I thought about emergence before I wrote my last post; I was hoping we could talk about it.

Emergent phenomena are a good counter-example, but I think that conflates two ideas. Something can be greater in organization or complexity, or something can be greater in substance or kind. The ant hill is an emergent phenomenon that is of greater complexity than the sum of the individual ants, but that system is a composite, rather than a distinct nature.

So I'll refine my statement by saying this: Things of greater nature do not arise from things of lesser nature. A bunch of ants can organize themselves into an ant colony and build an emergent system of great complexity, but the ant hill is not a distinct animal or being in its own right; it is a composite of many beings operating together according to a set of rules. The ants, in organizing themselves, never transcend their ant nature.

Likewise, the molecules of water can be organized into waves that emerge from all the motions of the air and water molecules together, but they do not give rise to, say, a living being.

If we apply that same principle to AI, we could say that a multitude of artificial systems working together could create an emergent system of great complexity, but that doesn't mean that emergent system is conscious. Of course, this assumes that we hold consciousness itself to be a nature rather than an emergent phenomenon. We might disagree there.

There's definitely more to talk about here, so perhaps we can dive deeper, but I want to hear your thoughts first.