The Emergence of Everything: How the World Became Complex

Emergence, as a scientific counterpoint to reductionism could be a dull subject in the hands of a less deft observer of the world. In the hands of Professor Morowitz the subject comes alive with scientific detail and a thoughtful perspective. Professor Morowitz divides the history of the universe, from the Big Bang until now, into twenty-eight sections, each representing a major emergence. The number is arbitrary but useful. Admittedly, the number of emergences is vast, but the need to keep this on a readable scale is what the author does well. Some sections are more detailed than others. Professor Morowitz admits to having more knowledge in one area than another. The section on chemical reactions is his forte. It's not mine, however, the author begs the reader's indulgence and it is easily given. This is a highly readable and insightful book on the theory of complexity. Taking emergence into step twenty-eight is a bold and welcome move. I recommend this work to all who take the long view and are in awe of it all.

Motowitz's monumental book outlines 28 examples of said emergence, ranging from the making of our nonuniform universe, the emergence of stars and the elements of the periodic table, the solar system, planetary structures, universal metabolism, prokaryotic life, eukaryotic life, multicellular organisms, animals, humans, mind, philosophy and spirituality. At each level of emergence there may be agents that interact with their neighbors, not necessarily Darwinian interaction but some kind of interaction. Agents that find themselves to be successful are then latter discovered to be necessary for latter steps in the emergence, and their success is found as agents comply to what Morowitz calls a "pruning rule". The Darwinian selection principle, permitting agents to leave the most offspring as they are found to be fittest from natural selection, is such a pruning rule. The Pauli exclusion rule is a second example that Morowitz gives. The exclusion principle restricts the electron cloud that surrounds the natural elements (in our periodic table) in such a way that chemistry and bonding properties emerge from quantum mechanics; properties that are discovered to be necessary for life as we know it. On page 101 Morowitz writes: "...in our discussion of the Pauli exclusion principle we dealt with the restriction that no two electrons in a structure can share the same four quantum numbers - presumably four quantum numbers because of the four dimensions in formulating the Schrödinger equation using relativistic quantum mechanics. This principle does not come from dynamics of the problem, but from the symmetry requirements on the solutions.... Because of the non-dynamical feature, several physicists and philosophers of science detect a kind of noetic feature deep in physics" Morowitz points to this noetic quality in several places. Continuing on pages 101 to 102 he writes on the first recognized example of life-based behavior found in prokaryotes: ".... Somewhere in bacterial evolution, motility appeared. The operative structures are flagella, which rotate, propel the cells. A number of cases were discovered in which cells in a gradient of nutrients swim toward higher concentrations, and in a gradient of toxins swim toward lower concentration. The mechanism is somewhat indirect. Periodically the swimming cells randomly switch directions. In a favorable gradient they change less frequently, and in an unfavorable gradient they change more frequently. They are letting their profits run and cutting their losses. For a population of cells, this leads to a fit behavioral repertoire. The behavior looks causal, but the endpoint looks teleological. It requires sensing the environment, concentration versus time, and responding to the time gradient, which is also a space gradient, since the organisms are swimming. I think it is important to look at these hints of cognitive behavior as they appear." Regarding the mental or noetic aspect of all animal life, on

This is a relatively small book with a huge message. It deals with complex, sophisticated theories - some explained clearly; others such as the emergence of metabolism, not so clearly despite Dr. Morowitz's efforts. It is written at a scholarly level - at least at the undergraduate level - as evidenced, for example, by his syntax and the technical lexicon he employs, often without definition.Dr. Morowitz's premise is that at the dawn of the 21st century "we now see the world through the fresh perspective and understanding of the computer revolution and the study of complex systems...[and] this new mode of thinking has begun to develop an exciting explanatory concept designated emergence, which develops previously unrealized ways of deepening our understanding of the past eons and illuminates how the universe, after a long and complex 12-billion-year trajectory from the Big Bang, has given rise to the human mind and modern man" (pg. 16). Classical science is based on reductionism and theory formation that work their way back up to the world of observation. I disagree from the review from Scientific American that emergence is the opposite of reductionism; rather, emergence supplements and complements reductionism, taking it to a new level. It essentially is the realization - the study - that the whole is often greater than the sum of the parts (pg. 23); that is, the system or process that emerges is something more than would have been expected by the study of the constituent parts. Dr. Morowitz selected 28 examples of "observed instances that have emergence in common but vary over an enormous range...selected to form an almost linear chronological sequence from the beginning of the universe we now occupy toward a conscious grasping for the future, a search for spirit, or something in that domain" (pg. 25) - in other words, a grand tour from the beginning of our universe towards what our species is to become. This is a heady undertaking, to be sure, and Dr. Morowitz is up to the task. He first steps through the 28 examples ever so briefly in order to provide an advance summary. He then takes us through them in more detail with a chapter devoted to each. Some are straightforward and easy to grasp, such as numbers 3/the emergence of stars and 4/the periodic table; but others are complex and abstruse, such as numbers 10/cells with organelles and 11/multicellularity. He provides plenty of supplemental reading along the way with suggestions at the end of each chapter.What we see from his 28 groupings is that existence, as we know it, stretching from the Big Bang into the future as far as our minds can visualize, has been and continues to be one continuous emergence - what one might call a mega-emergence. We can segment it however we like (he segments it 28 ways), but it doesn't change the fact that from the Big Bang there is no known way to predict what has come to be and what is yet to come.While some of the concepts are difficult to grasp,

Morowitz has written a wonderful book, and filled a (much-needed) niche in the growing population of books on emergent systems: this book synthesizes emergent systems at nearly every level of analysis, making this book stand out in a crowd of books that cover only specific topics. Lucid writing and clear examples go a long way towards making this the most readable book on emergent systems to date. I was left wanting more! Bravo, Dr. Morowitz.