# Hidden Layers Create New Emergent Concepts by Frank Wilczek > "Hidden layers embody, in a concrete physical form, the fashionable but rather vague and abstract idea of emergence. Each hidden layer neuron has a template. It becomes activated, and sends signals of its own to the next layer, precisely when the pattern of information it's receiving from the preceding layer matches (within some tolerance) that template. But this is just to say, in precision-enabling jargon, that the neuron defines, and thus creates, a new emergent concept." > **— Frank Wilczek**, *2011, Edge Annual Question, “What Scientific Concept Would Improve Everybody's Cognitive Toolkit?”* ## Sources and Context - **Direct Edge response and surrounding essay:** [Hidden Layers](https://www.edge.org/response-detail/10351) — Edge published this passage in its 2011 Annual Question collection, *What Scientific Concept Would Improve Everybody's Cognitive Toolkit?*. The full response preserves the qualifications and argument surrounding this exact extract. - **Complete local collection index:** [[research/Edge 2011 Full Quotation Curation|Edge 2011 Full Quotation Curation]] — retained source-first archive record for the complete yearly response cohort. ## Related Articles and Collections - **Collection:** [[collections/Edge|Edge]] - **Collection:** [[collections/Consciousness Continuity|Consciousness Continuity]] - **Collection:** [[collections/Machine Succession|Machine Succession]] - **Article:** [[articles/STEVE|STEVE]] - **Article:** [[articles/The Art is Long|The Art is Long]] - **Article:** [[articles/The Architecture of Continuity and Emerging Neuroinformatics Standards|Neuroinformatics Standards]] - **Wiki map:** [[wiki/Knowledge Graph|Knowledge Graph]] ## Related Topics - [[wiki/Artificial Neural Networks|Artificial Neural Networks]] - [[wiki/Emergence|Emergence]] - [[wiki/Cognitive Architecture|Cognitive Architecture]] - [[wiki/Neural Plasticity|Neural Plasticity]] ## Share on Social Media ``` "Hidden layers embody, in a concrete physical form, the fashionable but rather vague and abstract idea of emergence. Each hidden layer neuron has a template. It becomes activated, and sends signals of its own to the next layer, precisely when the pattern of information it's receiving from the preceding layer matches (within some tolerance) that template. But this is just to say, in precision-enabling jargon, that the neuron defines, and thus creates, a new emergent concept." — Frank Wilczek, 2011, Edge Annual Question, “What Scientific Concept Would Improve Everybody's Cognitive Toolkit?” https://bryantmcgill.com/simple-reminders-frank-wilczek-hidden-layers-emergent-concepts ```