Yesterday I refelected on a piece from Emergence, p. 64:

“isolated hunches and private obsessions coalesce into a new way of looking at the world, shared by thousands of individuals.”

The observation was relating the phenomenon of scientific advances to the behavior of slime mold, and how collaboration did not ramp up until there were signs of a larger movement. Cells remain disconnected, until there is a pattern of clustering around a particular movement (where more of the pheromone “footprints” are left behind).

It seems that there are patterns of activity here that tell us something about the growth toward complxity in things like online communities. I’m not sure abouthow to articulate that yet, since I haven’t thought too much about this emergence subject other than noting it when i read about it, and wondering what everybody’s so intrigued about (or figuring I’d “catch on” sooner or later as I learned more about it). NOw it seems that in my mind/brain/wherever, that there is beginning to be a coalescence of illustrations (through reading the first 64 pages of Emergence) to encourage a combination of cells to awake to the fact that there is a body of work that promises insights to be yielded.

Social Software is talked about a lot on the “Emergent Report”, making the connection for me early on about how this Social Software puts us in touch with social phenomenon that tend toward complexity. My experiences with the Web give me hints of this. The huge movement of branching out into every known area of human interest and curiosity that has taken place in just 14 years of the Web’s existence when CERN and Tim Berners-Lee constructed the first system. Even though it took about 5 years for the phenomenon to begin to be widely noticed, once that awareness hit, it took hold in a dramatic way.

Pivotal, important moments that we identify as pivotal, life-changing, turn-around, special; these are known in the theological community as “Kairos” moments, when something momentous and enlightening has happened, these are “times” when chronological time and God’s time intersect. Some “kairos” moments are recognized from afar, down the road of chronological time. This is the way it will be with Emergence. A lot of it is already happening, and we’re just IN IT, someday sooner or later to reccognize some of the things happening in Social Software or Online Community today as pivotal moments in moving toward X

The idea of Pentecost, of fellowship, of “happenings” happening whenever the People Of God get together (really together– not just “meeting” or “coming to a meeeting”, but really meeting) is related , I think, to this “science” of Emergence. That part of this process with us humans is a socio/spiritual thing that really feeds on the “social pheromone” that flies about when “connections” are made. Online, you hear people talk of “buzz” as a characteristic or attribute of an online context where there is a definite sense of PLACE and activity. As people move and flock toward this, ideas, new directions, new thoughts, and new CALL emerges.

Maybe the Holy Spirit has Emergent qualities. Maybe the Spirit is the Social Pheromone.