3.2.2 Emergence

Inter-relatedness and inter-connectedness are very relevant in how we view our mind, our body and our consciousness, (that is, our awareness of self and others).

They enable us to be aware of how the world as we experience it every day impacts on us, and, how, in turn, we impact on the world around us.

Relevant to this website, when we view ourselves systemically (that is, in respect of self, holistically, and in respect of the world, as part of a greater system, not an isolated individual) it has the potential to change how we view the steps we take to ensure that our emotional wellness, our mental and physical health, even our spirituality is affirming and enables us to enjoy life.

When I think of emergence, I often think of the popular expression – what is meant for you won’t pass you – indicating that there is something inside of me waiting to be discovered – by me!

Emergence also enables us to understand how we are continually self-organising – every hour of every day. And self-organisation implies growth – which implies emergence – the subject of this Sub-Chapter, the first in the Chapter on Systems Theory, and which will be described in the next post, and those following.

Emergence is a fundamental element of growth in the natural world. Indeed, it is what distinguishes the natural world from the mechanical world – the world that is constructed. But emergence, in its uncertainty, is a little bit more than simple, one-dimensional, growth.

I will give two examples here which might be helpful in explaining what I mean.

As a singer and musician I find that a helpful way of including the property of uncertainty (that is fundamental to emergence), in our description, is to think of what a song is.

A song consists of words and notes and rhythm/beat all of which can be written on a page.  (Constructed, as I said above). However in addition to those words/notes/beats it has an emergent property. That is, it can be sung.  And when it is sung, it takes on an entirely different flavour to what is written on the page.

So the whole is the sum of the notes, words and rhythm and the act of singing the song.  And it is the act of singing the song that induces in us a feeling.  While what is written down in notes and words is certain, and will not change, the singing of the song is uncertain, as it depends on the singer.

(And of course it must not be forgotten that the more emergent act – or art – of singing the song preceded the reductionist writing down of it by thousands of years).

Also, the song can be sung by different singers, in different ways, in different moods, all of which affect the song.  And the song is heard by different people.  Some will love it and find it uplifting, some will be bored by it, some will be indifferent to it, some will prefer one version over another, or even the same individual may love it one day and hate it the following day.

Or, consider an artist at work.

When we have a blank canvass and we take our brush in our hand, select a colour to put on our first brush stroke we have a general idea of what it’s going to turn out like – but – unless we paint by numbers – we don’t really know.

Our picture emerges from our imagination which is in turn fed by all our experiences, what mood we are in, how we are feeling, etc.  When the picture is finished one could say that that’s the end of it.

But maybe not, because the picture might be framed and hung, and (like a song) may have some impact on a viewer that was totally unintended by the person who once held her brush over a palette of paints with a blank canvas in front of her.

When Leonardo da Vinci held his brush in front of the blank canvas to paint the Mona Lisa he probably didn’t know that it would be hung in one of the most prestigious art galleries in the world and be viewed by millions of people, and (reportedly) altering people’s lives in different ways.

It is interesting for us to consider emergence when it applies to symbols – this is because the ability to use symbols to convey meaning is unique to humans.

In the previous post I used the example of a song to describe emergence. I stated that a song is far more than words, notes and beats written on a page. And these, of course, are symbols.

Still on the music theme, we can imagine a collection of shapes, such as horizontal lines in parallel, vertical thick lines, vertical thin lines, vertical double lines, a line and a dot, squiggles, triangles, circles, dashes, teardrops, and various others.  We then rearrange these into symbols, put them in different order and sequence, extend them into longer musical sentences so that they mean something to those who have learned to read them, and so on and so on with more and more complications until we have a symphony.

It is human interaction that transforms the shapes, all of which are found naturally in nature, into the symphony.  Reducing the symphony into a random collection of shapes would remove the meaning of the overall.

The same can be said for poetry, prose (the written word), art, architecture, engineering/science – virtually everything man-made. 

I invite you to have a look at the images on this website by the Japanese psychologist Akiyoshi Kitoaka.  These are optical illusions. Here, emergence is evident.  When we look at the images they appear to be moving, but when we fix our eyes on one point in any of the images, the apparent movement stops.  Actually, in reality, nothing is moving! The lines and dots in the images are arranged in a particular way and our eyes (or our brains) are fooled accordingly.

