Some of my personal favorite resources on this topic: http://www.amazon.com/Introduction-General-Systems-Thinking-Anniversary/dp/0932633498 http://www.amazon.c

Some of my personal favorite resources on this topic: http://www.amazon.com/Introduction-General-Systems-Thinking-Anniversary/dp/0932633498 http://www.amazon.com/Introduction-General-Systems-Thinking-... http://www.amazon.com/The-Systems-Bible-Beginners-Guide/dp/0961825170 http://www.amazon.com/The-Systems-Bible-Beginners-Guide/dp/0... http://www.amazon.com/Ackoffs-Best-Classic-Writings-Management/dp/0471316342 http://www.amazon.com/Ackoffs-Best-Classic-Writings-Manageme... I really enjoyed these books, but I am not super well-read in this area, so there may be better ones out there. You could try searching for "systems theory" and see what other resources are out there. Systems theory is a very broad topic, so you'll find it attached to many specific disciplines, but the general idea is that you can take a bunch of simple things, hook them together, and produce a "being" that has totally weird behavior in aggregate.