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3.2 Modular Hierarchies
summary
Complex emergence is based in modular hierarchies
- All genuine complexity is based in modular hierarchical structures, where a complex task is broken up into simpler tasks that, when done together coherently, enable the complex task to be accomplished.
- Strongly bound units (modules) accomplish the simpler tasks, hiding their interior processes from the exterior (abstraction).
- Thus, simple logical operations are combined in complex ways to give complex higher-level logic.
The Hierarchy of Structure and Causation
- Sociology/Ecology/Economics/Politics
- Psychology/Botany/Zoology/
- Physiology
- Cell biology/ Neurology
- Genotype/Biochemistry/Molecular biology
- Chemistry
- Atomic Physics
- Particle physics
Note: The lower levels are physical, but the higher levels have abstract elements such as values, thoughts, and social roles, which are causally effective in the hierarchy.
Networks
- Simple elements are joined together to make networks of interacting elements.
- Higher-order logics thereby emerge from simple logical elements.
- Nodes represent the elements, which have specific equations describing how they work.
- Links represent the interactions: binary or graded.