EMERGENCE
In his landmark 1972 paper on the subject of emergence physics Nobel Laureate, Philip W. Anderson writes:
The ability to reduce everything to simple fundamental laws does not imply the ability to start from those laws and reconstruct the universe. In fact, the more the elementary particle physicists tell us about the nature of the fundamental laws, the less relevance they seem to have to the very real problems of the rest of science, much less to those of society.
The constructionist hypothesis breaks down when confronted with the twin difficulties of scale and complexity. The behavior of large and complex aggregates of elementary particles, it turns out, is not to be understood in terms of a simple extrapolation of the properties of a few particles. Instead, at each level of complexity entirely new properties appear and the understanding of the new behaviors requires research which I think is as fundamental in its nature as any other.
Anderson reminds us that the elementary entities of any scientific discipline obey the laws of the hierarchical level below. Social science obeys the rules of psychology, which in turn, obeys the rules of physiology; which in turn, obeys the rules of cell biology; which in turn, obeys the rules of molecular biology; which in turn, obeys the rules of chemistry; which in turn, obeys the rules of solid state physics; which in turn, obeys the rules of elementary or particle physics. For Anderson it is clear that:
at each stage entirely new laws, concepts and generalizations are necessary, requiring inspiration and creativity to just as great a degree as in the previous one. Psychology is not applied biology, nor is biology applied chemistry.
Anderson, P. W. (1972) More Is Different: Broken Symmetry and the Nature of the Hierarchical Structure of Sciences. Science. 177: 4047. August 4, 1972.
PHILIP W. ANDERSON
American condensed matter theoretical physicist and Nobel Laureate [1923- ]
NATRIUM AND MUSTARD GAS
The benevolent properties, physiological importance and taste of common table salt (sodium chloride) cannot be guessed from the spectacular and toxic properties of its constituent elements. The soft metal sodium is is never found as a free element. In the lab it is stored under oil since it reacts explosively with water producing caustic sodium hydroxide and flammable hydrogen gas. The greenish gas chlorine was used to deadly effect in gas attacks during the early years of the First World War.
BREAKING SYMMETRY
P. W. Anderson worked on superconductivity which he describes as “the most spectacular example of the broken symmetries which ordinary macroscopic bodies undergo.” Anderson (1972: 395) asserts that physicists:
are, perhaps, closer to our fundamental underpinnings than in any other science in which non-trivial complexities occur, and as a result we have become to formulate a general theory of just how this shift from quantitative to qualitative differentiation takes place. This formulation called the theory of “broken symmetry.”
Furthermore:
We have yet to recover from [the arrogance] of some molecular biologists, who seem determined to try to reduce everything about the human organism to “only” chemistry, from the common cold and all mental disease to the religious instinct. Surely there are more levels of organization between human ethology and DNA than there are between DNA and quantum electrodynamics…
Anderson closes his landmark "More is Different" paper with the Karl Marx observation that "[Q]uantitative differences become qualitative ones." He also offers the following dialogue from Paris in the 1920’s which "sums it up even more clearly":
FITZGERALD: The rich are different from us.
HEMMINGWAY: Yes, they have more money.
Anderson, P. W. (1972) More Is Different: Broken Symmetry and the Nature of the Hierarchical Structure of Sciences. Science. 177: 4047. August 4, 1972.
