Emergence

Both Eno and Wright discussed the idea of emergent and regenerative systems. It was a shifting of perspectives: instead of imagining that our big ole' brains create the reality around us, we must surrender and embrace the fact that reality is creating our intelligence.

During the Question and Answer session, Eno tried to explain why he brought up evolution and how his talk was related to Wright's piece but the connections seemed strong and complimentary. Whereas Eno found generative and regenerative systems in life forms and in the theories of Darwin, and then applied them to aesthetics, Wright talked about harnessing the aesthetics of his players to add back into his regenerative systems. Both of them stressed the importance of simplicity, the basis of all life, and the counter-intuitive discovery that even simple deterministic and random systems lead to incredibly complex and sophisticated models.

As creators, both speakers also expressed a sense of joy after the decision to release a work into the world. It is the moment that the creator, the author, the architect lets go to allow the created, the content, the construction generate and regenerate on its own. For Eno, this release led to a more sophisticated understanding of aesthetics. The art is no longer happening inside the mind of the artist. Rather, it is occurring inside the mind of the one experiencing the art. What a radical shift from the paradigm of "genius art" so prevalent before the twentieth century.

Such was his experience listening to the deceptively simple "It's Gunna Rain" tapes by Steve Reich. His example calls to mind the words of Einstein who strove for simplicity at every step: "Simplify simplify simplify until you cannot simplify anymore."

It's easy, in an age of technological achievements, to lose sight of the power of simplicity. Wright reminds us that simplicity possesses aesthetic pleasures but it also has a monetary and practical advantage. With more and more demand for content, game designers like Wright can use the power of simple generative systems to outsource much of their content development to the players themselves. Just by letting the game live and breathe under their watchful eye, game designers can harness players' creative potential. Who is creating and who is playing? The lines are blurring as parties on all sides. Not everyone is an amazing designer, Wright contends, but as creations continues, perfection becomes beside the point. More important is a sense of meaningful experiences and interactions, as Wright puts it, "self-nurturing communities."

And it turns out that kids are some of the best learners in a game environment. While school and education teach theory as a fail-safe method, the world of gaming encourages failure. The more you fail, the better you do. No theoretical study can be of any use in the game of Spore. It's all about going out and pressing the buttons.

It's fascinating to note how many times the word regenerative and generative was used in this first session. And then, as the day went on, to see that word get picked up and used in all sorts of discussions. The seeds were planted for Pop!Tech 2006: complexity can only come from simplicity.