"The transformation from the extremely unlikely to the likely is a major characteristic of systems exhibiting emergent phenomena. Even when the simplest persistent patterns are infrequent in a generating procedure, the will eventually occur if the system runs for any length of time. Once they occur, they will by definition persist, making them candidates for combination with other persistent patterns (other copies or variants). At this point larger patterns with enhanced persistence and competence can occur. Once some initial building blocks are discovered - ... - the number of combinations yielding viable organizations goes up dramatically. The usual argument that evolution requires long sequences of improbable discoveries, and so is 'slow', misses the point. The unlikely becomes likely if one allows for a layered series of generating procedures."

Slots and Values
ref	p231
source	Unnamed