[MD] Emergence of Purpose

[Case]

[Ian]
Craig, I suspect the best answer to that is "Mu".

But I have to point out that it is a completely different situation to
the one I described. Many orders of magnitude less complex collective
situation, and many order of magnitude more complex / intelligent
individuals involved.

I have absolutely no problem replying that in the goose-flying-V
example - all the information is in each goose, and each goose has a
sufficiently sophisticated motor and sensory feedback system to keep
it's wing related to the vortex in the slipstream of a preceeding
goose, and ease it's fying effort, and each goose remains a goose in
the formation, etc. Very little "new" emerges.

[Case]
Here is an example of a chaotic model of birds flying in flocks:
http://www.red3d.com/cwr/boids/ I think I have seen something similar about
formations. But this is a nice start.