Rittel & Webber
Horst Rittel and Melvin Webber defined the wicked problem: ill-formulated, ever-shifting, never finally solved. It is the problem class that linear methods cannot close on — and the one Emergent Intelligence is built to meet.
Research & Lineage
A quarter century, building toward one idea.
Emergent Intelligence is the synthesis of a deliberate research arc. Each stage named a piece of the same conviction: that the hardest problems yield not to linear force, but to systems that adapt. The lineage is traceable, and it is twenty-five years deep.
The Lineage
Four stages, one trajectory.
-
2015
Naming the problem: wicked problems and agent-based models
The arc begins by defining the enemy. This work applies complexity science and agent-based models to project portfolio prioritization, establishing the class of challenge — wicked problems — and proposing agents as the response mechanism.
“Taming the Wicked Problem of Portfolio Management” · Project Management Institute (PMI) Global Congress, 2015 -
2017
Naming emergence: the CHEF tool
The word “Emergent” enters the acronym itself. This work applies cognitive, heuristic, and emergent decision-making to Artificial Intelligence in financial services, bridging big-data paradigm shifts with business capability architecture.
“Compliments to the CHEF: A Cognitive and Heuristics-Based Emergent Financial Management Tool” · Cutter Consortium, 2017 -
2022
Emergence as economics: the Pluggable Economy
The emergent architecture is expressed as an economic framework: autonomous agents — products, people, businesses — connecting through standardized interfaces to produce systemic outcomes no central planner designed.
The Pluggable Economy · pluggablebusiness.com, 2022 -
Now
Emergence in practice: the Architecture Review Board (ARB) Agentic AI system
The living implementation: an ARB agentic system of eight or more specialized agents, with a Chief Architect agent as orchestrator. Emergent Intelligence theory, applied to enterprise governance — under construction today.
A current research-and-build project of Enduraman Corporation
The Grounding
Standing on established science.
Emergent Intelligence cites its foundations and then bridges to application. The credibility is borrowed from the science; the contribution is in the synthesis.
Melanie Mitchell
Work in complexity science — including Melanie Mitchell's — establishes how systems of simple, interacting parts produce adaptive, intelligent behavior. This is the scientific home of emergence.
The method
Agent-based modeling provides the laboratory: a way to build a system from autonomous agents and observe what emerges, rather than assuming the outcome in advance.
Published Work
The peer-reviewed and conference record.
The theory rests on a published body of work. Citations are listed by title, venue, and year; direct links will be added as canonical sources are confirmed.
Compliments to the CHEF: A Cognitive and Heuristics-Based Emergent Financial Management Tool
On big-data paradigm shifts, business capability architecture, and Artificial-Intelligence-driven emergent decision-making in financial services.
Taming the Wicked Problem of Portfolio Management
Applying complexity science and agent-based models to project portfolio prioritization — the paper that named the problem class and introduced agents as the response.
Author: Andrew “Drew” Guitarte. Recurring speaker at the PMI Global Congress.
Continue
From the lineage to the living theory.
The research arc leads somewhere. Read how the pieces resolve into a single framework — and where it goes next.