Essay · X (longform essay) · 2026
Engineered Emergence: the same idea, three times
AI agents aren't a new thing — they're the third time we've built the same pattern: give the parts real agency and a shared protocol for how they interact, and coherent behavior emerges from the system.
Why It Matters
Reframes the agentic-AI moment as another instance of engineered emergence, tying it to the same complex-systems principles behind decentralized networks and multi-agent coordination.
Topics
emergenceAI agentscomplex adaptive systemsprotocols
Source
Originally published as a longform essay on X (@mikednorman). Read it in full →