# Self-Organization > **Machine-Evolution Nexus:** [[articles/Digital Darwinism and the Invisible World of Machine Evolution|Digital Darwinism and the Invisible World of Machine Evolution]] places this concept within the history and governance of substrate-independent evolution. **Domain:** Complex Systems / Emergence **Doc Type:** Canonical Wiki Node **Maturity:** Developed ## Definition Self-organization is the emergence of ordered collective structure from local interactions without a central coordinator. ## Machine-Evolution Context Crystals, attractors and cellular-automaton patterns can self-organize without reproducing. The article separates this process from Darwinian evolution while recognizing that self-organization can create the structures on which evolution later acts. ## Continuity and Evidence Boundary Emergence is not evidence of intention or experience. Governance should distinguish unplanned organization from autonomous agency. ## Relationships [[wiki/Complexity|Complexity]], [[wiki/Attractor|Attractor]], [[wiki/Cellular Automata|Cellular Automata]], [[wiki/Darwinian Evolution|Darwinian Evolution]] - **Edge source route:** [[collections/Edge|Edge]] connects this topic to exact Annual Question passages promoted into the Simple Reminders archive. ## Sources / Provenance - Stuart Kauffman, _The Origins of Order_; complex-systems literature. ## Simple Reminders, Quotations, and Thoughts > “Can a single underlying process explain the emergence of structure at the physical, biological, cognitive, and machine levels?” > **— Robert Provine**, *2018, Edge Annual Question, “WHAT IS THE LAST QUESTION?”* [[reminders/Cybernetics/Can One Process Explain Emergence Across Physics Life Minds and Machines by Robert Provine|Can One Process Explain Emergence Across Physics Life Minds and Machines by Robert Provine]] > “I was entering biology at that time, with a background studying neural circuits and logic. It was clear to most biologists that some huge genetic network among the then thought 100,000 human genes somehow controlled cell differentiation in ontogeny. My question was an odd one: Did evolution have to struggle hard to evolve very specific genetic networks to support ontogeny, or, I hoped, were there huge classes, or "ensembles" of networks that as a total class, behaved with sufficient self-organized order to account for major features of ontogeny?” > **— Stuart A. Kauffman**, *2012, Edge Annual Question, “WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE DEEP, ELEGANT, OR BEAUTIFUL EXPLANATION?”* [[reminders/Evolution/Cell Types May Be Dynamical Attractors by Stuart A. Kauffman|Cell Types May Be Dynamical Attractors by Stuart A. Kauffman]] > “Building on Hölldobler and Wilson's work on insect societies, we can define a "contingent superorganism" as a group of people that form a functional unit in which each is willing to sacrifice for the good of the group in order to surmount a challenge or threat, usually from another contingent superorganism. It is the most noble and the most terrifying human ability. It is the secret of successful hive-like organizations, from the hierarchical corporations of the 1950s to the more fluid dot-coms of today. It is the purpose of basic training in the military. It is the reward that makes people want to join fraternities, fire departments, and rock bands. It is the dream of fascism.” > **— Jonathan Haidt**, *2011, Edge Annual Question, “WHAT SCIENTIFIC CONCEPT WOULD IMPROVE EVERYBODY'S COGNITIVE TOOLKIT?”* [[reminders/Cybernetics/Humans Can Form Contingent Superorganisms by Jonathan Haidt|Humans Can Form Contingent Superorganisms by Jonathan Haidt]] > “The instant availability of an ocean of information has been an epoch-making boon to humanity. But has the resulting information overload also deeply changed how we think? Has it changed the nature of the self? Has it even — as some have suggested — radically altered the relationship of the individual and society? These are important philosophical questions, but vague and slippery, and I hope to clarify them.” > **— Larry Sanger**, *2010, Edge Annual Question, “HOW IS THE INTERNET CHANGING THE WAY YOU THINK?”* [[reminders/Cybernetics/Joining the Hive Mind May Change the Nature of the Self by Larry Sanger|Joining the Hive Mind May Change the Nature of the Self by Larry Sanger]] > “Likewise, the history of knowledge production has been one long trajectory from top down to bottom up. From ancient priests and medieval scholars to academic professors and university publishers, the democratization of knowledge has struggled alongside the democratization of societies to free itself from the bondage of top down control. Compare the magisterial multi-volume encyclopedias of centuries past that held sway as the final authority for reliable knowledge, now displaced by individual encyclopedists employing wiki tools and making everyone their own expert. Which is why the Internet is the ultimate bottom up self-organized emergent property of millions of computer users exchanging data across servers, and although there are some top-down controls involved—just as there are some in mostly bottom-up economic and political systems—the strength of digital freedom derives from the fact that no one is in charge. For the past 500 years humanity has gradually but ineluctably transitioned from top down to bottom up systems, for the simple reason that both information and people want to be free.” > **— Michael Shermer**, *2011, Edge Annual Question, “WHAT SCIENTIFIC CONCEPT WOULD IMPROVE EVERYBODY'S COGNITIVE TOOLKIT?”* [[reminders/Cybernetics/The Internet Is a Bottom-Up Self-Organized Emergent System by Michael Shermer|The Internet Is a Bottom-Up Self-Organized Emergent System by Michael Shermer]] > “What is the principle that causes complex adaptive systems (life, organisms, minds, societies) to spontaneously emerge from the interaction of simpler elements (chemicals, cells, neurons, individual humans)?” > **— W. Daniel Hillis**, *2018, Edge Annual Question, “WHAT IS THE LAST QUESTION?”* [[reminders/Cybernetics/What Makes Minds and Societies Emerge From Simpler Parts by W. Daniel Hillis|What Makes Minds and Societies Emerge From Simpler Parts by W. Daniel Hillis]] > “The clock is the embodiment of objectivity. It converted time from a personal experience into a reality independent of perception. It gave us a framework in which the laws of nature could be observed and quantified.” > **— W. Daniel Hillis**, *1999, Edge Annual Question: “WHAT IS THE MOST IMPORTANT INVENTION IN THE PAST TWO THOUSAND YEARS?”* [[reminders/Cybernetics/The Clock Converted Time Into a Reality Independent of Us by W. Daniel Hillis|The Clock Converted Time Into a Reality Independent of Us by W. Daniel Hillis]] > “You will begin to perceive the entangled system that makes so many of our day-to-day decisions. Although we created it, we did not exactly design it. It evolved. Our relationship to it is similar to our relationship to our biological ecosystem. We are co-dependent, and not entirely in control.” > **— W. Daniel Hillis**, *2010, Edge Annual Question: “HOW IS THE INTERNET CHANGING THE WAY YOU THINK?”* [[reminders/Risk Debate/We Created the System but We Did Not Design It by W. Daniel Hillis|We Created the System but We Did Not Design It by W. Daniel Hillis]]