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NOVA scienceNOW: Emergence
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Program Overview
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Scientists describe emergence, a science that studies how
complex patterns and behaviors arise from the actions of individual
units acting independently.
This NOVA scienceNOW segment:
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states that large-scale order develops from small-scale
interactions, in which individuals (or individual particles,
such as water droplets in a flood or rocks in an avalanche)
follow a set of simple rules. The overall pattern that arises
from the behavior of the individual parts is called
emergent complexity.
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provides examples of emergence occurring in groups of living
things (e.g., schools of fish and flocks of birds), in which
individuals following simple rules—such as keeping a
certain distance from and going in the same direction as your
neighbor, and avoiding predators—gives rise to patterns
and behaviors, such as schooling and flocking, not predictable
from studying any single individual.
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points out that emergent complexity can be found in nonliving
systems.
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compares the complexity of emergent behavior in a
computer-generated game to that in a far more complex human
brain—elements in a computer contact, at most, 10 other
elements simultaneously, whereas individual neurons in the human
brain sometimes contact 10,000 other neurons simultaneously.
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reports on scientists studying the emergence of life. The basic
agents of life were simple molecules; the rules were the rules
of chemistry; and what emerged was something that was one step
closer to being considered biological—a first step toward
life.
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describes how emergent complexity suggests a new way of thinking
about the universe, from the simplicity of the earliest universe
to the complexity of the modern world.
Taping Rights: Can be used up to one year after the program
is taped off the air.
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