December 28, 2018 Friday
Bedtime Story
Counter-intuitive Phenomenon of Emergence
Emergence is an idea that is in some sense as
discomforting (believers) as it is unacceptable to even scientists as it has an
almost magical appeal.
It one of those extremely counter-intuitive
discoveries of science that our average minds which evolved gradually over
millions of years for mating and survival finds it hard to get around.
The question that any baffled ape would raise
when proposed with the concept of emergence would be something analogous to
this:
‘How can an object that is made up sum of
parts eventually end up having properties not found in its parts?’
For instance, how can a pile of apples have
properties beyond an apple except say being that many times heavier?
And yet emergence is all around us if
observed carefully with a knowledgeable mind.
Emergence is a concept that manifests
itself at not one terminal level but as several different levels of hierarchy
of organization found in nature.
One of the basic tenet of emergence states
that each level in the hierarchy of a complex organization (not necessarily
biological) may have properties that are novel and not found in the “objects”
that lie at the lower rungs of the hierarchy.
Not only are such properties not found in
the lower levels but they are not relevant in any explanatory sense to the
lower levels.
Emergence is very hard to predict since not
only are they dependent on the number of subcomponents which has to be
significantly large but also on their interactions and interconnectivity which
has to be of certain pattern.
Merely large numbers of subunits is not
sufficient enough condition for emergence; numbers are mandatory for sure but not
sufficient.
Simply adding piles and piles of apples
inside a storage room will not result in any kind of emergence but millions of
water molecules capable of hydrogen bonding ends up creating the surface
tension that is an unintended emergent phenomenon absent in the individual
components of both the water molecules and hydrogen bonds.
The smallest subunit of biological
organization is considered to be the atoms and the largest to be the biosphere
or the ecosphere.
You must keep in mind in that the concept of
biological organization is not a notional one but is a fundamental premise on
which both the medical research specifically but the whole of medicine
generally rests upon.
This is the principle reason why as a
medical doctor I have strong grievances against alternative systems of
medicines since they are based on theories that are in direct contradiction to
scientific principles.
Even if claims are made that in some
instances “they work” their very foundations are in absolute contradictions to
the basic laws of nature.
Take for instance homeopathy which is an
extremely popular form of medicine among the masses mainly for its “no
side-effect” profile.
Stay tuned to the voice of an
average story storytelling chimpanzee or login at http://panarrans.blogspot.com
Good night Mon Ami and my fellow cousin ape.
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Another great educator and a teacher that I am aware of is
Professor Subhashish Chattopadhyay in Bangalore, India.
While I narrate stories, Professor Subhashish an electronic
engineer and a former professor at BARC, does and teaches real mathematics and
physics.
He started the participation of Indian students at the
International Physics Olympiad.
Do visit him here:
All his books can be downloaded for free through this link:
For edutainment and English education of your children, I
recommend this large collection of Halloween Songs for Kids:
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