How collective behaviors create entirely new properties that cannot be predicted from individual components
Imagine getting caught in a rainstorm. As you feel the wetness soaking through your clothes, consider this puzzling fact: the individual water molecules that make up each raindrop aren't actually wet. Hydrogen and oxygen atoms, whether floating alone or combined into single molecules, possess no property resembling wetness. Wetness emerges only when countless water molecules gather together under the right conditions 9 .
Behaviors and characteristics that systems exhibit but their individual components do not.
From synchronized fireflies to consciousness, emergence is everywhere in nature .
"We live in an emergent universe in which it is difficult, if not impossible, to identify any existing interesting scientific problem or study any social or economic behavior that is not emergent."
In philosophy, systems theory, and science, emergence occurs when a complex entity has properties or behaviors that its parts do not have on their own, and which emerge only when they interact in a wider whole 1 .
The phenomenon of life as studied in biology, for instance, is an emergent property of chemistry and physics, yet cannot be fully explained by referring only to chemical and physical laws 1 .
According to condensed matter physicist Ross McKenzie, emergent phenomena typically exhibit five key characteristics 6 :
| Characteristic | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Novelty | The property is not present in the individual parts | Wetness not present in individual water molecules |
| Irreducibility | Cannot be explained by reducing to component parts | Consciousness cannot be explained by studying single neurons |
| Universality | Appears across different systems with different components | Pattern formation occurs in both chemical reactions and animal coats |
| Unpredictability | Difficult or impossible to predict from fundamental laws | Superconductivity couldn't be predicted from knowledge of electrons alone |
1972
In 1972, physicist and Nobel laureate Philip Anderson published a landmark paper titled "More Is Different" that fundamentally challenged the reductionist worldview .
Anderson argued that the then-prevailing attitude in physics—that all fundamental laws were known, and the remaining work was merely applying these laws—was profoundly mistaken.
"The ability to reduce everything to simple fundamental laws does not imply the ability to start from those laws and reconstruct the universe."
2000
Building on Anderson's work, Nobel laureate Robert Laughlin and SFI co-founder David Pines took the argument further in their influential 2000 article, "The Theory of Everything" .
They directly challenged what they called the "reductionist ideal"—the dream of some physicists that a final "Theory of Everything" would allow derivation of all natural phenomena from a single set of equations.
Laughlin and Pines argued this reductionist dream was hollow, declaring that "the central task of theoretical physics in our time is no longer to write down the ultimate equations, but rather to catalogue and understand emergent behavior in its many guises, including potentially life itself" .
To understand how emergence works in practice, let's examine one of the most striking examples in physics: superconductivity. This phenomenon, where certain materials suddenly lose all electrical resistance when cooled below a critical temperature, represents a classic case of emergence that couldn't be predicted from knowledge of individual electrons alone.
The discovery of superconductivity by Heike Kamerlingh Onnes in 1911 emerged from a series of meticulous experiments:
The superconductivity experiment reveals several remarkable emergent behaviors:
Unlike ordinary conductors where resistance gradually decreases with temperature, superconductors exhibit an abrupt transition to zero resistance at a specific critical temperature.
Superconductors expel magnetic fields from their interior, causing magnets to levitate above them—a dramatic visual demonstration of their novel properties.
The electrons in a superconductor form Cooper pairs and behave as a single quantum entity on macroscopic scales, something fundamentally different from individual electron behavior.
What makes superconductivity emergent is that this behavior cannot be predicted or understood by studying individual electrons in isolation. Nobel laureate Robert Laughlin observes that in superconductivity, "large numbers of electrons can move without resistance, and yet it isn't always clear why" 9 .
Understanding emergent phenomena requires both theoretical frameworks and experimental tools. Here are key elements of the emergent science toolkit:
| Tool/Concept | Function/Role | Example Applications |
|---|---|---|
| Computer Simulations | Modeling complex systems to observe emergence | Agent-based models of bird flocking or traffic patterns |
| Effective Field Theory | Describing emergent interactions using collective variables | Ginzburg-Landau theory of superconductivity |
| Renormalization Group | Understanding how properties change across scales | Universal behavior in phase transitions |
| Network Analysis | Mapping connection patterns in complex systems | Social networks, neural connectivity |
| Spin Glass Models | Studying systems with competing interactions | Protein folding, neural networks, optimization problems |
| Critical Point Analysis | Examining system behavior at phase transitions | Superconductivity onset, magnetic transitions |
The experimental study of emergence often begins with identifying emergent collective patterns through observation, then devising models that embody candidate organizing concepts that might explain them .
The recognition of emergence as a fundamental feature of our world represents a major shift in scientific thinking. As Pines concludes, "We live in an emergent universe," and understanding this reality requires new approaches to scientific problems .
"What are the fundamental building blocks?"
"How do these building blocks organize themselves into complex systems with novel properties?"
This perspective has proven incredibly fruitful, driving discoveries in fields ranging from materials science to neuroscience to ecology.
The implications extend beyond pure science. If consciousness itself is an emergent phenomenon, as many neuroscientists believe, then understanding emergence may hold the key to solving one of science's greatest mysteries 9 .
Philip Anderson's simple but profound insight that "More Is Different" has grown into a comprehensive scientific paradigm—one that recognizes our universe as a place of endless creativity, where simplicity gives rise to complexity, and new wonders await discovery at every scale of organization.