What if Sustainability is an Emergent Property?

January 2, 2014

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Environmental, Social and Economic Goal is Sustainability

• a steady-state for resource use
• social and environmental justice
• economic opportunity and prosperity
• in perpetuity

Emergent behaviors

• state of the system cannot be described by the behavior of the sub-units
• larger or longer scale has different behaviors - qualitatively
• example: ant colonies, individual ant behavior can't be used to describe the colony
• can't create any specific emergent behaviors by control over the underlying mechanisms

Implications if the state of sustainable society is an emergent property

• need to create underlying mechanisms that are sustainable
• promote activities that will lead to social/economic/ecological interactions
  • open flow of information
  • trust
  • social learning
• may lead to sustainability - not guaranteed

References and Links:

sustainability definitions

sustainability_emergent.htm