Emergence Explained
Abstract
Emergence (macro-level effects from micro-level causes) is at the heart of the conflict between reductionism and functionalism. How can there be autonomous higher level laws of nature (the functionalist claim) if everything can be reduced to the fundamental forces of physics (the reductionist position)? We cut through this debate by applying a computer science lens to the way we view nature. We conclude (a) that what functionalism calls the special sciences (sciences other than physics) do indeed study autonomous laws and furthermore that those laws pertain to real higher level entities but (b) that interactions among such higher-level entities is epiphenomenal in that they can always be reduced to primitive physical forces. In other words, epiphenomena, which we will identify with emergent phenomena, do real higher-level work. The proposed perspective provides a framework for understanding many thorny issues including the nature of entities, stigmergy, the evolution of complexity, phase transitions, supervenience, and downward entailment. We also discuss some practical considerations pertaining to systems of systems and the limitations of modeling.
Cite
@article{arxiv.cs/0602045,
title = {Emergence Explained},
author = {Russ Abbott},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:cs/0602045},
year = {2007}
}
Comments
67 pages. Earlier versions presented at Lake ArrowHead conference on human complex systems (2005), GECCO 2005 workshop on Biological Applications of Genetic and Evolutionary Computation, and Symposium on Understanding Complex Systems (2005)