{ "model": { "rank": 11285, "code": "thing-q215772", "model_id": "vr.tr.emergence", "name": "emergence", "purpose": "Let an agent explain emergence with examples, models and philosophical positions, attribute contested claims, and separate the event sense of emerging.", "family": "Thing Registry", "category": "Activities and processes", "status": "research-draft", "kind": "thing", "plane": "ACT", "domain": "ACT.EVT", "industry": "", "version": "", "url": "/models/thing/q215772/", "tier": 2, "score": 42, "payload": { "layer": "wikidata", "aliases": [ "Engineered Emergence", "Emersion" ], "aliasCount": 2, "merged": 2, "knownIn": 42, "facets": null, "markers": [], "lexicalClass": "", "senseRank": null, "alsoRegisteredAs": "vr.tr.emergence-event", "source": { "dataset": "wikidata", "item": "Q215772", "url": "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q215772", "license": "CC0 1.0" } }, "research": { "vercy": "1.0-draft", "publication": { "status": "research-draft", "adjudicationStatus": "unreviewed", "publishableCanonical": false, "generatedAt": "2026-09-11T13:33:51Z", "providers": [ "Claude" ], "breadth": "written by Claude from model knowledge without web access - no source was read, every claim is a lead to verify", "pass": 2, "wave": 1, "engine": "claude" }, "metaModel": { "id": "THING-Q215772", "registryId": "vr.tr.emergence", "name": "emergence", "version": "0.2.0-wave.1", "entryKind": "thing", "family": "Thing Registry", "domain": [ "ACT.EVT" ], "status": "research-draft" }, "canonicalUrl": "https://ver.cy/models/thing/q215772/", "model": { "registry_id": "vr.tr.emergence", "name": "emergence", "purpose": "Let an agent explain emergence with examples, models and philosophical positions, attribute contested claims, and separate the event sense of emerging.", "definition": "The arising of novel properties, patterns or behaviours in a complex system from the interactions of its parts, which are not evident from the parts alone, as in flocking, traffic jams, ant colonies and phase transitions; philosophers distinguish weak from strong emergence, and whether consciousness is emergent is debated.", "what_it_is_for": "Complex systems science, philosophy and engineering.", "affordances": [ "explain emergence with examples", "distinguish weak and strong emergence", "find models such as agent-based simulations", "separate other senses of emergence" ], "distinguishing_features": [ "Whole shows properties parts lack", "Arises from interactions", "Often hard to predict", "Philosophically debated" ], "appearance": "Not a single object; seen in patterns such as flocks, swarms and self-organised structures.", "visual_identification": [ "Collective patterns from simple rules", "Agent-based simulations", "Designed central control is not emergence" ], "physical_properties": [], "families_and_kinds": [ "weak emergence", "strong emergence (debated)", "self-organisation", "emergent behaviour in AI systems", "engineered emergence" ], "related_models": [ { "relation": "is a kind of", "target": "property of systems", "why": "category" }, { "relation": "is studied in", "target": "complex systems science", "why": "field" }, { "relation": "is related to", "target": "self-organisation", "why": "related concept" }, { "relation": "is contrasted with", "target": "reductionism", "why": "philosophical position" } ], "identifiers": [], "standards_and_regulation": [ "No specific regulation" ], "failure_modes_and_hazards": [ "Using emergence as a vague explanation", "Presenting contested claims as settled", "Overclaiming emergent abilities in AI" ], "in_scope": [], "out_of_scope": [], "characteristics": [] }, "sources": [], "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "concept", "name": "Concept", "description": "What emergence is.", "rationale": "Definitions differ.", "layers": [ { "id": "define", "name": "Define", "description": "Definition.", "findings": [ { "id": "define-finding", "name": "Define", "description": "Definition.", "questions": [ { "text": "Which definition of emergence is used here?", "kind": "definition" }, { "text": "Is weak or strong emergence meant?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "examples", "name": "Examples", "description": "Illustrations.", "findings": [ { "id": "examples-finding", "name": "Examples", "description": "Examples.", "questions": [ { "text": "Which examples illustrate emergence, such as flocking or traffic jams?", "kind": "definition" }, { "text": "What simple rules produce them?", "kind": "definition" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "models", "name": "Models", "description": "Studying emergence.", "rationale": "Models help.", "layers": [ { "id": "simulation", "name": "Simulation", "description": "Agent-based models.", "findings": [ { "id": "simulation-finding", "name": "Simulation", "description": "Simulations.", "questions": [ { "text": "How can an agent-based model demonstrate emergent behaviour?", "kind": "action" }, { "text": "Which tools are used?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] }, { "id": "measure", "name": "Measure", "description": "Quantifying.", "findings": [ { "id": "measure-finding", "name": "Measure", "description": "Measuring emergence.", "questions": [ { "text": "How do researchers try to quantify emergence?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Are the measures agreed?