surprise-generating mechanism

The vast majority of counterintuitive behaviours shown by complex systems are attributable to some combination of the following five sources: paradox/self-reference, instability, uncomputability, connectivity, and emergence. With some justification, these sources of complexity can be thought of as surprise-generating mechanisms, whose quite different…

A surprise-generating mechanism dependent on connectivity for its very existence is the phenomenon known as emergence. Emergence refers to unexpected global system properties, not present in any of the individual subsystems, that emerge from component interactions. A good example is water, whose distinguishing characteristics are its…