The Relevance of Emerging Solutions for Thinking, Decision Making and Acting. The case of Smart Grids

The paper presents a real novelty in Mathematical Modelling, which may have an enormous relevance in our way of Thinking, Decision Making and Acting. At the same time it would like to represent an explicit “Tribute” to Prof. Odum, because the original concept is already seminally present in his well-known Rules of Emergy Algebra. ovelty in Mathematical Modelling is represented by the so-called “Emerging Solutions”, which are radically different from solutions to traditional mathematical problems. This is because any traditional solution to an algebraic or differential problem is always represented by a formal expression that, when reintroduced into the initial formulation of the problem, reduces the latter to a perfect identity. ng Solutions, on the contrary, show an Ordinal Information content which is always much higher than the corresponding content pertaining to the initial formulation of the problem. Emerging Solutions, in fact, originate from any physical problem when this is modelled in accordance with the Maximum Ordinality Principle, and thus understood in Ordinal Terms. property, which represents one of the most interesting aspects of the Maximum Ordinality Principle, then suggests we adopt a Generative way of Thinking when designing a new practical application. The same happens at the level of Will, that is at the level of Decision Making. Clearly, if we really want to take advantage of those “Emerging Exits” which arise from the physical behaviour of the system. Finally, at the level of Acting, if we are really interested in favouring any “emerging behaviour” of the system which is decisively capable to improve our design. For instance, to get the maximum intrinsic stability of the system, so as to prevent any possible disturbance that might significantly alter its expected behaviour. ese aspects will be illustrated through the case of Smart Grids, with particular reference to their large scale “intrinsic” instability and their recognized strong vulnerability to “cyber” attacks.