Self-Organization
The laws of thermodynamics are just that: laws; edicts on how participants in a system behave. In emergence, we discussed how a simple set of rules for individuals can combine to produce cumulative effects on groups of elements within a system.
The concept of self-organization is discretely different, asserting that collective order can arise from small-scale interactions between individuals. In this way, self-organizing systems contain an internal logic that provokes individuals to combine to form coherent shapes or achieve a functional purpose beyond that which an individual can achieve.
From the internal rules of a self-organizing system, collective behaviors can emerge.
In general, 4 principles guide self-organizing systems:
1) Positive feedback
2) Negative Feedback
3) Dynamic balance between the creation and consumption of resources
4) A Plurality of Participants
It may not be obvious at this point and in fact it has been contended to me that, indeed, I have not made this point clearly enough. In a universe such as ours, the rules for self-organization are laid out in the rules of thermodynamics and the principle of order.
As such, much as the pursuit of equilibrium is an emergent behavior of a non-equilibrium system expanding through nothingness, the Fibonacci sequence too is an emergent behavior of a system seeking equilibrium; a pattern inspired by the constraints of conservation of energy, the 2nd law of thermodynamics and the pursuit of equilibrium.
