Provoking emergence

So how do you provoke emergence? It's a process of [[Architects vs gardeners | gardening, not architecture]]. Collecting patterns...

Examples of emergent behavior

• Biological [[evolution]]
• Flocking
• Conway's Game of Life
• Wikipedia
• Etherpad + pirate party
• Minecraft
• urls and linking

Markets are an emergent behavior, so designing for emergence is how you create new markets.

Emergence design patterns

You can't top-down plan emergent systems, but you can provoke them into being. Here are some attributes that emergent systems often have:

• [[Evolution]]
• More than one goal, or constraints with no goal
• Goals that can be achieved in more than one way
• [[Alphabets]] - a kit of parts, together with rules for combining them.
• Universal APIs
  • Example: Lego dots.
  • Universal APIs allow anything to be combined with anything.
• [[Verbs that can act on many objects]].
• Side effects that change constraints create a [[dancing landscape]].
• [[Start with a toy | Fun to play with]].
  • This gets you past the steep part of the learning curve and into creating.
• [[Low floor, wide walls, high ceiling]] — an easy initial learning curve.
  • What can I do immediately? In Minecraft I can dig.
• Infinite spaces (or simulated by generative algorithms)
  • Examples: No Man's Sky, Spelunky.
• Involves more than one person
  • See [[games with more than one player]].
  • Often has some network effect
  • Multipolar arenas (2 or more actors) produce complex outcomes that are difficult to anticipate.
  • Create campfires: make opportunities for subcultures to emerge.

Why provoke emergence? Because [[permissionless creation is where value comes from]].

[[Design patterns]]