See Emergence as a Metaknowledge - A Way to Reify Emergent Phenomena in Multiagent Simulations?

Emergence is a fascinating concept for most scientists, and multiagent simulations are known to allow and facilitate its representation. Research in this area yield to several definitions and classifications of emergent phenomena, but only a few of them offers a solution for a concrete reification of emergence in simulation. This paper deals with this important notion of emergence reification that, as we know, does not have yet formal mathematic definition, if any could be expressed. We need to progress on the conceptual meaning, leading to more global definitions but allowing to give a general conceptual framework that makes possible the reification of emergent phenomena in multiagent simulations. We define emergence as being a metaknowledge and we present a conceptual framework in which emergent phenomena can be detected and injected into simulation systems and be handled like other entities.