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Natural Knowledge

( Size: 44" x 28" Oils )

Subjects in the painting:

Natural

E.W.Powell. Painting completed late 1991.

Complexity comment:

The process of natural selection hones our genetic material in a way that allows the emergence of new abilities, new designs and adaptations. In the same way, within any complex system the ongoing interactions cause the emergence of unexpected features, new, higher levels of meaning that cannot be predicted from the properties of the parts.

The human brain is one of the most complex systems known to man, it is estimated to contain around 10,000,000,000 neurons. Each of these is itself a cell, a highly complex system in its own right. The chief emergent property of the brain is awareness - of others, of self, of the future and the past.

In turn, the interplay of brains in social situations gives rise to yet higher levels of emergent properties, ones unpredictable in terms of any individual. This common feature of all emergent systems is often overlooked when plans are made. Novelty arises from new combinations of interactions, new ways of relating to each other and to the planet.

And thus we learn...

Page Version 1.1 October 1998
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