It doesn't have much of a brain, no will, no plan,

牠沒什麼腦子，沒有意志，也沒有規劃的能力。

and yet, many ants together are smart.

但是許多螞蟻聚在一起後，卻能展現智能：

An ant colony can construct complex structures.

一個蟻群可以建構出複雜的蟻穴結構，

Some colonies keep farms of fungi, others take care of cattle. They can wage war or defend themselves.

有些螞蟻負責真菌農場，

How is this possible?

其他的則照管蚜蟲牧場，

How can a bunch of stupid things do smart things together?

牠們還可以發動戰爭或是自我防衛。

This phenomenon is called emergence,

這怎麼可能？

and it's one of the most fascinating and mysterious features of our universe.

聚在一起的一堆傻瓜怎麼能做出那麼聰明的舉動？

In a nutshell, it describes small things forming bigger things that have different properties than the sum of their parts.

這種現象稱之為【湧現(emergence)】，

Emergence is complexity arising from simplicity, and emergence is everywhere.

而它是我們宇宙中最迷人與神秘的特色之一。

[Intro]

簡言之，它描述一些小東西在聚成較大的事物後，

Water has vastly different properties to the molecules that make it up, like the concept of wetness.

卻能呈現出｢1加1大於2｣的特性。

Take wet fabric, If you zoom in far enough, there is no wetness.

湧現是一種由簡而繁的複雜性，而且它無所不在。

There are just molecules sitting in the spaces between the atoms of the cloth.

液態水有著與水分子截然不同的性質，

Wetness is an emerging property of water.

比如"濕潤"的概念。

Something new only created by a lot of individual interactions between water molecules.

拿塊濕布來看，

And this is sort of it. Many things interact under a certain set of rules, creating something above and beyond themselves.

如果你用足夠倍率的顯微鏡來看的話，

It turns out that more is different.

會發現根本沒有所謂"濕潤"這回事。

This different property is itself a new thing, and that new thing can couple with other new things to repeat the process.

水分子只不過是分散在布料原子間的空隙中而已。

You can imagine this as layers stacked upon each other every, layer made from more complex parts.

"濕潤"是水的一種湧現性質。

Atoms form molecules.

某種由許多水分子個體之間互動所創造的新事物。

Molecules form proteins.

這就是一個例子。

Proteins make up cells.

許多個體在某些規則下的互動，

Cells make up organs.

而創造出能超越自身集體的事物。

Organs form individuals.

結果發現群體愈大，就愈不一樣。

Individuals form societies.

這種不一樣的特性本身就是一個新東西，

But how can something be more than the sum of its parts?

而這個新東西可以跟其他的新東西結合起來，

How do ants form the sort of cloudy entity that is a colony? By following a ruleset that produces order through chaos.

再次重複"湧現"過程。

For example, let's look at how an ant colony distributes jobs.

你可以想像成是一層疊上一層，越疊上去就越複雜。

Let's assume that a colony shall have 25% workers, 25% caretakers,

原子組成分子

25% soldiers and 25% gatherers.

分子組成蛋白質

Ants communicate their current job via chemicals. For example, the worker ant constantly secretes chemicals that say: "I'm a worker".

蛋白質組成細胞

When ants meet other ants, they smell each other to gather information, telling each other their job and what they're doing.

細胞組成器官

Both keep track of who they met in the past.

器官組成個體

Now, imagine an anteater kills most of the gatherers. If this isn't fixed quickly, the colony will starve.

個體形成社會

Many worker ants need to switch jobs, but how do you tell this to thousands of them?

但是事物怎麼可能超過它們個體的總合呢？

Simple. You don't.

螞蟻是如何組成一個被稱為"蟻群"的虛幻實體？

Our worker ant will still meet and smell other ants, but it will encounter almost no gatherers at all.

那是藉由遵循從混沌中產生秩序的規則集。

It counts too few gatherers, until it reaches a critical point, and then it changes its job.

舉例來說，

The worker becomes a gatherer. Other ants will do the same, until after a while there are enough gatherers again.

讓我們來看看蟻群如何分配工作？

The balance is restored all by itself.

讓我們假設蟻群中應該有25%是工蟻，

The actions and interactions of an individual are random. You can't plan which ant will encounter which other ant.

25%是看護蟻，

But the simple set of rules is so elegant that a colony's many operations emerge as a consequence.

