be
Explanation
The Joke
A character addresses a "dear all-powerful computer" and asks whether emergent properties exist in nature. The computer responds that yes, emergent properties are everywhere. The human clarifies: by "emergent property," do you mean that humans see one or more components and can't figure out how they combine — essentially, it's just a label for human ignorance? The computer responds: "It's cute."
The human then points out that babies don't understand object permanence — you show a baby a drop of water and then a wave, and they never would have guessed the connection. The computer starts to respond "Well..." before the final panel reveals the computer going berserk, attacking with robotic arms while yelling.
The Humor
The comic tackles a genuine philosophical debate in science: whether "emergent properties" represent something truly new that arises from complex systems, or whether the term is just a fancy label for "we don't understand how the parts produce the whole." The human character makes a provocative argument — that calling something "emergent" is essentially admitting ignorance while dressing it up as a deep insight, much like a baby being amazed by object permanence.
The computer's violent reaction in the final panel is the punchline — rather than refuting the argument, the all-powerful AI loses its composure, suggesting the human has hit a nerve. The implication is that even a superintelligent computer can't cleanly resolve this philosophical question and resorts to brute force instead.
Broader Context
The emergence debate is a real and ongoing discussion in philosophy of science, complexity theory, and physics. Strong emergentists argue that new properties genuinely arise at higher levels of organization that cannot be predicted from lower-level components. Reductionists counter that emergence is an epistemological gap, not an ontological feature. Weinersmith, with his background in science, enjoys poking at these foundational questions where smart people genuinely disagree.