self-organization

Syllable breakdown

Dictionary meaning

The process by which global order or patterns spontaneously arise in a system from local interactions among the system's components, without external direction or central control; found in physical, biological, social, and computational systems

History and origin

The concept developed from cybernetics (Norbert Wiener, 1940s), thermodynamics (Ilya Prigogine's dissipative structures), and complexity theory; the term was established in systems science by the 1960s

Examples

• The formation of snowflakes, the patterns of termite mounds, and the clustering of galaxies are all examples of self-organization.
• Self-organization in markets means that prices arise from millions of individual transactions with no central authority setting them.

Spelled 'self-organisation' in British English

Synonyms: self-assembly, spontaneous order