This is not to say that everything in the world is decentralised, and relies on emmergent behaviour. A ballet has a choreographer, neat rows of corn in a field have a planter and a watch has a maker. But not everything does - the birds, the ants, termites 10ft buildings, these come from emmergent, decentralised behaviour.
The rest of this website focuses on two models of emmergent behaviour. The first is The Game of Life as designed by John Conway in the 1960s. This is a simple celluar game ( ie played out on a grid ) which demonstrates how relatively complicated patterns can emerge from four simple rules.
Go to the Game of Life Tutorial
Go to the Game Of Life itelf.
The second model is based on Craig Reynold's boid simulation. This roughly models a flock of birds, or shoal of fish. It demonstrates how from just a handful of rules, the boids can flock together, despite there being no central leader. This can be seen clearly as what might be perceived as 'the leader bird' changes frequently, when the boids hit walls.
Go to the Boid's Tutorial
Go see the Boids themselves
The Links Page contains links to other people's sites on ALife. It is sorted into sites on ALife in General, The Game of Life, The Boids Simulation and Other Simulations.
I hope you enjoy your journey through artificial life...