Technical Artifacts, Engineering Practice, and Emergence 289
testifi es to the viability of techniques such as functional decomposition as well as the
strength of the control paradigm. With regard to the third issue, concerning the unexpect-
edness and/or unpredictability of emergent features, the association of emergent phenom-
ena with unexpected phenomena is based on a confusion of theoretical and inductive
(non)predictability; emergent features, even of the strong type, are not necessarily
unexpected.
16.4 Conclusion
Even for simple technical artifacts, the issue of emergence is not a straightforward matter.
The function of a technical artifact such as a mechanical clock is ontologically emergent
on its physical structure in the sense that its function is not a property that may be attributed
to its parts and is not realized by the physical structure of the clock. Although ontologically
emergent in this sense, the functions of simple technical artifacts have no causal powers
of their own. Therefore they pose no threat to the control paradigm of traditional engineer-
ing. Ontologically emergent functions (features) with causal powers of their own would
seriously undermine that paradigm; such a strong form of ontological emergence, however,
does not appear to be very likely. As far as weak forms of epistemic emergence are con-
cerned, they are part and parcel of routine engineering practice and constitute no signifi cant
threat to the control paradigm. The functions of technical artifacts as well as the physical
phenomena upon which they are based may be weakly epistemically emergent. I argue
that it is a mistake to assume that weak epistemic emergence implies unexpectedness and
on that ground poses a threat to the control paradigm. Strong epistemic emergence endan-
gers the control paradigm on the grounds that it is incompatible with techniques such as
functional decomposition. Whether the extreme complexity of some of the modern techni-
cal systems implies a strong kind of epistemic emergence remains to be seen. Without a
doubt, the complexity of these systems stretches to the very limit the capabilities of tradi-
tional methods of designing and controlling technical systems, stretching them sometimes
so far beyond that these methods are no longer applicable. The search by engineers for
new principles of design and control appears warranted. However, complexity within
systems is not necessarily proof that such systems will display features that are strongly
epistemically emergent. For the time being, with respect to the impact of emergence on
engineering practice, we may have to revert to the age-old saying Nihil nove sub sole.^26
Acknowledgments
I am grateful to the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study (NIAS) for providing me
with the opportunity, as a fellow-in-residence, to complete this chapter.