> Emergencia, ejemplos de...

Unas de las primeras descripciones de propiedad emergente se debe a Samuel

Alexander quien en su obra �Space, Time, and Deity� de 1920 la describ�a de la
siguiente forma:

CITA: Physical and chemical processes of a certain complexity have the quality of
life. The new quality life emerges with this constellation of such processes, and
therefore life is at once a physico-chemical complex and is not merely physical and
chemical, for these terms do not sufficiently characterize the new complex which in
the course and order of time has been generated out of them. Such is the account to
be given of the meaning of quality as such. The higher quality emerges from the
lower level of existence and has its roots therein, but it emerges therefrom, and
it does not belong to that level, but
constitutes its possessor a new order of existent with its special laws of
behavior. The existence of emergent qualities thus described is something to be
noted, as some would say, under the compulsion of brute empirical fact, or, as I
should prefer to say in less harsh terms, to be accepted with the �natural piety�
of the investigator. It admits no explanation.

Por lo tanto, para Alexander la realidad se organiza en niveles cuyas propiedades

enra�zan de forma anidada en los niveles previos pero que no son deducibles de
ellos, de forma que ni siquiera un demonio laplaciano ser�a capaz de predecirlas a
pesar de contar con toda la informaci�n necesaria. Sin embargo no duda de que toda
la vida sea de naturaleza f�sico-qu�mica pero asegura que es la complejidad de la
organizaci�n en niveles la que da lugar a una serie de procesos que determinan las
propiedades de los niveles superiores. Es m�s, afirma que estas nuevas
caracter�sticas sobrevienen de un proceso f�sico-qu�mico concreto como si se
tratase de una ley, pero que por alguna raz�n que no aclara no son deducibles desde
abajo.