In this video, we're going to introduce emergent properties. Emergent properties, as their name implies, are properties that emerge or arise upon combining smaller parts together. However, the individual smaller parts, when they are separate, do not display the emergent property. It's only when those individual smaller parts are combined that the emergent property arises. Now, emergent properties are incredibly relevant to life's organizational hierarchy that we covered in our previous lesson videos. At each new level of the hierarchy, there is going to be an emergent property that arises. The whole is going to be greater than the sum of its parts, and this is another way to explain emergent properties. Combining smaller parts together allows for a new emergent property to arise in the whole, and so the whole will be greater than the individual sum of the parts. To get a better understanding of emergent properties, let's take a look at our image down below.
Notice in the top half of the image here, there is an example of an emergent property. Notice over here on the left-hand side, we're showing you these bicycle parts, where you have a tire, pedals, a chain, and the bars that go along with a bicycle and notice that all of these parts are separate from one another. These are individual separate bike parts. Now, these individual separate bike parts do not allow for transportation. There's no way that you could go very far with these separate individual bike parts. However, when you combine those separate individual bike parts together in a very specific and proper way, then you can create a bicycle that allows for transportation efficiently. Transportation was not available with these individual separate bike parts. However, transportation is available when you combine these individual parts together. Transportation here, for that reason, is an example of an emergent property in that example.
In a very similar way, if we look at the bottom half you can see how these emergent properties also apply to life's organizational hierarchy. Notice on the left-hand side, we have these separate individual organelles or organs of cells such as, for example, the Golgi apparatus and the mitochondria. These separate individual organelles are not alive. There's no life here because these separate individual organelles do not display all of the characteristics of life. However, when you combine all of the organelles that are necessary in a very specific way, similar to how we combined all of the bike parts in a very specific way, an emergent property arises of life. Here what we're showing you is a cell that contains all of the necessary organelles that allow for life. Life here in this example is an emergent property that arose again moving forward in life's organizational hierarchy to a larger scale. Emergent properties arise at every single level of the scale as you increase in that hierarchy.
This here concludes our brief lesson on emergent properties, and we'll be able to get some practice applying these concepts as we move forward. So I'll see you all in our next video.