Summary Of Emergence By Laughlin

Key Themes:
Laughlin’s book focuses on the downside of reductionism and how emergence is a far successful way to look at the world. Laughlin argues throughout the book that things and concepts should not be reduced to elementary or smaller parts because they are made from a combination of ideas and behaviors which, when broken down simply lose their essence. Laughlin seems to be promoting the concept of emergence. Emergence can be described as the existence of complex things through a combination of simpler entities however, the complex whole consists of properties that are not present in the simple entities that created it. The simple entities work together as “collective”, this collective nature of entities is a key element which leads to