Introduction: emergence in history - The storm in the computer - Cellular automata and patterns of flow - Artificial chemistries and the prebiotic soup - Genetic algorithms and the prebiotic soup - Genetic algorithms and ancient organisms - Neural nets and insect intelligence - Neural nets and mammalian memory - Multiagents and primate strategies - Multiagents and stone age economics - Multiagents and primitive language - Multiagents and archaic states - Appendix: links to assemblage theory