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Glossary: Emergent Behavior

An emergent behavior is a behavior exhibited by a system consisting of a large number of simple and similar (or identical) components, which is surprisingly complex given the simplicity of the individual components of the system.

Emergent behavior is frequently observed in biology, for example, the human brain consists of a large number of relatively simple cells called neurons, yet the brain exhibits very complex behavior. Another example might be a flock of birds, where even though each individual bird follows quite simple rules, the flock as a whole can exhibit complex and sophisticated behavior.

Emergent behavior has the advantage that systems which rely on it often lack centralized control, and tend to be quite robust, but it is rather difficult to design such a system. Freenet is perhaps one of the first artificially created systems which takes advantage of emergent behavior.

An excellent and non-technical book on this and other related subjects is "Out of Control" by Kevin Kelly (Amazon.com, BarnesAndNobel.com).