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "philosophy", "name": "Philosophy", "description": "Debates.", "rationale": "Views are contested.", "layers": [ { "id": "positions", "name": "Positions", "description": "Philosophical views.", "findings": [ { "id": "positions-finding", "name": "Positions", "description": "Philosophical positions.", "questions": [ { "text": "How do philosophers argue for and against strong emergence?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Who holds which view?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] }, { "id": "mind", "name": "Mind", "description": "Consciousness.", "findings": [ { "id": "mind-finding", "name": "Mind", "description": "Consciousness.", "questions": [ { "text": "Is consciousness emergent, according to different scholars?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Is the answer presented as open?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "senses", "name": "Senses", "description": "Disambiguation.", "rationale": "Emergence has other senses.", "layers": [ { "id": "event", "name": "Event", "description": "Emerging.", "findings": [ { "id": "event-finding", "name": "Event", "description": "Event sense.", "questions": [ { "text": "Is emergence as an event, such as insects emerging or a plant surfacing, meant?", "kind": "boundary" }, { "text": "Which entry fits?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] }, { "id": "ai", "name": "AI", "description": "Emergent abilities.", "findings": [ { "id": "ai-finding", "name": "AI", "description": "AI claims.", "questions": [ { "text": "Is a claim about emergent abilities in AI models supported by evidence?", "kind": "boundary" }, { "text": "Who makes and who disputes it?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "openQuestions": [ "Should weak and strong emergence be separate entries?", "How should examples be linked?", "How should AI claims be attributed?" ], "statistics": { "bundles": 4, "layers": 8, "findings": 8, "questions": 16 } }, "draft": { "generator": "vr.draft.v3", "status": "draft-generated", "researched": false, "archetype": "event or period", "method": "Written from the archetype playbook - what this kind of thing needs beyond identity and provenance - and from the structure that recurred across 6,333 models already researched by two engines. Applied to this entry by rule. No source was read for this thing and no claim here is researched. This entry carries no facets of its own, so they were inferred from its domain - a guess about a whole domain applied to one thing.", "facetsInferred": true, "nextPass": "A researcher replaces this draft with a sourced specification. Treat every sentence below as a proposal to argue with.", "purpose": "Give an agent a durable, checkable way to recognise a emergence, record what state it is in, and decide what may be done with it.", "whatItIs": "Let an agent explain emergence with examples, models and philosophical positions, attribute contested claims, and separate the event sense of emerging.", "characteristics": { "substance": "activity", "origin": "conceptual", "agency": "inert" }, "whatYouCanDoWithIt": [ "observed and measured" ], "distinguishingFeatures": [ "Names folded into this entry, which a task may need to split apart again: Engineered Emergence, Emersion.", "2 finer distinctions are held as aliases rather than separate entries, because telling them apart needs a task that asks for it.", "Described in 42 Wikipedia languages, which is a measure of how widely the thing is known, not of how important it is." ], "openQuestionsForResearch": [ "Which of the bundles below does a real task actually need, and which are ceremony?", "What does this thing have that the facets do not capture at all?", "Which neighbouring kind is most often confused with a emergence, and on what evidence are they told apart?" ], "whatItIsMadeOf": "something that happens over time", "physicalCharacter": [ "Does nothing on its own; everything it does, something else did to it.", "These come from the domain this entry sits in rather than from the entry itself, so treat them as a first guess about the whole domain applied to one thing." ], "whatCanBeDoneWithIt": [ "observe it, measure it, record its state" ], "howItIsRecognised": [ "Not a thing to see. Recognised by when it happened and who was involved, on the account of somebody." ], "relatedModels": [ { "relation": "covers", "note": "Finer kinds folded into this entry because telling them apart needs a task that asks for it. Each is a model waiting to be split out when one does.", "targets": [ "Engineered Emergence", "Emersion" ] } ], "standing": "Described in 42 Wikipedia languages, which measures how widely it is written about rather than how important or how common it is. 2 finer distinctions are held inside this entry as names rather than as separate models.", "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "identity-and-classification", "name": "Identity, naming and classification", "description": "How an agent tells one emergence from another, and a emergence from things that resemble it.", "rationale": "Recognition comes before every other claim. Without stable identity nothing else in the model can be trusted to be about the same thing twice.", "layers": [ { "id": "naming-and-identifiers", "name": "Names and identifiers", "description": "The names this thing goes by and the identifiers that survive translation and time.", "findings": [ { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases", "name": "Preferred