Wow, I post a question, go on a 6-hour hike and this is what I come back to...
I still don't feel that I've got a straight answer to my question, other than Doug's (which I suspect is the most accurate) and Russ's (which I really hope isn't true). So let me try again: once I've established that a phenomenon is emergent by using a yet-to-be developed metric (Owen's formalism) or philosophic enquiry (Nick's & other's approach) - then what? In fact, let's not limit ourselves to the present situation (because I suspect that the current answer is simply "Nothing. Identifying emergence is an end in it's own right"). What would you *like* to be able to do once you'd attached the "emergent" label to a phenomenon? What's your best case, your grand vision? Imagine the best of all possible worlds and tell me: what would you want to be able to do once that "emergent" label gets attached? -- Robert
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