In the last few years the concept of self-organizing systems – of complex systems in which randomness and chaos seem spontaneously to evolve into unexpected order – has become an increasingly influential idea that links together researchers in many fields, from artificial intelligence to chemistry, from evolution to geology.

a “complex” system like a weather front, living organism, or pre-avalanche snow-covered mountainside contains numerous parts that do change in response to their communication and interaction. This process can create feedback loops begetting “emergent properties” that differ radically from the system’s constituent parts or its previous state.