All this talk of emergence and mystery reminds me wonderfully of
Clarke's third law:
"Any sufficiently advanced science is indistinguishable from magic"
and the many wonderful riffs on that including:
"Any sufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from technology"
- Niven & then Pratchett
"Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced."
- Gehm's Corollary to Clarke's Law
or my mostest favorites:
"Any sufficiently analyzed magic is indistinguishable from science!"
- Agatha Heterodyne
"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from a
yo-yo,"
- Neal Stephenson (in the voice of Enoch Root)
So perhaps:
"Any sufficiently subtle emergence is indistinguishable from mystery".
or
"Any sufficiently analyzed emergence is indistinguishable from ..."
- Steve
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