The Interconnected Roles of Abstraction and Emergence in Artificial Societies.
Eric P. S. Baumer, Bill Tomlinson · 2006
This paper presents an argument that the process of emergence, moving from simple rules to complex be-havior, is the converse of the process of abstraction, moving from complex behavior to simple laws. Thus, it can be argued that similar mechanisms underlie both processes, and a greater understand of one can lead to a greater understanding of the other. Especially in the case of societies, the processes of abstraction and emer-gence are inextricably interconnected, such that the ab-stractions individuals make will determine what behav-iors emerge, and the behaviors that emerge in the soci-ety determine what abstractions will be made. In addi-tion to describing this abstraction-emergence loop, the paper offers a description of an ongoing research project aimed at exploring and understanding the nature of this loop and the emergence to which it leads. Such an un-derstanding of the relationship between abstraction and emergence can be helpful in designing communities of autonomous agents that interact socially with each other and with humans.