emergence
Since the launch of chatGPT3.5 in December 2022, discussions on AI and large language models (LLM) have been raging, which has also brought about a wave of hype in the stock market.
This article is dedicated to explaining and expanding the concept of "emergence".
what is emerging
Emergence is the state after the complexity system breaks through the threshold, which is called emergence . It refers to the phenomenon of unpredictable and complex state created by the preset simple interaction behavior between individuals in a system.
Expressed in a formula, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. This means that when a complex system "emerges", there are parts that appear out of nothing, which cannot be understood by reductionism.
Reductionism: A car can be disassembled into countless parts and units, and then put together one by one.
Holism: An ant colony is not a simple sum of individual ants, but another intelligent body.
The biggest secret of the emergence phenomenon is that the individual is not important, but the connections and interactions between individuals are the most important.
According to "Complexity Thinking: Reshaping the Thinking Framework for Understanding the World", as the number of members increases, the interaction between members increases exponentially. When this connection exceeds a certain threshold, it will trigger emergence.
When countless neurons are combined, thinking and consciousness will emerge. What are thinking and consciousness?
For example, ask a question, who do you say I am?
We don't equate ourselves with the neurons in our brains, we equate ourselves with the last virtual thing, which we call thinking and consciousness. And this kind of consciousness and thinking is not the sum of neurons at all.
When we look at ourselves, we define ourselves as some virtual hierarchy, not the sum of the individuals that make up the hierarchy.
So if we want to understand this peculiar phenomenon of emergence, we must understand a key feature called hierarchy.
In "Thinking and Consciousness" there are also at least two levels.
The first is the individual level, that is, cells and neurons.
The second level is the overall level, which is our thinking and consciousness.
The interaction between a large number of individuals, in a higher virtual level, gives birth to a new super-life body, and this phenomenon is called emergence.
Emergent example: Freezing of water
Let's look at another physics example:
The behavior of liquid water is controlled by hydrodynamics, but as the water temperature drops, the system behavior gradually changes (such as viscosity increases), but the overall is similar and still follows the fluid dynamics; but if the temperature continues to drop to a critical temperature, the system behavior There will be a drastic change, liquid water becomes solid water, and the behavior of the system no longer obeys fluid mechanics, but obeys solid mechanics, entering a new state in which the laws governing the behavior of the system undergo a qualitative change.
Remarkably, this change in behavior occurs in a discontinuous manner with respect to temperature. As the temperature is steadily lowered, the behavior changes abruptly when a critical threshold is crossed.
As we can see, the LLM also seems to undergo these dramatic qualitative changes, but scaled as a function rather than temperature.
Emergent Generation: Self-Organization
Self-organization is the mechanism of emergence. A large number of individuals interact according to a simple rule. Without central control, a new overall order will emerge. This is called self-organization.
Self-organization has two characteristics, one is autonomy and the other is identity.
Autonomy, the motivation, ability or characteristic of the actor to act according to his own will;
Identity, where each actor follows an unchanging underlying rule or goal;
This simple rule has the nature of two types of opposition, and this duality must be broken to produce this kind of chaos and emergence.
Self-organization can realize emergence, and emergence is the emergence of new life.
biological tissue
A single ant is one of the most ignorant creatures among known creatures, but if millions of ants are put together, a very strange phenomenon will occur.
But for humans it seems to be the opposite. Every individual is extremely smart, but why is it that when a large number of individuals are together, it is easy for all wisdom to become stupid and become a "crowd"?
The explanation of machine-type organization can be introduced here. What is a machine? Machines are made up of parts. In other words, the existing organization is the sum of individual employees, and employees are part of the system, which is called a mechanical organization.
But if the organization is no longer the sum of individuals, but the sum of interactions between individuals. Then organizations may emerge at a higher level, forming a kind of virtual super life form, which is called biological organization.
Let’s compare the difference between a mechanical organization and a biological organization. Metaphorically speaking, the former is metaphorized as a machine, employees are the parts in the machine, and the latter is metaphorized as life.
A mechanical organization is KPI-driven. Each individual in the organization is a fixed part. The connection between individuals often depends on the indicators set by the superior, and the leader can do whatever the leader asks.
One of the main points of biological organization is mission-driven, and it is very likely that mission is the best expression of the identity in self-organization.
Extended Thinking 1: Emergence of Consciousness
First of all, let us imagine what consciousness is. Consciousness is invisible and intangible. Let us give an example to try to understand it.
It is well known that human beings exist in the universe, so human consciousness must also come from the universe, and consciousness comes from the universe.
Humans are alive, and life comes from matter, without matter there is no life, and because everyone agrees that life has consciousness, then even if consciousness is not matter, it must come from matter.
People always deny that consciousness is matter, just because consciousness is nothingness and formless, or maybe nothing more!
But there are too many invisible substances in the universe! Such as air, magnetic field, etc. Why do we only deny that consciousness is matter?
So some people regard matter as the vibration frequency (energy) of a kind of consciousness. Of course, you can also say that consciousness is the vibration frequency of matter (this may involve idealism and materialism), but quantum mechanics is biased towards consciousness to determine matter. .
Just like the codes of different frequencies (0 and 1) of our computer form all kinds of information, and when you go deep into the quantum field, you will find that there are a large number of particle resonances with different frequencies that make up the world we see today. The different frequencies Composed of tangible or intangible existence.
Extended Thinking 2: The Emergence of Artificial Intelligence
With the emergence of large language models such as chatGPT, the complexity of the system has increased, and its internal connections and functions have become more and more complex. Will there be emergence, "awakening" of thinking, and the formation of silicon-based life?