And newness comes to light. A study on the process of emergence in the story of the Similaun Mummy

Adaptive systems display both excellence in preserving and refining successful solutions to frequently addressed problems, and severe limits in detaching from them in the face of something novel. Because they observe their worlds through lenses that are ground by history and experience, they often overlook the new. Nevertheless, novelty is occasionally recognized by organizations. This paper investigates conditions, motivations and processes that facilitate this emergence and recognition. The contribution is built on the original case of the accidental discovery of the Similaun Mummy in the Alps in 1991, as unique illustration and inspiration for the theory. The analysis shows that more knowledge is not the answer, as that builds on a problem framing that is boundedly structured into an architecture of path dependent domains and competencies. And novelty often requires to disrupt them. Novelty is better captured by those who explore diverse framings, being only guided (and constraint) by their ignorance and imagination, and through inefficiencies of adaptation such as work pauses, simplifications, errors, and unjustified curiosity, allow novelty to survive up to a point in which it travels across knowledge specialization. It is broadcasted, and can be assessed for its value.