Self-organization

Self-organizing sand-water rolls
Sand-water rolls self-organizing in the receding
stream. Agadir, Morocco. Photo: Lasse Johansson

Self-organizing, seemingly out of nothing, the sand-water rolls appear. Where did they come from? The mo­ment before, when the incoming stream reached its highest level and turned, there was only a flat surface of murky water.

Self-organization means the sponta­neous formation of a macroscopic structure, an order for free, as it were, emerging when the effects of the individuals, e.g. the movement of water molecules, start to interlock and add up, forming a new complexity. When the conditions are right, self-organization occurs, spontaneously, like a vortex forming in a bath tub. Continue reading Self-organization