Emergence

http://www.radiolab.org/2007/aug/14/

It was a long radio program but a very interesting subject.  There were many different tensions in the radio piece Emergence.  The radio host came at the idea of organization developing without a leader from different species and different hosts of dis/organization including ants, fireflies, google search, humans and bodies.  The question is answered in many ways, but use of smell in ants, the actions of lame individuals adding up to a smart community decision or is there a divine author of this spontaneous organization.  These resolutions are interesting but I don't think the explanations are more interesting than the tension themselves.  The radio show allows the listener to have comfort in this unknowing.  This might the toughest sort of journalism in the opinion of Jon Franklin, author of Writing for Story who discusses the importances of an action oriented resolution (pg 83).  I guess the action oriented resolution of Emergence is different for each host of dis/organization.  The idea the connects all hosts is that the community is smarter than the individual but each individual uses different skills to be part of the organization of the whole.  There might not be a science (an idea presented by the host, not me).  Which makes it magical - the way I suppose organized fireflies make a viewer feel.  Yet, all the explications we have about these phenomenon are scientific.

Summary of Tensions:
individual vs. community
divine vs. scientific
organization vs. disorganization
unexplained vs. resolution

As of the actual radio show, it's awesome.  The sound effects they use provoke different feelings.  The hosts bring the listener around the world with many different voices and opinions on the subject.  The voices are will integrated with each other.  They do a good job of having an informal discussion about the subject and then jumping to a scientific opinion about it.

I really enjoyed it! Thanks!