One of the central concepts in Complex Systems is Emergence. It is this automagical process through which elements of a system give rise to a higher order system. Emergence is how physics becomes chemistry and chemistry becomes biology. It is how web 1.0 evolved into web 2.0, and how that, in turn, will become the next web.

While the exact mechanics of emergence is complicated and far from being completely understood, scientists know that a new system emerges as a combination of its elements and their interactions. In other words, complex systems are really networks - where elements interact with each other and give rise to a new system.

Perhaps today we are witnessing one of the most vivid examples of emergence - the remixing of the world wide web. The parts of the new web have crystallized - blogs, photos, video, audio, maps, RSS, social network profiles and even plain old HTML pages have formed an impressive network, that now can be mined and remixed. Mashups are really nothing new, the web has been a programmable oyster for at least a few years now. 

What is new though is the recent systematic thinking about the web as a database. A few companies, including Dapper, have been working on the problem. But with the recent launch of Yahoo! pipes, we are beginning to see the real power of remixing.