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What Systems Engineers Should Know About Emergence
Note:
A recording of the conference presentation is available at https://play.mdh.se/media/t/0_cydmjzia.
Publication Type:
Conference/Workshop Paper
Venue:
INCOSE International Symposium
Abstract
The concept of emergence refers to phenomena that occur on a system level without being
present at the level of elements in the system. Since a system is created to achieve certain emergent
system-level behavior, while avoiding other emergent properties, a deeper understanding of emergence
is crucial to further the field of systems engineering. It has also been identified as one of the
key aspects of systems-of-systems. However, the concept has been the topic of much debate in
philosophy, systems science, and complexity science for a long time, and there is yet no precise
characterization on which there is general agreement. In this paper, a selection of the literature on
emergence is reviewed to identify some key characteristics and disputes. The various philosophical
points of view are analyzed from the perspective of systems engineering, to sort out what characteristics
have practical implications, and which philosophical quiddities are merely of theoretical
interest. The paper also relates emergence to systems engineering practices and suggests some tactics
for dealing with emergence. Key results are that the inclusion of an explicit observer is essential for
understanding and handling emergence, and that emergence is closely related to the amount of information
required to describe the system which is also a defining characteristic of complexity.
Bibtex
@inproceedings{Axelsson6509,
author = {Jakob Axelsson},
title = {What Systems Engineers Should Know About Emergence},
note = {A recording of the conference presentation is available at https://play.mdh.se/media/t/0{\_}cydmjzia.},
month = {August},
year = {2022},
booktitle = {INCOSE International Symposium},
url = {http://www.es.mdu.se/publications/6509-}
}