Engineering, Emergent Engineering, and Artificial Life: Unsurprise, Unsurprising Surprise, and Surprising Surprise

We examine the eventual role of surprise in three domains of human endeavor: classical engineering, what we call “emergent engineering,” and the general unrestricted field of artificial life. Our study takes place within the formal framework of the recently proposed “emergence test.” We argue that the element of surprise, central in the test, serves to illuminate the fundamental differences between these three fields. This we achieve by distinguishing between three different forms of surprise: unsurprise, unsurprising surprise, and surprising surprise