25%是兵蟻，還有25%是採集蟻

On an even more fundamental level, hundreds of millions of complicated molecules interact to maintain a robust and amazing structure.

螞蟻利用化學物質來宣示牠們目前的角色。

A being with vastly different properties than the sum of its dead parts emerges.

例如，工蟻會不斷分泌化學物質說：我是工蟻

The smallest unit of life: a cell.

當螞蟻們彼此相遇的時候，

We still don't have a clear definition of what living things are, we just know they emerge from things that are not alive.

牠們會相互嗅聞來取得信息，

Cells combine and cooperate. They specialize and respond to one another,

彼此告知牠們的角色及工作。

and over time, we develop into complex organisms with remarkable capacities.

雙方都會保留過去的資訊交換記錄。

Your arms and legs and heart are an incredibly complex and complicated system made of trillions of individual stupid things...

現在，假設食蟻獸吃掉了大部分的採集蟻，

...and yet we breathe, digest and watch YouTube videos.

如果蟻群不及時應對，那麼牠們將會陷入飢荒。

How do your cells know what to do?

必須要讓許多工蟻轉換工作，

Think of the pacemaker cells in your heart.

但是你要如何才能告知數以千計的工蟻？

Billions of them need to send out an impulse just at the right moment to collectively create a heartbeat.

答案很簡單，你並不需要那麼做！

Our cells exchange chemical information with their neighbor cells to see what they're up to, and then decide what to do.

我們的工蟻會持續地與其他螞蟻交會以及彼此嗅聞，

If it's among a lot of cells that are working on the same task, it will start working on that task as well, and sync up with them.

但是牠們會幾乎完全碰不到採集蟻。

There is no master mind giving commands. Just single units communicating with their neighbors, and acting according to the feedback they get.

當牠們對採集蟻的計數小於一個臨界點時，

What about our most important part? What is the thing that asks these kinds of questions?

牠們就會進行轉職。

Is our consciousness then an emergent property of the cells in our brain?

工蟻會轉職為採集蟻。

This question is too big and important, it deserves a video of its own.

其他螞蟻的行為模式也都一樣，

Some things that emerge are hard to define. You can't touch an ant colony, only its parts.

直到採集蟻的數量再次足夠為止。

It has neither brain nor face, nor body.

完全靠自己恢復平衡。

And yet the colony interacts with the world.

個體的行動與互動都是隨機的，

Just like colonies emerge from ants, things emerge from humans, like Nations.

你無法規劃讓哪隻螞蟻一定能遇見另外哪隻螞蟻。

What actually is a nation, is it its population?

但是這些簡單的規則集是如此簡潔，

Is it its institutions, its symbols like its flag, colours or anthems?

以至於蟻群的許多行動都是湧現的結果。

The physical things it makes like cities, the territory it occupies?

在更基礎的原子層級上來看，

All of these things are fluid.

那是由數以百萬計的複雜分子相互作用，

Populations change and are replaced.

得以維持一個強大而驚人的结構。

Institutions come and go, cities can be constructed and abandoned.

得到的特性，比由無生命的單元總成的湧現還更不同。

Borders have changed all the time for most of history, and symbols get replaced by new symbols.

生命的最小單位，

A nation has no face, no brain, no body.

"細胞"

Are nations not real, then? Of course they are, just like ant colonies, nations interact with the world.

我們對於"什麼是有生命的事物"還沒有一個明確定義，

They can change landscapes, wage wars, grow or decline, and they can stop existing.

我們只知道它們是從沒有生命的事物中湧現出來的。

But they only exist because of a lot of humans interacting with each other.

細胞會相互結合並且合作。

But not just nations. All the complex structures that surround us emerge from us.

它們會分化並且相互呼應，

Even if we don't intend to, we are constantly creating.

隨著時間過去，

Communities, companies, cities, societies.

我們發展成具有非凡能力的複雜生物體。

All of these things are entities that have fundamentally different properties and abilities than the pretty stupid apes they emerged from.

你的手，腳以及心臟，是極其複雜精密的系統，

We don't know why any of this happens.

由數以兆計的無智個體所組成。

We just observe it, and it seems to be a fundamental property of our universe.

但我們可以呼吸，

It may be the most beautiful and wonderous property of our universe.

可以消化食物，

[Outro]

還能看YouTube影片。