Page 19 - Complexity Perspective_Neat

Emergence is a process. Once kicked off, and often no one can find the
start point, it ripples through time and space in waves. Example the
Internet:
Wave 1

The Internet started long ago in prior communications technologies of
telephone and telegraph; it built out its technology through protocols,
infrastructure investments for an initially narrow purpose,
innovations such as the browser and then was adopted and improved
by others to give us instant mass global communication (email, skype
etc.), e-commerce, social media etc. etc. This could be seen as the first
wave.
Wave 2

In the second wave, manufacturers are building wifi rooted
communications into consumer goods from fridges to wearable tech
extending information processes into every facet of everyday life.

Wave 3
A third wave is now inevitable, indeed is already happening, just as the
car led to remote suburbs and changed the architecture of cities so the
internet of everything requires communications modes built into
homes, stores, institutions, perhaps roads and a host of satellite
communications.

As these waves break they change us psychologically; we can no longer
tolerate being unhooked except as an adventure!! No matter if the
details above are totally accurate, the story is clear; emergence as
creation does not stop with an invention; it kicks off a series of waves
as some technologies change us and the way we live and act.

How Emergence Relates To Other Constructs We
Will Discuss

(Business) Systems: are embedded in the context and are agents of
the process of Emergence. Emergence as a spontaneous act may
appear to occur inside a business, indeed some businesses are seeking
to exploit the underlying that spontaneous energy; but, business
choices are always subject to resource, power and command
constraints and so lack pure spontaneity. At best ‘spontaneity’ can be

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