Emergence

This weekend I listened to a podcast of Radio Lab from back in August. It was a discussion of the science of emergence. Sounds eerily similar to my previous post. I must just be catching on. Anyway, the idea that a seemingly chaotic, disorganized mass can be more intelligent and become more quickly organized than one smart member, is awe inspiring. One ant makes a chance discovery of food and leaves a pheromone trail that a second ant finds. Then, quickly, the second ant's scent instigates a chain reaction where the entire colony is quickly organized by an exponentially expanding trail of pheromones. From chaos to organization and discipline in moments. All started by a relatively dumb insect.

It's sort of like the Gestalt principle of nature.

What does that tell us about the field of marketing? Have the marketers been trying to act as the smart solitary member, yet the consumer masses are really better at adapting to accidental discoveries? Or, are the marketers starting to awaken to the rising pheromone levels launched by the discovery of conversation and authenticity?