name, aliases and local names", "description": "Which name to use, which names mean the same thing, and which merely sound similar.", "questions": [ { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the name of a emergence, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the name of a emergence, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the name of a emergence is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers", "name": "Stable identifiers and external keys", "description": "Identifiers that keep pointing at this kind of thing across systems and languages.", "questions": [ { "id": "stable-identifiers-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes an identifier for a emergence, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about an identifier for a emergence, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once an identifier for a emergence is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "classification-and-granularity", "name": "Classification and granularity", "description": "Where a emergence sits among kinds, and how finely a task needs to cut it.", "findings": [ { "id": "kind-and-parents", "name": "Kind, parents and neighbouring kinds", "description": "The classes this thing belongs to and the ones it is next to.", "questions": [ { "id": "kind-and-parents-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the kind of a emergence, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "kind-and-parents-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the kind of a emergence, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "kind-and-parents-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the kind of a emergence is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features", "name": "Distinguishing features", "description": "What separates a emergence from the things most often confused with it.", "questions": [ { "id": "distinguishing-features-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes what distinguishes a emergence, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about what distinguishes a emergence, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once what distinguishes a emergence is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "state-and-lifecycle", "name": "State and lifecycle", "description": "The states a emergence passes through and the events that move it between them.", "rationale": "Most decisions about a thing depend on what state it is in now, which is a claim with a time on it, not a property.", "layers": [ { "id": "lifecycle-stages", "name": "Lifecycle stages", "description": "From coming into existence to ceasing to be one of these.", "findings": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions", "name": "Stages and transitions", "description": "The stages worth naming and what moves a emergence between them.", "questions": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the lifecycle of a emergence, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the lifecycle of a emergence, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the lifecycle of a emergence is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "observations-and-status", "name": "Observations and current status", "description": "What is observed about a emergence, how often and by whom.", "findings": [ { "id": "observation-record", "name": "Observation record", "description": "How an observation of a emergence is recorded so that it can be superseded rather than overwritten.", "questions": [ { "id": "observation-record-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes an observation of a emergence, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "observation-record-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about an observation of a emergence, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "observation-record-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once an observation of a emergence is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "process-and-outcome", "name": "Process, inputs and outcome", "description": "How a emergence proceeds, what it needs and what it leaves behind.", "rationale": "An activity is known by its steps and its results, and both have to be recordable while it is still running.", "layers": [ { "id": "steps-and-sequence", "name": "Steps and sequence", "description": "The steps of a emergence, their order and what may run in parallel.", "findings": [ { "id": "steps-and-preconditions", "name": "Steps, preconditions and completion", "description": "What has to be true before each step of a emergence and what marks it done.", "questions": [ { "id": "steps-and-preconditions-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes a step of a emergence, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "steps-and-preconditions-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about a step of a emergence, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "steps-and-preconditions-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once a step of a emergence is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "inputs-and-results", "name": "Inputs, resources and results", "description": "What a emergence consumes and what it produces.", "findings": [ { "id": "inputs-and-outputs", "name": "Inputs, outputs and side effects", "description": "The resources a emergence takes