Emergentism and Complexity: Serious Science or Physicalist Cop-out?

Image created by NightCafe creator. The science of emergence says that the human conscious mind and the formation of snowflakes comes from the same property of nature. AI’s unpredictable behavior is said to be an example of emergence. A leading researcher says complexity itself produces emergence. Is this right?

Does emergence describe something real or is it simply a fancy way to say: we have no freaking idea what is going on?

Is it like doctors giving Latin names to unexplained things in order to provide a diagnosis? Like when my dentist sent me to a doctor to get a white spot under my tongue checked out. The doctor said, oh yeah, that’s leukoplakia. What’s leukoplakia, I asked. A white spot, he explained.

It sure sounded more official and serious when given that name. Is that what emergence is for scientists? Or does it describe something real, a new discovery that unveils deep mysteries of the universe?

Emergentism is one of the more popular ideas in science today generating a considerable amount of focus. Its popularity and common use was brought to mind when I saw it referenced in an article about how these new AI chatbots are demonstrating some very unpredictable behavior. The author of the article identified the lies, arguments, and strange results of some output from ChatGPT as yet another example of emergence:

“Biologists, physicists, ecologists and other scientists use the term “emergent” to describe self-organizing, collective behaviors that appear when a large collection of things acts as one. Combinations of lifeless atoms give rise to living…