Concepts of emergence

Emergence refers to complex patterns, behaviors, or properties that arise unexpectedly from simple interactions among smaller parts. For example, individual neurons in the brain interact to produce consciousness, or individual ants work together to build intricate nests. These collective outcomes are not present in the individual components alone but emerge through their interactions. Emergence helps explain how systems can display new qualities that cannot be predicted solely by understanding their parts, highlighting how complexity often results from simple rules acting across many connected elements.