You may think that biological processes are not capable of creating novelty, but Stuart Kauffman would say otherwise (Kauffman 152). In his book, “Investigations”, Kauffman explains how life or Gaia emerged and sustains itself as a network of chemical reactions. These networks perpetuate themselves (Kauffman 47). One chemical catalyzes another's reaction, and the products of that reaction catalyze another. Similar to cognitive maps, sequences of interactions overlap to produce networks of reactions. The chemical intersection would be a particular molecule. If enough of the reaction sequences link together and enough resources are present the network will perpetuate itself for quite a while. Often, certain chemical processes generate new molecules for which these emergent systems eventually find a good use. In Gaia's case, this reaction has lasted billions of years and produced a huge diversity of new molecules and processes.

In a way, my process of creating “The Flocking Party” was like a chemical network. The recombinant narrative elements interacted to produce more elements that I could never have suspected would emerge. One such occurrence was “Hebbets”, the biotech virus that infects the brains of the birds. It was a strange confluence of a cultural metaphor and an invasive species metaphor. The name of the story itself, “The Flocking Party”, comes from the name of a political party that emerges from the changes that “Hebbets” brings. This technology/virus connects minds, producing the potential for a future political party, from the new type of mind it produceds.

The narrative elements were not the only pieces, which interacted to produce novel elements. “The Flocking Party”'s media elements were also recombined to produce novelty.