AI - 1.06 - history - emergent
Emergent Properties
Upon being challenged that current versions of artificial intelligence, in whichever of the variety of approaches that may be under discussion, are not terribly intelligent, eventually the proponents of artificial intelligence will get around to the idea of "emergent properties."
They may not actually use that term, because the term has somewhat fallen out of favor, since the history of artificial intelligence really doesn't have a huge body of evidence to support the concept.
The basic idea is that current versions of artificial intelligence are limited. They may be able to perform certain functions, and are intelligent enough to do certain tasks, but to really grow and develop to a true artificial intelligence, the systems need to be much more complex. This is based on the premise of emergence emergent properties: if a system is sufficiently complex, it will start to produce far more complex results than seem to be justified by the simplicity of the base model.
Conway’s “Game of Life”
Most of the idea of emergent properties comes from "Conway's Game of Life." This game is set up on a grid, like a checkerboard. However, the grid is generally much larger than a standard checkerboard, and in some versions may be unlimited. There are rules for whether a given square, section, or cell of the grid is on, or off, based upon how many of these surrounding sections are on or off. (Zero or one "on" neighbours "kills" the cell, two to three allows the cell to live, four or more kills the cell.) Based upon these extremely simple rules, the game proceeds in a series of cycles. On each cycle, each cell will determine the number of squares around it that are on, and then turn itself either on or off. Given appropriate parameters for the rules, the game will produce some astoundingly complex forms, which will perform sometimes very complex behaviors, once again, based only on a ridiculously simple set of rules. The complex shape and behaviors are the emergent properties of the basic rules.
This may, when described on a text only basis, seem rather abstract. However, you can easily find, in the app stores, or play stores, or by searching out on the Web, Game of Life programs, or apps for phones, that will allow you to set your own factors for the Game of Life, and run it, and see for yourself what gets generated. An online version, which you can play without downloading anything, is at https://playgameoflife.com/
Fractals
The idea of an emergent properties is also related to the idea of fractals. Fractals are graphical representations of data, and related to basic arithmetic equations. Sometimes very simple arithmetic equations lead to enormously complex, and strangely beautiful, fractal representations. The same basic concept is a play here: a simple algorithm or function, leading to an enormously complex result.
Termite mounds and "air conditioning"
Many of the devotees of emergent programming turn to nature for justification. Various families of hive insects have extremely small brains, and very primitive inbuilt behaviors, with very little ability to learn new behaviors. However, given these extremely simple ideas of inbuilt genetic programming, together, and collectively, they build enormously complex structures as their homes. Termites in desert regions are known to build enormous mounds, primarily constructed of mud, which, due to the structure and angles of the tunnels built through them, actually perform the function of air conditioning the entire mound, in order to preserve the hive during very hot weather.
While you can see that there are implications, from nature and these game experiments, that emergent properties might have the promise of developing something much more complex like true artificial intelligence, you should also be able to say see that the true evidence is rather lacking. Indeed, these systems have some fairly glaring faults. The emergent properties resulting from the Game of Life and fractals do rely upon picking the right equations, parameters, and initial conditions. A great many choices create either nothing, or a blob, or a mess. So the possibilities of creating something amazing are somewhat limited. True, we can certainly set up situations where we cycle very rapidly through a variety of equations and factors, particularly when we are operating at computer speeds. But, overall, the belief that emergent properties may provide true artificial intelligence for us, without our specific direction, is perhaps a bit thin.
Even our example from nature, with hive insects, doesn't really support true, general, artificial intelligence. The engineering that results from termite mounds is as a result of millions, and possibly hundreds of millions of years of evolution. The populations that did not create mounds to these specifications, died over this period of possibly hundreds of millions of years.
So, of course, we return to evolution. We turn to evolutionary programming, or genetic programming. This is very similar to the game of Core Wars.
In my own field of information security, we had, historically, a similar or related game that added the element of evolution. This was a system called Core Wars. Core Wars allowed people to write programs whose only purpose was to survive in computer memory. Some would take a "run and hide" approach, others would attempt to reproduce themselves rapidly, and yet others adopted predatory tactics, attempting to obliterate all other programs that they encountered. This did not necessarily lead to, but was definitely related to the idea of evolutionary or genetic programming, wherein we attempted to create programs which would modify themselves, and see which version was most suited to the objective to be accomplished.
In evolutionary or genetic programming, we create programs, with a specific objective and get the programs to pursue that objective. A variety of programs will be created with a variation in certain parameters, factors, and variables. Computers can generate these programs, from an initial template, with the variations over a range of possibilities. Over time, a number of the programs will do better at achieving the objectives. These programs will be kept, and the ones that do not do as well will be discarded. Thus we have evolution and competition.
The thing is, that there are severe limitations on what will, and will not, work with genetic or evolutionary programming. Unlike analogue systems, digital systems tend to be highly brittle, and are subject to catastrophic failure even under seemingly minor deviation from proper conditions. Therefore, unless you take extreme care with regard to which parameters, factors, and variables can be modified, and which cannot, the bulk of the programs that have their code varied will simply crash, and nothing will be learned or gained.
As can be seen, there is evidence for emergent properties, and that they may give rise to very interesting effects. Whether the effects are likely to give rise to some form of intelligence is less certain. In many ways, claiming emergent properties is just another way of saying "magic."
AI topic and series
Introduction and ToC: https://fibrecookery.blogspot.com/2026/01/ai-000-intro-table-of-contents.html
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