Yet another post stemming from my earlier thoughts on Emergent Complexity and Complexity and Creation.As discussed, the basic idea is that simple rules can combine to produce complex things. These complicated objects might look like they were designed by some grand intelligence, but in reality no single entity needs to understand what is being produced.
I think that ants provide a great example of how this happens in the real world. Some time ago I visited an exhibit at the Smithsonian that was dedicated specifically to ants. In the exhibit, there was an aluminum cast of a Harvester Ant colony that was made by a professor at Florida State University (apparently he dumped molten aluminum into the ant-hill, waited for it to cool, and then exhumed the model).
I was fascinated by the model. It stood over six feet tall and was comprised of three main tunnels that branched off from the opening above ground. Each tunnel wound in a consistent spiral down into the ground, with rooms attached most regularly at the top and more sparsely as the tunnels progressed deeper underground. The colony design was intricate, as if it were designed by ant engineers, laid out by surveyor ants, and built by contractor ants who supervised the workers.
Of course, we know that there is no such thing as an "engineer ant." In fact, I think that it is safe to say that no single ant had the capability to comprehend the whole of the colony. No ant decided to put a certain tunnel here, another there. No ant made an executive decision about where the individual rooms should be. The ants probably never knew that they were even building a colony at all - they simply executed a complicated script and the result was a functioning colony.
The tie-in to emergent complexity is that no single ant understood fully what was happening (if at all), but they were able to produce a complex, functional colony anyway. The simple rules, or laws, are the ants themselves - uncomprehending, unintelligent. They individually act out a script, and when they all come together they are able to build an impressively complex and ordered structure. No omniscient queen ant required.
Just out of curiosity, where do the rules come from?
ReplyDeleteIn the case of ants, millions of years of evolution. In the case of the more fundamental physical laws that drive evolution... nobody really knows. It could be that the rules have always existed. It could be that they were created by God.
ReplyDeleteIt is admittedly hard to imagine that the natural laws have always existed. It is easier to imagine that they were created by God. I'm not sure why this is easier for us to wrap our minds around, though. This probably deserves another post.
Perhaps for the same reason that it is easier for some to believe that God is responsible for everything rather than random happenstance?
ReplyDeleteIt seems to me that the very definition of a rule or law is something arbitrary imposed by someone in higher authority. It's why there is a distinction between a rule and a fact. A fact just is, but a rule is something imposed. Even a law carries somewhat of the same distinction. Hence, the arbitrary rules of nature make more sense coming from some sort of divine edict rather than pure chance.
By all means...another post! :)
A discussion about the subtle connotations of the English language misses the point entirely.
ReplyDeleteI'll post more thoughts shortly.