Self-organization

Self-organization is a process where some form of order  arises out of a random system. The process is spontaneous: it happens on its own. It is not directed or controlled by any agent inside or outside the system.

Self-organization occurs in a variety of physical, chemical, biological, social and cognitive systems. A common example is crystallization. An example from biological chemistry is the lipid bilayer, which is the basis of the cell membrane, and so is of great importance.

Many self-organizing things have properties which are "emergent". What this means is that one can't predict what will happen, usually because the possibilities are too many to study. Some examples:
Protein folding: after RNA translation, proteins fold themselves up into their working shape. For every protein there are one or two shapes which are stable, but it is almost impossible to predict the folding from the sequence of amino acids.
Liberal economic theory argues that free market economies create a spontaneous order, "a more efficient allocation of societal resources than any design could achieve". Friedrich Hayek.Hayek, cited in Petsoulas, Christian. 2001. Hayek's liberalism and its origins: his idea of spontaneous order and the Scottish Enlightenment. Routledge. This is the concept of the "invisible hand" (Adam Smith in The Wealth of Nations). By acting on information with greater detail and accuracy than is possible for any centralized authority, a more efficient economy is created to the benefit of the whole society.

 References 

 Related pages 
Autopoiesis
Complex system
Cybernetics
Self-replication
Swarm intelligence
Teleology

Category:Systems theory
Category:Biology