Re: Emergence and explanation

Posted by Russell Standish on
URL: http://friam.383.s1.nabble.com/Emergence-and-explanation-tp3187993p3245120.html

On Thu, Jul 09, 2009 at 08:28:29PM -0600, Nicholas Thompson wrote:
> Another way of saying this is that all systems have emergent properties:
> i.e., properties that arise from the *internal* arrangement or ordering of
> their parts.

I disagree. A model of 0 or 1 part does not have any emergent
properties. A model of 2 parts is borderline - the gap
between the two parts is a resultant emergent property.

Probably any model with at least 3 parts can have meaningful emergent
properties, but maybe someone can prove me wrong on this with a
counterexample. I know of no theorem proving it.

--

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