Uncommon Sense

It was probably in grade school somewhere that I first heard the idea that the whole was greater than the sum of its parts. Even so, it wasn’t until reading Uncommon Sense: The Life and Thought of Ludwig von Bertalanffy by Mark Davidson that the real meaning of this hit me. And the subject of the Aha! moment seemed rather unexpected.

One can study hydrogen and oxygen forever and never never understand wetness, the essence of water. Not until one studies many water molecules in the context of it’s surroundings will the wetness nature of water become evident. Wetness is an emergent characteristic of the interaction. This realization was another of those Aha! moments that rocked my worldview into another dimension. Oh, and I’m repeatedly reminded that I’m an intrinsic part of any system I investigate.