"Emergence Group Overview"

The Emergence Group is a think tank working on principles and practices of “complex systems”. It was created in 2004 and has held since nearly 200 working sessions.

A complex system is a set of elements in continuous dynamic interaction. We ourselves are complex systems and we are all surrounded by such systems: biology, economics, sociology, weather and climate, technical systems… The study of such systems cannot be limited to their elements. The dynamics of their interactions must be persistently considered. Because of the entangled mode of their interactions, such a study does not come under conventional mathematical approaches but also requires specific methods, such as multi-agent simulation or complex network analysis.

One of the characteristics of complex systems is the existence of global properties which are not present in the elements but result from interactions called “Emerging Properties”, hence the name of the name of our group. Other properties may also appear, for example “chaotic regimes”.

Mission of the Emergence Group

This group aims to the development of its members in an open, exciting field which encompasses a broad spectrum of topics from science to philosophy.

The Group explores the different approaches in order to understand, predict, control or modify complex systems, whether natural or artificial. Experts of various fields present real cases of complex systems. However, it does not claim to significantly perform basic research.

How it works: The Group operates on several levels

Emergence evenings, bringing together members are held eight times a year (usually Monday evening at 7 pm). A speaker (internal or guest) presents a theoretical or applied topic. The presentation is followed by a Q&A session during the dinner (members pay their dinner).

Santa Café is open to members willing to deepen their knowledge through specific sessions. It meets 8 times per year, on Monday at 11 am.

A very active Internet Discussion Forum which is open to our 90 members.

Ad Hoc Subgroups can be activated for specific subject. Conclusions are reported to other groups.

Benefits for members:

Meeting with high level experts (see examples on next page)

Open mindness and intellectual emulation

Freedom of expression and convivial atmosphere

Informal links with other groups involved in complex system study

Examples of recent or current works:

At Emergence meetings:

Examples of topics discussed, showing the variety of interest:

Modeling and Simulation, Collective Intelligence, Climate Disorder, Technological Singularity, Game Theory, Art and Emergence, Artificial Intelligence, Big Data and Complexity, Absurd Decisions, Self-organization, Complex Networks, Financial Crisis ...

Some of our guest speakers:

Henri Atlan, biologist and philosopher, author of famous books as"The Crystal and the Smoke" and "The post-genomic Life"

Jean-Louis Le Moigne: Professor Emeritus, complexity philosopher, author with Edger Morin"The Intelligence of Complexity"

Christian Sautter: former French Finance Minister, economist, expert about economic forecasting.

Gérard Donnadieu: complex system expert, economist, professor of theology, author among others of "The systemic-thinking and acting in complexity" with Michel Karsky and a book on "Teilhard de Chardin".

At Santa Café:

Most of the recent sessions were devoted to the collective design and writing of a handbook (“Vademecum”) intended to help people already having some knowledge of complex theory, to give them some guidance for the study of complex systems.

Specific subgroups:

Reading groups on selected books :

"The Information: A History – A Theory - A Flood" by James Gleick

"21 lessons for the 21st century" by Yuval Noah Harari

Focus groups on immigration, violence, "common goods"

The website of the group:

http://www.mountvernon.fr/, which provides access to various ressources (basics of complexity concepts, available presentations, etc.)

How to contact us:

Groupe Emergence search for new external speakers and new members. Many of our present members being engineers, we are particularly interested in enriching the group in the fields of human and life sciences.

For comments, questions or candidacy you can contact one of our members directly, if you know one, or go to the Emergence website and click on CONTACT.