Many quote Andersons' "More is different" paper to say that "details don't matter" in collective motion. However, that is not what the paper says. Indeed, at the end of the paper, he quotes Marx as "quantitative differences become qualitative ones." A key concept is that even though almost everything is made of nuclei and electrons, quantitative differences in how they are arranged result in qualitative differences in behavior at the macroscale. However, our macroscale models are typically based on very approximate calculations, symmetry rules, and other considerations.
I will talk about how progress in solving the Schroedinger equation for nuclei and electrons has enabled us to make progress in computing macroscale models that are both accurate and parsimonious, in that they only include the details required to describe the basic physics. This involves essentially learning renormalization from microscopic calculations.