Engineered systems such as computers, corporations, and jumbo jets do amazing things. But natural systems such as the human body, free markets, and ant colonies do more amazing things, all without the benefit of design or central control.
How does a collection of autonomous agents—cells, traders, or ants— randomly thrown together, end up exhibiting synchronization, cooperation, specialization, teamwork, and other forms of organized behavior? It's as if a computer could be made by simply dumping some chips into a box and shaking.
Of course organized behavior doesn't develop overnight; it emerges or evolves over long periods of time in which old components are constantly replaced by new, improved ones. It's entropy in reverse.
In some cases order never seems to come. Instead, behavior degenerates into chaos, turbulence, noise, unpredictability. But even in the chaos we see patterns of order, complex, fractal patterns.
The basic control mechanisms of a self-organizing system are feedback and mutation.
In feedback the behavior of the system depends on the behavior of its components, but the components interact with each other, they compete, mate, and communicate, so that the behavior of a component depends on the behavior of the system, producing an endless cycle of reinforcing or balancing feedback. To make things more dynamic, it's sometimes the mistake, the mutant, the non-conformist that outshines its peers, creating a new dynasty, species, or trend.