Magic is wonder, it's the hope for something more. It is that feeling great magicians try to invoke. To make you dream. I used to think that the concept of [[Emergence]] was magical. That within complex systems, it was magic that was responsible for creating the things that are more than the sum of their parts. However, I watched a talk by [[Marvin Minsky]], where he said, > [[Emergence is when something happens that you didn't expect. There's no process responsible for emergence. (Marvin Minsky)]] Well. It's absolutely true. Emergence is really just 2nd, 3rd, 4th, ... and *n*th order effects that we are not aware of. There is no magic, just ignorance. Emergence is still a useful concept and we can treat it as a phenomenon that generates novel properties. But the innocent wonder is gone, and I can't help but feel sad, disappointed even. # ============= 2025-02-16: [[Took Away the Magic 0.1]] (C)(P)