new recourses and adapt to changing conditions.
• Look for patterns in signs: The sum and combination of all information is important.
• Pay attention to your neighbors: There is no order from above. By local information and action, global effects are caused.

Another example of similar patterns is human body cells. The sums of all those simple cells create a whole body. And despite it is the sum of many things one feels like an individual. But in contrast to the ants, body cells do have a kind of master plan. The DNA does state some order, but still there is a lot of swarm intelligence as well. It is more a combination of both systems. Human cities work very close to that pattern. There is (usually) some master plan, developed by urban planners. Still neighborhoods can derive spontaneously, sometimes planned, sometimes random. Like a cell surrounded by muscle cells becomes another muscle cell, similar population groups attract each other. Artists move to the art quarter, bankers to the financial district etc. The sidewalk is the stage for points of contact. It is the public space where interactions happen. Without this constant flow of information there would be no city life. According to Johnson ‘sidewalks work because they permit local interactions to create global order.’ Single decisions are made because of the behavior of the people around. And just like the ant colony the human behavior works at two scales: the day-to-day survival of the individual and the millennial scale of cities and other economic ecosystems.

Having read this text as well as analyzing Toyo Ito’s Sendai Mediatheque, I think there is still a huge research field in learning from nature.  May it be very literal like Ito’s seaweed columns or more abstract in swarm systems. Nature has many systems worked out so perfectly that human science is unable to do better. Architecture has shifted away from nature during the past hundreds of years, but even though digital design seems to push it further away it can be the missing link ‘back to the roots’. Parametric design relates quite well to swarm intelligence discussed above, it may work in similar patterns. Considering such knowledge, which has been in front of our eyes combined with new abilities to use, it can change our architectural thinking and behavior.