TWCR 2019 — Emergence - Second International TRANSIT workshop on Cross-disciplinary Research

Emergence is a term used to describe system-level collective properties and behaviours that cannot be reduced to specific properties of their individual components. From Aristotle’s “the whole is something besides the parts” to Anderson’s “More is different”, emergence captures the existence of an overall unity separate from its constituents. Emergence is a broad concept, occurring across systems comprising physical, technological, neural, biological, or social components. From physics to philosophy, from biology to art, from engineering to neuroscience, emergent properties abound, yet there remains little agreement on a formal definition of emergence, ways to analyse it, or ways to achieve it.

TWCR 2019 will explore the cross-disciplinary theme of Emergence, seeking to bring together ideas, approaches, concepts, and perspectives from natural biological systems and other physical systems, from engineered physical and virtual systems, and from human social systems.