3 ms·
> just means it's something that depends on the particular configuration of a set of elements that vanishes if you just look at the elements in isolation Sort
by nemo44x 4y ago
> just means it's something that depends on the particular configuration of a set of elements that vanishes if you just look at the elements in isolation
Sort of like how all the parts of an engine, even when connected, do nothing if fuel isn’t being pumped through. We can not proclaim we have knowledge of the engine by simply understanding many of its parts but failing to grasp how fuel moves through it. And instead say when these parts are together motion “emerges” and believe we are profound.
- tsunagatta 4y agoLinear and highly predictable systems like automobile engines are not really comparable to chaotic systems like the weather or the universe: they demand separate modes of analysis. Emergent behavior is one of these lenses of analysis that is useful for chaotic systems, so it is natural that trying to make comparisons to an engine don’t really work with it. For a simple physical system that is chaotic, i.e. does display emergent behavior, good examples I’ve heard are things like triple pendulums, or the currents of water in a river.
- empyrrhicist 4y agoI mean, couldn't you absolutely say you know more about an engine than before by invoking emergence? A skilled mechanic ignorant of physics could measure fuel flow and heat produced under different conditions, and try to figure out how the pieces fit without ever understanding the Carnot cycle - it's a useful way to describe what we know, even when we know it's not a complete picture. We haven't stopped studying consciousness after having concluded that it's a phenomenon that emerges from brains and their neurochemical environment by studying the pieces. I feel like your critique is fundamentally misguided.