Jim Rutt, a complexity theorist and systems thinker, defines 'emergence' as the phenomenon where larger entities, patterns, and regularities arise through the interactions among smaller or simpler entities that themselves do not exhibit such properties. Emergence is fundamentally concerned with the spontaneous collective behaviors that manifest in complex systems, which cannot be predicted or explained merely by analyzing individual parts in isolation. Rutt emphasizes that emergence is central to understanding how distributed networks, whether biological, social, or technological, can exhibit adaptive and coherent characteristics without central control. It reflects a holistic perspective where the whole is truly greater than the sum of its parts, revealing novel properties and functionalities that are not inherent in the constitutive elements themselves.

See also: agent-based modeling, evolutionary computing, self-organization, complex system