Emergence

[rug]

http://www.radiolab.org/story/91500-emergence/

59:29 audio from radiolab broadcast today. The topic is order out of disorder, without the usual bullshit. I got hooked when they examined ants. They end up talking about the claustrum.

[NYC_SKP]

1. Fascinating discussion. I caught it once before so this is a replay. Radiolab rocks.

As does This American Life and now the new series "Serial".

The ants and the analogy to neurons and brain cells, quite interesting and evidence of the fact that science doesn't "know" nearly as much as it professes to know.

[cbayer]

2. I heard Serial while in the states and loved it.

Siris NPR carries radiolab, but not TAL, which I love.

And our bandwidth is really too limited to do much audio.

[rug]

4. I'm glad I caught the replay today.

They ask great questions even while knowing know the answers are unknown.

I have to look up that book now, The Quest for Consciousness.

[longship]

3. Emergence is an absolutely incredible biological property.

I love Radiolab. And emergence.

Will comment further after I listen.

[rug]

6. Wait till you get to Crick and Koch.

With Mozart's Requiem playing.

[cbayer]

5. Radiolab is one of my favorites. I think they replay tomorrow

Thanks for the heads up.

[AtheistCrusader]

7. Hahah some of this is from a TED talk almost a decade ago on Sync.

Steven Strogatz, a Mathematician covered this in 2004.

Sync isn't hard at all. You don't even need to be alive to do it.
http://www.ted.com/talks/steven_strogatz_on_sync

Bacteria can synchronize an attack with 'markers' that amount to quorum voting.

Edit: Oh shit, this voice IS Steven Strogatz, apparently he's a guest on the show.

[Jim__]

8. I wish they would have focused more on one idea.

Focusing on any one of: the concept of emergence itself, emergence in ant colonies, or the emergence of consciousness would have made for a more interesting discussion. One hour is barely enough time to scratch the surface on any one of these topics.

[rug]

9. Yes, but I enjoyed how wide-ranging it was.

If they spent an hour on one topic only, I'd like it to be on consciousness.