Conjecture

The move that makes the ant comparison an argument rather than an image: what emergence requires is not simple components but components simpler than the system they compose. Part I states it directly, that it is not the absolute simplicity or complexity of a component that matters to emergence, only relative simplicity, and that individual people's decision making is far less complicated than the behaviour of nations, economies and cultures. The consequence is uncomfortable and Part I accepts it: although the behaviour of those entities is created by the sum of our actions, it is often impossible to understand what higher-level behaviour our actions will produce. We are in the ant's position with respect to our own institutions.

Coordination architecture