The Magic of Emergence

What is Knowledge?

Toolbelt of Knowledge: Concepts
Algorithms
Equivalence
Emergence
Math
The Anthropic Principle
Substrate-Independence
Significance

Suppose you have three blobs of paint, one blue, one red, and one yellow. They aren't very interesting, just puddles of color sitting in packets on a tray. Now suppose you have a large, blank sheet of paper. If you came across one of these while walking through a building, you would probably ignore it and forget that it was there. You also have a stick with fine hairlike bristles on the end. It is mildly entertaining to tickle your thumb on them. All these things are pretty boring on their own. Mostly they just sit there, doing nothing. But if you combine them, you can make something new: a painting. In fact, you can make an incredibly large number of different paintings. When you combine the right paintings, you can get an art gallery or museum.

In a logic-based universe like ours, there is a feature that is truly amazing. A few simple things can come together and make new things, which have properties and functions that are different than their parts. This is called emergence. The new things can then come together to create more things at a higher level of complexity, which can then come together in an even higher level of complexity.

Let's think about matter. Its basic building blocks are protons, neutrons, and electrons. It's actually more complicated than that, but this is correct enough for our discussion. These things, in various combinations, make up all of the atoms on the periodic table. These elements react together in chemistry making millions of different kinds of molecules. These molecules make up water, bricks, ink, plastic, DNA, and all of the kinds of matter in the universe. Types of matter come together to make systems, which can combine to make more complex systems, and so on and so on.

Emergence appears anywhere logic presides, including mathematics and computer programs, Many games use a few simple elements to create a huge variety of ways to play. Take chess, for example. It has a king, a queen, bishops, knights, rooks, and pawns, each with its own way to move. From the rules of these pieces emerge an unlimited number of games and strategies, like pins, forks, and Scholar’s Mate.

The fact that endless complexity can arise from simple parts is awe-inspiring. Knowing how emergence works can boost our creativity and help us understand all kinds of things we once thought inexplicable, opening doors of knowledge that lead to possibilities boundless and amazing.