and the results it leaves, wanted or not.", "questions": [ { "id": "inputs-and-outputs-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the inputs and results of a emergence, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "inputs-and-outputs-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the inputs and results of a emergence, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "inputs-and-outputs-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the inputs and results of a emergence is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "extent-and-dating", "name": "Temporal extent and dating", "description": "When emergence began and ended, and who says so.", "rationale": "Dates for events are conventions held by historiographies that disagree, and a single confident date hides the disagreement.", "layers": [ { "id": "dating", "name": "Dating and calendar", "description": "Start, end, granularity and the calendar used.", "findings": [ { "id": "date-record", "name": "Dates, granularity and authority", "description": "What is dated, how precisely, and on whose account.", "questions": [ { "id": "date-record-q01", "text": "What start and end are conventionally given for emergence, at what granularity, in which calendar?", "kind": "definition" }, { "id": "date-record-q02", "text": "Which accounts date it differently, and on what grounds?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] }, { "id": "membership-of-the-event", "name": "What counts as part of it", "description": "Sub-events included or excluded, and by whom.", "findings": [ { "id": "inclusion", "name": "Inclusion and exclusion", "description": "The episodes treated as inside the event and those left out.", "questions": [ { "id": "inclusion-q01", "text": "Which episodes are counted as part of emergence, and which are treated as separate?", "kind": "boundary" }, { "id": "inclusion-q02", "text": "Whose framing is being followed in that inclusion, and who frames it otherwise?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "participants-and-consequence", "name": "Participants, causes and consequences", "description": "Who took part in emergence and what is claimed to follow from it.", "rationale": "Causation around events is asserted rather than observed, so each claim needs the party asserting it.", "layers": [ { "id": "participants", "name": "Participants and roles", "description": "Parties involved and what each did.", "findings": [ { "id": "participant-record", "name": "Parties and their roles", "description": "Who is recorded as involved and in what capacity.", "questions": [ { "id": "participant-record-q01", "text": "Which parties took part in emergence, in what roles, and on whose account?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "id": "participant-record-q02", "text": "Where do accounts disagree about who was involved?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "consequences", "name": "Causes and consequences", "description": "What is claimed to have caused it and followed from it.", "findings": [ { "id": "causal-claims", "name": "Causal claims and who makes them", "description": "Antecedents and outcomes as attributed claims.", "questions": [ { "id": "causal-claims-q01", "text": "What causes and consequences are attributed to emergence, and by whom?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "id": "causal-claims-q02", "text": "What would an agent need before treating such a claim as settled rather than contested?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "provenance-and-evidence", "name": "Provenance, evidence and time", "description": "Where every claim about a emergence came from and when it held.", "rationale": "A claim without a source and a time cannot be superseded, only overwritten, and an agent that overwrites loses the ability to explain itself.", "layers": [ { "id": "source-and-authority", "name": "Source and authority", "description": "Who said it, on what evidence, and how strongly.", "findings": [ { "id": "claim-provenance", "name": "Claim provenance and confidence", "description": "The authority behind each claim about a emergence and how confident it is.", "questions": [ { "id": "claim-provenance-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes a claim about a emergence, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "claim-provenance-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about a claim about a emergence, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "claim-provenance-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once a claim about a emergence is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "time-and-versions", "name": "Time, versions and supersession", "description": "When a claim was true, when it was learnt, and what replaced it.", "findings": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession", "name": "Validity period and supersession", "description": "How an old claim about a emergence is retired without being erased.", "questions": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the validity of a claim about a emergence, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the validity of a claim about a emergence, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the validity of a claim about a emergence is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "statistics": { "bundles": 6, "layers": 12, "findings": 14, "questions": 38 } } } }