Earth Evolution, Emergence, and Uniformitarianism

摘要

Emergent phenomenon describes the propensity for any high-energy, far-from-equi-librium system to self-organize in ways that cannot be predicted from knowing its individual components (Ablowitz, 1939; Pines, 2014). Emergence is closely related to self-organization, complexity, and evolution. Animals, ecosystems, spiral galaxies, hydro-thermal systems, hurricanes, and civilizations are some of the many examples of emergent phenomena, where low-level rules give rise to higher-level complexity. Entirely new properties and behaviors "emerge," without direction and with characteristics that cannot be predicted from knowledge of the constituents alone.