that description fits every phenomenon in our universe above the level of individual quarks...
What do you know, after you have said that intelligence is “emergent”? You can make no new predictions.
It is true that I can make no new predictions, and you can make no new predictions, but other people do make new predictions from the explanation “emergence”.
“Emergence” is like “atheism” or “naturalism”.
If a religious person learns only that a set of phenomena is the world is explained by naturalism, that person has had his or her anticipations constrained. That person now knows that the actual explanation is one of those that don’t involve the supernatural. This is only a benefit to this person because he or she had been unnaturally focused on the narrow set of states of the world in which there would be a theistic explanation of those phenomena.
Someone who believes all or many things are explained by real magic will describe something’s being explained entirely reductionistically as being explained by “emergence”. It is people recognizing and appreciating the mundane magic of some phenomena while believing in real magic as the cause of other things. To tell such a person that the cause is emergence is to tell them to make models at different levels and not bother looking for the supernatural as a cause.
As was said, “I don’t know” can be.the best way to communicate, so too can be “emergence”.
It is true that I can make no new predictions, and you can make no new predictions, but other people do make new predictions from the explanation “emergence”.
“Emergence” is like “atheism” or “naturalism”.
If a religious person learns only that a set of phenomena is the world is explained by naturalism, that person has had his or her anticipations constrained. That person now knows that the actual explanation is one of those that don’t involve the supernatural. This is only a benefit to this person because he or she had been unnaturally focused on the narrow set of states of the world in which there would be a theistic explanation of those phenomena.
Someone who believes all or many things are explained by real magic will describe something’s being explained entirely reductionistically as being explained by “emergence”. It is people recognizing and appreciating the mundane magic of some phenomena while believing in real magic as the cause of other things. To tell such a person that the cause is emergence is to tell them to make models at different levels and not bother looking for the supernatural as a cause.
As was said, “I don’t know” can be.the best way to communicate, so too can be “emergence”.