---
slug: oip-node-c21-emergence-more-is-different
title: Node C21: Emergence / “More Is Different”
canonical: https://miscsubjects.com/a/oip-node-c21-emergence-more-is-different
---

# Node C21: Emergence / “More Is Different”

C21 — Emergence / “More Is Different”
{
  "id": "C21",
  "claim": "New fundamental regularities appear at higher levels of organization that are not conceptually reducible to the laws governing the constituent parts; scale introduces novelty.",
  "domain": ["condensed matter physics", "chemistry", "biology", "cognitive science", "complexity science"],
  "pattern": ["emergence", "supervenience", "downward_causation", "multi-scale_organization", "novelty"],
  "mechanism": "Anderson: broken symmetry at one scale creates new degrees of freedom at larger scales — the crystalline lattice breaks translational symmetry, creating phonons that have no meaning at the atomic level. Laughlin: the quantum Hall state is an emergent collective phenomenon protected by a spectral gap. The lower-level laws are not violated but are insufficient — new organizing principles (entropy, selection, feedback) become operative.",
  "scale": "all scales",
  "claim_tier": "T1 (phenomenon) / T3 (interpretation)",
  "sources": [
    "Anderson, P.W. (1972). 'More Is Different.' Science, 177(4047), 393-396.",
    "Laughlin, R.B. (1999). 'Emergent Relativity.' Int. J. Mod. Phys. A, 18, 831-853.",
    "Laughlin, R.B. & Pines, D. (2000). 'The Theory of Everything.' Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci., 97(1), 28-31.",
    "Bedau, M.A. (1997). 'Weak Emergence.' Phil. Persp., 11, 375-399."
  ],
  "dual": "Strong reductionism — the claim that all higher-level regularities are in principle derivable from micro-laws with no new principles.",
  "falsifier": "Every higher-level regularity fully derived from micro-laws with no new principle — i.e., a complete reduction of superconductivity, life, or consciousness to single-particle Schrodinger equations with no emergent concepts.",
  "rival_frame": "Emergence is a failure of current theory, not a feature of reality. Given complete micro-description and unlimited computational power, emergence dissolves. 'More is different' is an admission of epistemic limitation, not an ontological claim. The 'new principles' are approximate descriptions, not additional laws of nature.",
  "independence_check": "HIGH. Anderson (condensed matter, Bell Labs/Princeton, 1972) wrote from experience with broken symmetry phases. Laughlin (quantum Hall effect, Stanford, 1999) argued from topological protection. Bedau (philosophy, Reed, 1997) formalized weak emergence computationally. Santa Fe Institute (complexity science, 1980s-90s) developed emergence as a cross-disciplinary framework. Four independent sources, convergent conclusion: scale matters ontologically.",
  "pattern_type": "structural",
  "maps_to_axiom": ["A3", "A9"]
}

---

## Corpus map
- Same node, other planes: [Encyclopedia C21](/a/convergence-encyclopedia-c21) · [Inventory invariant](/a/oip-invariant-13-313-emergence-more-is-different)
- Edges touching C21: [convergence edge 7](/a/oip-convergence-edge-7) · [disconfirming edge 3](/a/oip-disconfirming-edge-3)
- Catalogue hub: [Public Article](/a/oip-convergence-public-article) · [Schema](/a/oip-convergence-schema)
