Emergence (Score 5, Informative)

The arising of complex behaviour from simple agents is also known as Emergence. It is a subject I have recently begun to study and it deals with the amazing structures, methods of information storage etc which arise in complex networks. Very little of this emerging behaviour can actually be predicted if one is to only examine the behaviour of the individual agents. The reason I bring this up is to plug a book (a popular pastime here apparently!). Its called 'Emergence' by Steven Johnson and it is this book which introduced me to Slashdot. Did you know that slashdot's rating system allows it to act as a forum and knowledge repository on a large scale, without suffering from the needless wastes of spam which ruin other similar forums. Its a difficult topic to explain but the author devotes an entire chapter to Slashdot and how its design encorporates emergant factors to allow its success. Interesting stuff, and a fascinating book too! Will