Future lines of research will attempt to:

• ·Consider meta-structural research also in sequences of configurations of correlated, but even non-interacting elements such as points of sequences of images, notes in music or words in a written text. The focus is not placed upon relations, nor upon interactions between variables, but rather upon the properties of sequences;
• Explore possible theoretical relationships between models of local (Shannon-Turing) and global information such as Tsallis or Fisher information [Frieden and Gatenby, 2006; 2009] and Meta-Structures. We expect, given our purely mesoscopic approach, the meta-structural properties are “invisible” to local information, but may show interesting characteristics of information which takes into consideration the system as a whole.

There are two levels of application proposed: 

• ·computational, applied, for instance, to modelling collective entities established by coherent, i.e., acquiring emergent properties, information as for human-machine interface data, customer profiling, image recognition and image understanding where meta-structural properties may relate to categories; 
• ·methodological, applied, for instance, to model collective entities established by coherent behaviours, i.e., collective behaviours such as industrial districts, markets, cities, processes  such as climate change, military and safety scenarios where meta-structural properties may model, in order to facilitate their management, induction, retention, modification of properties, and their merging.

We may distinguish between problems in prescribing Meta-Structural properties for a) elements interacting without setting collective behaviours and b) collective behaviours in order to vary the properties acquired.

 4.1.1 Induction of emergence of collective behaviour in populations of interacting elements.

Processes of interacting elements consist of sequences of configurations of elements interacting, i.e., one’s behaviour influences that of another, for instance by multiple independent behavioural rules randomly followed per instant, in different ways for individual elements and, because of that, computed to subsequent, new and emerging environmental conditions. The term random is applied to ways of changing which have different levels of conceptual unpredictability given, for instance, by probability distributions. The eventual existence of only local or global stable rules consist of degrees of freedom to avoid clashes.

In this case there are no processes of emergence of acquired properties, i.e., there is no coherence. For example, as occurs with multitudes of birds flying above an open dump and unstructured craw, i.e., without boundaries within free, undifferentiated space. A similar systemically corresponding situation may be intended to occur with populations of organic agents, e.g., micro-organisms, within environments having, even temporary, undifferentiated bio-chemical properties, such as distilled water. Such processes of interaction without emergence occur within undifferentiated contexts where initial possible evolutionary steps are equivalent and may both maintain or dissolve over time. While simple interaction rules for elements of spatial collective behaviours, e.g., swarms, flocks and fish schools, may be:

a)        max distance between elements a < M;

b)        min distance between elements > m;

c)        distances between elements always changing with time;

d)        different directions among elements, but with angles  < α,

simple interaction rules for processes of interacting elements may be a subset, such as:

1.        max distance between elements a < M;

2.        min distance between elements > m;

where M may increase over time to allow dilution.

At this moment the only way to realise eventual establishment of coherence is through the detection of emergent properties by the observer at a suitable scalarity.

In the literature, processes of collective coherent behaviours have been considered as being modelled and given by processes of interacting elements when following suitable, stable, local and global rules stated by appropriated models and simulations, see, for instance among many, approaches related to flocks [Bajec et al., 2005; 2007; Ballerini et al., 2008; Heppner and Grenader, 1990; Hildenbrandt, 2010],  swarms [Bonabeau et al., 2000; 1999;  Theraulaz and Deneubourg, 1984], fish schools [Huth and Wissel, 1992; Inada,and Kawachi, 2002; Kunz and Hemelrijk, 2003; Vabo and Nottestad, 1997], ants [Gordon, 2000; 2007; Millonas, 1992; 1994;], Industrial Districts [Karlsson  et al., 2005] and general [Marshall, 2008; Minati and Collen, 2009; Weinstock,  2010].

The thesis of our approach is that processes of interacting elements turn into processes of collective interaction when following meta-structural properties, the former being a particular case of the latter.

On one hand this allows the researcher to identify processes of collective behaviours when the related acquired emergent properties have not yet been identified.

On the other, it leaves the problem of prescribing meta-structural properties for interacting elements in order to induce emergence of collective behaviours open as a future line of research.

Section ahead introduces some possible hypothetical approaches to induce the emergence of collective behaviour in populations of interacting elements.

4.1.2 Variation of collective emergent phenomena to change, regulate and maintain acquired properties