"An emergent behavior or emergent property can appear when a number of simple items, entities, or agents operate in an environment, forming more complex behaviors as a collective, hence its obvious relevance to systems like the Web. The property itself, therefore, represents a new level of the system’s evolution, signifying a step change in the overall nature of a given system." (Philip Tetlow, "The Web’s Awake: An Introduction to the Field of Web Science and the Concept of Web Life", 2007)
"Emergent structures are patterns not created by a single event or rule. There is nothing that commands systems to form such patterns, instead the interactions of each part to its immediate surroundings causes a complex process that leads to order. For such reasons, one might conclude that emergent structures are more than the sum of their parts because emergent order will not arise if the various parts simply coexist; the interaction of these parts is central." (Philip Tetlow, "The Web’s Awake: An Introduction to the Field of Web Science and the Concept of Web Life", 2007)
"In plain English, fractal geometry is the geometry of the irregular, the geometry of nature, and, in general, fractals are characterized by infinite detail, infinite length, and the absence of smoothness or derivative." (Philip Tetlow, "The Web’s Awake: An Introduction to the Field of Web Science and the Concept of Web Life", 2007)
"No investigation of complexity would be complete without a brief summary of what is often considered to be its most extreme form. Beyond the mathematical upper border of complexity lies the deceptively camouflaged notion of chaos. This is not strictly analogous to the classical interpretations of its name involving shear calamity and confusion. Instead, in mathematical or computational terms, chaos relates to much simpler notions of pattern and organization. It may be random to our native observation, certainly, but it is also far more concisely describable than complexity when inspected using modern mathematical techniques." (Philip Tetlow, "The Web’s Awake: An Introduction to the Field of Web Science and the Concept of Web Life", 2007)
"The concept that all systems, no matter how complex, are merely aggregate upon aggregate of simple elemental patterns is still fundamental to the modern-day study of complex and dynamic, nonlinear systems. It is the process of combining and collecting things together that produces apparent randomness. Consequently, many interesting and complex phenomena can usefully be described as 'orderly ensemble properties' and productively understood in terms of the properties and interactions of subphenomena or elements." (Philip Tetlow, "The Web’s Awake: An Introduction to the Field of Web Science and the Concept of Web Life", 2007)
"To state that the Web is different from other modern technologies is an obvious and gross oversimplification. The Web is not just different, it is different in a very specific way, and its highly connected, self-organizing complexity sets it apart from all other man-made systems. But many do not understand the very basics of complexity, let alone how these might be applicable to a modern technology or its association with a concept such as life. So it is indeed appropriate to visit this supposed black art in order to give an insight into the very nature of complexity and explain just why our current understandings are so applicable to the Web at a number of levels." (Philip Tetlow, "The Web’s Awake: An Introduction to the Field of Web Science and the Concept of Web Life", 2007)
"Under certain circumstances, complex systems can demonstrate stronger types of particular correlation, some forming almost instantaneously to overwhelm their parent and transforming it into something completely and unexpectedly. This is the phenomenon we now know understand as 'emergence', the process by which complex systems transition into something that they once were not. Like complexity, emergence has a spectrum of disguises, being capable of manifesting great subtlety and power." (Philip Tetlow, "The Web’s Awake: An Introduction to the Field of Web Science and the Concept of Web Life", 2007)
"When dealing with complexity and complex phenomena such as life, an inescapable problem has to be faced - namely, that by their very nature they are multifaceted, and to reduce any description down the point of even relative simplicity would involve removing much of the very essence that we are striving to capture." (Philip Tetlow, "The Web’s Awake: An Introduction to the Field of Web Science and the Concept of Web Life", 2007)
"Wherever we look in our world the complex systems of nature and time seem to preserve the look of details at finer and finer scales. Fractals show a holistic hidden order behind things, a harmony in which everything affects everything else, and, above all, an endless variety of interwoven patterns. Fractal geometry allows bounded curves of infinite length, as well as closed surfaces with infinite area. It even allows curves with positive volume and arbitrarily large groups of shapes with exactly the same boundary." (Philip Tetlow, "The Web’s Awake: An Introduction to the Field of Web Science and the Concept of Web Life", 2007)
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