September 2, 2026: Salus Forum

Bill B

One last bit. It’s the identification of what’s going on right now with the current administration as hard emergence. All the characteristics that members of the Santa Fe Institute describe about hard emergence are exactly what all of us are experiencing right now in our guts. Whether you’re liberal or conservative, whatever, what is occurring right now in the U.S. government is hard emergence. It is the shake-up. Everything has come loose. Nothing can be predicted. Everything is there. And as we think about how we live with our current government, once again, whether liberal or conservative, what our guts are telling us and how we live with this and the increase in depression and all, leads us to conclude that we’re all now living with the experience of hard emergence.

And I think within healthcare, it’s all there and maybe even intensified. So, how do you lead in such a system?

Jeremy

I want to thank the two of you for bringing a broader understanding of emergence, which I’ve heard of conceptually as a singular concept and not fully appreciated, although I’m aware of it as sort of a horizon of emergence. It’s a futuristic way of trying to look at current reality.

And so, I’m particularly intrigued by what you would say about the different distinctions you’ve introduced. And by bringing some practical examples of that the idea of an organized animal process that appears healthy in some ways. And as Jack points out, it also leaves the unhealthy behind.

I guess, Jack, my question to that would be: is it perhaps that there’s fewer unhealthy because of that? So, in a way, this is protective of the flock or swarm. Stampeding is the part I am most concerned about because it does feel like there’s stampeding going on in our current reality. As Bill B pointed out, that is the disruptive nature of what’s happening with regard to hard emergence. The hard part is certainly present through the emotional experience. There’s a lot of emotional discharge in hard emergence. So, that to me is important as well, because I think that tends to make us hunker down and go individualistic as you Jack and Bill B were saying. We may not be physically stampeding, but we’re emotionally polarizing ourselves. We’re bouncing off each other rather than coming together, which is worrisome to me.

So, my first question is: how does a leader bring about healthy murmuration without discarding the marginalized?

Bill B

When we have a beautiful uniform system, the outlier is vulnerable. So, today the outlier is the minority person, the person with skin that is not white. And in some sense, they’re left out of the flock, and they get picked up by ICE or whatever. Under a system of beautiful flocking, the outlier is left out on their own.