Classifying Emergent Behavior to Reveal Design Patterns

Abstract

Methods for breaking down emergent phenomena into categories typically focus on some measure, qualitative or quantitative, of the degree of complexity of the system. While such categories are useful for clarifying what, exactly, is meant by the word “emergence,” they are less useful for developing practical means of identifying, mitigating, or encouraging emergent behavior. This chapter discusses several systems of classification of emergence that focus instead on characterizing either the form of the emergent behavior or the causal factors that encourage it. These typologies are used as a basis to propose the development of a set of design patterns that are broadly applicable to designing for emergent behavior in systems of a variety of domains. Case studies are used to illustrate these principles, and further work toward expanding and codifying the principles is discussed.