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They aren't coordinating. The large-scale structure is an emergent property of their collective behaviour. This phenomenon is most famously illustrated by Conwa
by chongli 5y ago
They aren't coordinating. The large-scale structure is an emergent property of their collective behaviour. This phenomenon is most famously illustrated by Conway's Game of Life [1]. Non-local patterns emerge from entirely local rules.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cellular_automaton https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cellular_automaton
- dgb23 5y agoDoes that mean we could also achieve (or actually are) organisation without coordination?
- anigbrowl 5y agoYes, this is the utopian goal of political anarchism and arguably much market theory. Unfortunately, it's only as good as the right selection of local rules, and it's very possible that what's good for maximizing one thing has many untoward side effects or requires such a degree of homogeneity as to become unpleasantly restrictive.
- abstractbeliefs 5y agoI know they aren't coordinating, I'm presenting why the author writes about it appearing to be "headless".