Emergent Behavior

An Emergent Behavior is a phenomenal behavior that arises in an emergent system that is

• Context:
  • It can be a non-obvious side effect of combining different capabilities within a System.
  • It can (typically) be challenging to predict before it appears.
  • It can (typically) be a more Complex Behavior than the sum of the system's individual behaviors.
  • …
• Example(s):
  • Flocking: a coordinated movement without a central controller as seen in some birds, fish, and software simulations.
  • Ant colony optimization: efficient movement and food search without central coordination as observed in ant colonies.
  • Traffic jams: a build-up of vehicles resulting from individual vehicle behaviors and interactions on roads, often exacerbated by minor disruptions or high vehicle volumes.
  • Stock market dynamics: fluctuations in stock prices and trading volumes resulting from the collective actions and decisions of investors based on various market conditions and external factors.
  • Magnetism: a physical phenomenon arising due to the alignment of individual magnetic moments of atoms in a material, leading to attraction or repulsion between objects.
  • Superconductivity: where a material conducts electricity without resistance, emerging from the collective behavior of electrons and specific lattice structures.
  • Diffusive Fluid Flow: the movement and spread of fluids driven by concentration gradients, as seen in processes like osmosis and the dispersion of pollutants in water bodies.
  • Consciousness: the state of being aware of and able to think and perceive one's surroundings, thoughts, and emotions, as experienced in persons.
  • …
• Counter-Example(s):
  • Direct Behaviors, such as blood flow in the circulatory system.
• See: Emergent System.

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References

2021

• https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/computer-science/emergent-behavior#:~:text=something%20that%20is,of%20their%20parts.
  • QUOTE: …something that is a nonobvious side effect of bringing together a new combination of capabilities—whether related to goods or services. Emergent behaviors can be either beneficial, benign, or potentially harmful, but in all cases they are very difficult to foresee until they manifest themselves. Emergent behaviors are also sometimes considered to be systems that are more complex than the sum of their parts.

2021

• (Egan et al., 2015) ⇒ Paul Egan, Christian Schunn, Jonathan Cagan, and Philip LeDuc. (2015). “Improving Human Understanding and Design of Complex Multi-level Systems with Animation and Parametric Relationship Supports.” Design Science 1. [DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/dsj.2015.3 DOI:10.1017/dsj.2015.3]
  • QUOTE:
    • Myosins are nanoscale motor proteins that often work in groups to mechanically drive emergent behavior in biological systems (Howard Reference Howard2001).
    • Studies in measuring human understanding of emergent systems with micro-/macrolevels have demonstrated that misunderstandings of emergent behaviors (e.g., diffusive fluid flow) are more strongly held than misunderstandings of direct behaviors (e.g., blood flow in the circulatory system) (Chi Reference Chi2005).

2017

• (Grieves & Vickers, 2017) ⇒ M. Grieves, and J. Vickers. (2017). “Digital Twin: Mitigating Unpredictable, Undesirable Emergent Behavior in Complex Systems.” In: Perspectives on Complex Systems: New Findings. [Link](https://www.springer.com)
  • QUOTE: “...types of static emergent behavior that we will deal with, static emergent behavior that is built … While this taxonomy is useful in describing the type of emergent behavior as it increases in …”
  • NOTE: It discusses the concept of a "Digital Twin" and how it can be used to address challenges associated with unpredictable emergent behavior in complex systems.

2015

• (Lobo & Levin, 2015) ⇒ Daniel Lobo, and Michael Levin. (2015). “Inferring Regulatory Networks from Experimental Morphological Phenotypes: A Computational Method Reverse-Engineers Planarian Regeneration.” In: PLOS Computational Biology Journal, June 4, 2015. doi:10.1371/journal.pcbi.1004295
  • QUOTE: Transformative applications in biomedicine require the discovery of complex regulatory networks that explain the development and regeneration of anatomical structures, and reveal what external signals will trigger desired changes of large-scale pattern. Despite recent advances in bioinformatics, extracting mechanistic pathway models from experimental morphological data is a key open challenge that has resisted automation. The fundamental difficulty of manually predicting emergent behavior of even simple networks has limited the models invented by human scientists to pathway diagrams that show necessary subunit interactions but do not reveal the dynamics that are sufficient for complex, self-regulating pattern to emerge. To finally bridge the gap between high-resolution genetic data and the ability to understand and control patterning, it is critical to develop computational tools to efficiently extract regulatory pathways from the resultant experimental shape phenotypes.

2007

• (Cucker & Smale, 2007) ⇒ F. Cucker, and S. Smale. (2007). “Emergent Behavior in Flocks.” In: IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control. [Link](https://ieeexplore.ieee.org)
  • QUOTE: “We provide a model (for both continuous time and discrete time) describing the evolution of a flock. Our model is parameterized by a constant beta capturing the rate of decay-which in our …”
  • NOTE: It provides a model describing the evolution of flocks, both in continuous time and discrete time, parameterized by a constant representing the rate of decay.

2006

• (Li et al., 2006) ⇒ Z. Li, C.H. Sim, and M.Y.H. Low. (2006). “A Survey of Emergent Behavior and its Impacts in Agent-Based Systems.” In: 2006 4th IEEE International. [Link](https://ieeexplore.ieee.org)
  • QUOTE: “We found that emergent behavior is a major concern of potential users while we try to apply … emergent behavior and tries to answer the following questions: What is emergent behavior? …”
  • NOTE: It addresses concerns regarding emergent behavior in agent-based systems and seeks to define and understand its characteristics and implications.

2008

• (Abbott, 2008) ⇒ H.P. Abbott. (2008). “Narrative and Emergent Behavior." In: Poetics Today. [Link](https://read.dukeupress.edu)
  • QUOTE: “… behavior. This is especially the case when our health and wellbeing depend on emergent behaviors to … Notable examples are the common efforts to narrativize the behaviors of the stock …”
  • NOTE: It delves into the relationship between narratives and emergent behaviors, especially in contexts where understanding emergent behaviors is critical to health and wellbeing.

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