Assembly theory is a framework for emergence base on the Assembly Index – a value associated with the level of an object’s complexity, derived from the number and variety of components, and steps to disassemble. The higher the Index, the more likely the object was invented, rather than discovered. For example, a pile of pebbles has a lower Index than a pile of Lego pieces. Each pebble has its own random shape, while the pile resembles every other pile of stuff. Each Lego piece was painstakingly designed to function within a larger whole, and the larger whole, designed to resemble a particular shape – not some random pile, but someone’s beloved home.
The pile is disassembled into pebbles, each pebble a collection of minerals, each mineral a collection of atoms – a few steps. On the other hand, the house is disassembled into Lego bricks, each brick with its own, well-designed, shape, each shape with its own, specific injection molding, while each molding is part of a machine with hundreds of parts, each part with its own number of assembly steps. Into each unique molding the same, standardized plastic pours, sets, and cures. The plastic’s complex chemistry was developed as a multistep process from a variety of substances, each substance a multistep process itself. Furthermore, every chemical used has its own set of molecules with each own set of steps to create from its own set of atoms – so many steps!
For higher-level objects to assemble, its lower-levels components must first stabilize their Index – the plastic of each Lego is not made from its own, individual, random formula, but a rigorous, well-tested one. Furthermore, the size, shape, and interconnecting nubs and spaces had to first settle on those iconic standards before the variety of blocks might interact in order to build the unique house. All objects, from particles to people to planets, are objects, unified by the assembly of their components, each component an object with its own components – the LOB-HOC hierarchy of scale. Assembly theory intuitively and mathematically demonstrates how and why a pile of pebbles might be discovered, but a pile of Legos (in the form of one’s childhood home) must necessarily be invented.
Read our philosophy and Creed to better understand our TOE
