When we look at systems on the macro scale, they sometimes exhibit capabilities that aren’t present on the micro scale. This is known as emergence: when systems as a whole function in ways we can’t predict by looking at their parts. As Aristotle put it thousands of years ago, “The whole is something over and above its parts, and not just the sum of them all.”1 The mental model of emergence reminds us that new capabilities are often produced from seemingly innocuous elements.
