SarahMalayaSniezek's blog

The brain is absolutely so complex and interesting. I like how Professor Blank defined an emergent system as being below the level of meaning and rational systems as being at or above the level of meaning. This really clarified much of the confusion I have had about the different systems. It finally has been clear to be the difference between an emergent system and intelligent design; the fact that an emergent system does not have an outcome in mind. I do agree that some emergent systems might not have an outcome in mind, but whose “outcome in mind” is the answer. I do agree with Laura when she said that an emergent system might not have an outcome in mind, but it might have a certain outcome for some other system. I think that something interesting does not always have to be a solution to something, but I think that it can be. I think that emergent systems are emergent until they give a solution for something. It is also possible that anything interesting could always be a solution to something, and maybe we just do not know yet what that something is. I also feel that there can be systems that are emergent and rational. As of now, I think that is how I view the brain. I think that it has components from both emergent and rational systems. I agree that they brain is like a “super computer” made up of many neurons (computers). But I also feel that the brain is not necessarily like an emergent system because it has some goals, such as forming us humans physically the same, but it some sense different, and this is where I think the emergent system somewhat comes in.

This might seem quiet apparent to others, but after class I was thinking about Langton's ant and how it relates to CA and emergence. It seems to me that Langton's ant just clarifies and supports our understanding of emergence. As I see it, Langton's ant is a CA inside of a CA. Does this seem like this to anyone else? This mainly became clearer with the examples on NetLogo, but I have not tried it out myself yet. I feel that Langton's Ant example, and the many more we will come up with using NetLogo will help support Wolfram's theory that everything is computable. I do not necessarily believe in what he says, but what is leading me to believe otherwise now? I have been trying to think of things that do not fall under being computable, but maybe they are computable, but not in the way we think. That is not too clear, but what I mean to say is maybe we cannot compute the answer to the halting problem, but that does not mean it is not computable at this time. I absolutely this whole time have been thinking that everything is interconnected and builds on each other, that it was maybe started with just simple rules and a simple state and evolved to be something bigger. It is possible; I do not see anything proving against it...so where do we go from here? It just seems there is not a right answer and we all see it somewhat differently, but for purposes of this class, I can see the relationship that Wolfram is trying to make, but that does not mean i believe in it. I really think that Wolfram has opened something up for the rest of us, and that is something to question and really think about so that we can find an answer that is less wrong. I do see that Wolfram does not account for free will and other things, but then how can we make it clearer and incorporate free will and the other things he does not account for into Emergence? I honestly think that everything is connected and makes up a bigger picture, I am still though unsure of how we got where we are. Is it because we just evolved from some little agent and rules, or just from something like CA?

While reading “From the Head to the Heart” , I was reminded of a discussion in my Behavioral Neuroscience class about getting the right answer. I think it is important here to state that it is not important to find an answer, but to “get it less wrong”. I absolutely love this phrase we used in Professor Grobstein’s class. Instead of looking at getting the right answer about Emergence and whatever else we are thinking about, we should be trying to figure out what it is not. We have all discussed what we think Emergence is and how it relates to the world.

I am not sure how to state what I want to say or what I am asking. While in class I began to recall a project I did in high school involving algorithms and patterns. I remember putting many algorithms together to for a picture. I did not know how algorithms and emergence were connected exactly, but after reading some information about there relationship at Network Narrative algorithms are said to be precise steps taken towards accomplishing a task. Well to my surprise they are very interlinked. I wanted to know what other people’s thoughts are on algorithms and emergence. Are they one in the same? Is this a type of emergence?