[jeremynixon]

The mysticism around ‘Emergence’ is just a modeling error where people only abstract in one way (say, down to cells) and don’t include something important like the interaction between cells in their reductionist model of the system. It’s like creating a graph without the edges. And so when those effects have manifest consequences at a higher level, it feels like they appeared as if by magic.

[ktRolster]

IT's kind of like saying, "This river is not the same river that it was upstream, and yet it is. The river is not the same water of last year, and yet it is the same river."

The phenomenon is entirely well understood by all involved, and yet coming up with a reasonable definition is hard. http://existentialcomics.com/comic/164 So it's easier to be mystical.