Seven Basics of Complex Adaptive System

Emergence and self-organization are found to be basic phenomena of a complex adaptive system. Holland (1995, pp.10-37) outlines the seven basics of a complex adaptive system (cas):

1. Aggregation (property)

2. Tagging (mechanism)

3. Non-linearity (property)

4. Flows (property)

5. Diversity (property)

6. Internal Models (mechanism)

7. Building blocks (mechanism)

source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Complex_adaptive_system

"(1) Aggregation: allows groups to form,

(2) Nonlinearity: invalidates simple extrapolation,

(3) Flows: allow the transfer and transformation of resources and information,

(4) Diversity: allows agents to behave differently from one another and often leads to the system
property of robustness.

(1) Tagging: allows agents to be named and recognized,

(2) Internal models: allows agents to reason about their worlds, 

(3) Building blocks: allows components and whole systems to be composed of many levels of simpler components." (Macal and North, 2006 at http://www.informs-sim.org/wsc06papers/008.pdf)

References:

Holland, John Henry (1995). "Hidden Order: How Adaptation Builds Complexity." Reading, MA: Helix Books.