Day 1112: Emergent Complexity

Yesterday, I met my friend Peggy at the deCordova Museum in Lincoln, Massachusetts.

The deCordova — with its amazing sculpture park, gift shop, and creative exhibits — has been a favorite destination for me and my 17-year-old son Aaron for years. The original plan was for Peggy and I to meet at the museum’s gift shop at 11 AM, but when Peggy  called me from her home in Worcester, at 10:20, to tell me she’d be a little late, she wondered  whether we should meet somewhere else instead, because the winter weather  would definitely interfere with our visiting the deCordova’s beloved sculpture park. However,  I just said no to a different meeting place, since I thought the deCordova’s gift shop and the main building would still be a great place to spend time, especially since my main goal was to hang out with her.

Is there any emergent complexity in this post, so far?

In order to judge whether complexity is emerging here, you probably need a definition of “emergent complexity.”  However, all the definitions of that, emerging online, have too much complexity for me.  For example, I found an  article — “Emergent Complexity : The Fourth Law of Thermodynamics?” —  where the very title seems questioning and unsure.

 Here‘s the least complex definition emerging online, in the emergent moment:

An emergent behavior or emergent property can appear when a number of simple entities (agents) operate in an environment, forming more complex behaviors as a collective. If emergence happens over disparate size scales, then the reason is usually a causal relation across different scales.

 .

To help with the emergent complexity in this already complex post, I’ll explain that the term “Emergent Complexity” was used yesterday by  Marty, an incredibly helpful and charming staff person at the deCordova gift shop.

Here’s Marty:

Marty used the term “emergent complexity” when he, Peggy, and I all had different visual associations with this pair of earrings:

… which reminded Marty of jellyfish, Peggy of flowers, and me of flying saucers.

I wonder what emergent complexity in each of our personalities those different associations reveal?

There was SO MUCH fabulous emergent complexity to be discovered yesterday at the deCordova gift shop, thanks to Jane …

… who has been emerging at the deCordova  gift shop as a terrific buyer for many years.

Here’s some emergent, complex photographic proof of Jane’s incredible buying skills:

 

What do you think of the complexity emerging there, at the deCordova gift shop?

If the emergent complexity of any photo montage here is too complex to read, clearer and larger photos should emerge, if you click on them.

If you need more emergent complexity from yesterday, there’s more!

What best represents “Emergent Complexity” to you?

Before the ending emerges from the complexity of this post, here are more associations, from complex me,  about “Emergent Complexity”:

• Sometimes, the complexity of thoughts emerging from our minds can interfere with our choosing helpful actions.
• As I’m preparing for my try-out for “The Voice” next month, I can get tied up in the complexity of my thoughts and feelings about that, which might get in the way of my enjoying the experience.
• The human mind’s complexities — with tendencies to go into the future with  fear of the unknown and into the past with regret about what cannot be changed — often interfere with the emergent riches of the current moment.

I look forward to the complexity of comments emerging from this post.

Emergently complex thanks to Peggy, Marty, Jane, the deCordova, and every other person, place, and thing contributing to the complexity of today’s post.  Special thanks to you — of course! — for all your complexity, emerging here and now.