January 21, 2009

Emergence, a very cool thing.

Check thiututs out. Emergence (linked above and here) is the idea that simple systems in great numbers develop organization and become complex systems naturally. The really cool part or this is that it seems to occur in everything, at some level or another.

Simple: Marbles on a table. Simply rolling around. You sweep them into a cup, and through no influence of your own, they organize themselves in the most efficient orientation possible. Space, vibration, heat, everything is automatically transfered through the marbles in the most efficient way possible. Cooler: If you dump those marbles into a bag, they do it again. Automatically.

Complex: Now go way down to smaller things. Atoms. Atoms form structure. They create molecules. Those molecules create substances like water. Water organizes itself into droplets. Droplets form streams, then rivers, then lakes and eventually oceans. It gets more amazing when you consider that the right moleules + water + heat = life. You, me, etc...

All because of emergence.

I've got more thoughts on emergence. I'll share them later.

January 08, 2009

Emergence: Reinventing myself

I have decided to reinvent myself. No, I'm not going to turn myself into a toaster or anything, I'm going to stick it out there and see if anything gets damaged.

Okay, how about an update? Last time I got around to posting, I was doing a contract for Dell. That didn't work out well and I politely found a replacement for myself and exited stage left.

Then I went to work of a company here in Austin, doing what I love to do, working with some pretty cool tech. I was employed for 3 mths until they "merged with" (read that as "was bought by") their majority shareholder. So, two days later, I'm unemployed again. That was in June.

Fast forward to today: My wife and I are on the skids. My MS has gotten worse, and I have gone from a cane to a walker, so interviews are not easily handled. Certainly sales is out of nthe picture and typing has becomre more difficult.

SO, I'm reinventing myself. I can do that because I am God. And so are you.

More on my reinvention and emergence later.

Stay tuned.