Constant2 comments on The Futility of Emergence - Less Wrong

36 Post author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 26 August 2007 10:10PM

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Comment author: Constant2 27 August 2007 10:48:55PM 0 points [-]

"Let K(.) be Kolmogorov complexity. Assume you have a system M consisting of and fully determined by n small identical parts C. Then M is 'emergent' if M can be well approximated by an object M' such that K(M') << n*K(C)."

That seems to describe what I described earlier:

"One common element that I have sometimes noticed is that an emergent phenomenon can be idealized and a simplified mathematical model constructed of it, which is not precisely correct but which is a very good approximation."

I didn't, by the way, intend this as a definition of emergence, though it or something thereabouts might qualify.