We’re now entering into the realm known as strong emergence. So far we’ve been discussing “weak emergence”: even if the emergent theory gives you new understanding and an enormous increase in practicality in terms of calculations, in principle you could put the microscopic theory on a computer and simulate it, thereby finding out exactly how the system would behave. In strong emergence—if such a thing actually exists—that wouldn’t be possible. When many parts come together to make a whole, in this view, not only should we be on the lookout for new knowledge in the form of better ways to
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