New World Order

The day may come when the Information Age will be seen merely as a transitional period between the age of Industrial Design -- where intentions and actions could be directly aligned -- and the age Emergent Systems -- where results emerge, sometimes mysteriously, from simple and seemingly unrelated patterns of action.

One need not stir the hornet's nest of human evolution to find credible examples from which to gain insight: fractal images of stunning complexity and beauty arise from following simple rules; complex and regular grammatical structures are not designed intentionally but rather arise through our pursuit of economy and expressiveness.

The world is full of complex systems that were not directly designed, but instead arose indirectly through the actions of a community interacting with its environment. Power in this world comes from understanding and mastering the structures and policies that define such communities and channel their actions.