Recommended Also: Synergy

A state reached when the total value of a system (be it sentimental value, monetary worth, efficiency, utility, etc.) exceeds the combined worth of each individual component of that system.

For example: A house is worth more than the value of the individual pieces of wood, sheetrock, drywall, wiring, and other components that it consists of. (Of course, when it comes to repairs, some try to convince you otherwise. :D)

Similarly, a Rembrandt painting is worth far more than the canvas and paint that were combined to make it.

This has been a nodeshell rescue.

An old adage that applies not just to mechanical creations, but also biological and social systems.

While the cliché may not be true of every system, the best cooperative systems are designed to make that true (or evolved to make that true).

Just imagine if all the cells of your body were split off into individual, independent cells - their ability to adapt the environment to improve their own survival, at that point, drops to next to nothing. (And the same thing often happens to individual humans when they get lost in the wilderness.)

Background
Science Has No Morals
social Darwinism
The evolution of altruism
Darwin's Dangerous Idea
zero-sum game

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