In respect of the written word, I don’t have anything against self-help books that offer us advice on different aspects of living – in fact, some are very helpful – but sometimes I get more out of a novel or film that is reflective, or contains indirect or implicit messages.

This may facilitate emergence, and/or allow something to unfold that may surprise, or reveal something unexpected. A story, like a song or a poem, has emergent properties – because we all interpret it through our own subjective experience.

And in Christianity, the New Testament, which gives billions throughout the world a blueprint for living is full of symbolism. It is written in such a way that suggests emergence is very important to humans. We interpret the messages, parables and little stories subjectively. As I have stated elsewhere, sometimes what has emerged has not been advantageous to much of humanity – but that is more due to our tendency to be ambivalent than it is to the messages themselves.

In the world of business we often hear of a merger between two companies to improve their competitiveness and get one up over their rivals.  The word merger, of course, is related to emergence, and very often the companies will find that joining together will bring something new that might have unintended consequences – for better or worse! 

Having offered some understanding of emergence in the last two posts, 3.2.2.2, and 3.2.2.3, I will now discuss the relevance of systems theory when it comes to the family – which – as I said earlier – has a central role to play in healing of hurt and distress.

Systems theory posits that all forms of life unfolds or emerges and that relationships involve self-organisation – that is, making decisions in respect of growth based on influences that come from within as much as are external.

For example, when two people meet, fall in love, live together and decide to start a family (as we used to say back in the day) their actions have potential beyond which they themselves imagine at that time.

Their family, even as yet not begun, will increase in complexity as it unfolds, emerges and organises itself, (that is, as it grows).  The decision of the two people has potential, capacity, and intention contained within the decision itself – independent of any external influence or pressures. Families that are good enough have a high level of self-organisation which enhances trust, at-ease relationships and both individual and collective responsibility.

The trust arises from the healthy acceptance of uncertainty.

I’m pretty sure that all parents will agree that the whole of their family cannot be reduced to individual parts.  (Once again, the ancients knew this; I believe that the expression the whole is more than the sum of their parts is attributed to Aristotle, the Greek philosopher).

Just to explain, let us say that a family consists of Mammy, Daddy and three children. Now let us say that someone wants to understand some element of the family’s growth, (for example, how relationships are forming). Their understanding will not be very complete if they meet only the youngest child and no-one else, or Daddy and no-one else.

The reason that the understanding and appreciation of the whole is diminished by being reduced (to its individual parts as I said above) is simply that life (and growth) is dependent on how each part interacts with the other in the system, in our case the family.

The act of reducing will diminish the appreciation of the importance of the constant interaction.

This is what makes the family dynamic (that is, constantly changing), and open, (that is, subject to internal and external influences) further implying that the family is constantly active and interactive within itself and its environment, rather than waiting passively to respond to an external stimulus.

So you will notice that most of the things that matter a lot to us are emergent.  (For example, life itself, love, growth, confidence, music, family, art, etc.).

And X-Factor notwithstanding, singing a song is not, I believe, something that can be measured using reductive measurement!

The similarity between the descriptions of the song, the painting, and story etc. and the description of the Sun in the paragraph on Cause and Effect is obvious.

On a final note on emergence and/or self organisation, it is evident that there are many mysterious phenomena in nature that are not explained by conventional scientific understanding as we know it.

Examples would be how termites make and repair their mounds, how pigeons home, how birds change direction in a murmuration with no apparent lead bird, even how dogs find their way home. 

Have a look at the video in the murmuration link. What, we wonder, is the purpose of the display? Is it for fun? Is it to practice avoiding predators? Whatever its purpose, it is certainly wonderful to behold! And why is it wonderful? Where does wonder come from?

Some scientists believe that there are forces, fields, phenomena as yet unexplained at work in such cases.

The scientist Rupert Sheldrake has called these forces morphic fields.  His theories speculate that the fields that enable self-organisation evolve in sympathy with the influence of like upon like through space and time.

Nobody has the plan, really, for an oak tree, an anthill or a family.  They simply grow, organise themselves and emerge!