Self-organization is a process that occurs without external control
Living systems, such as beehives, exhibit self-organization through division of labor and nest building
Chemical reactions demonstrate self-organization through the emergence of structure from a disorganized state
Self-organized behavior in immune systems is distributed and not centrally controlled
In our last episode, we talked about the four conditions of complex systems: numerosity, disorder and diversity, feedback, and non-equilibrium — and we also talked about the concept of emergence. In this episode, which is part two of our two-part series on the features of complex systems, we're joined again by Karoline Wiesner, Professor of Complexity Science in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Potsdam in Germany.
In this episode, Karoline explains the six emergent features of complex systems:
Spontaneous order and self-organisation
Non-linearity
Robustness
Nested structure and modularity
History and memory
Adaptive behaviour
By the time you've finished this episode, you'll understand the underlying principles of complex systems that hold together the wide variety of topics we talk about in this series.