  The emergence of complex macroscopic phenomena from a small set of parameters
and microscopic concepts demonstrates the power and beauty of physical
theories. A theory which relates the wealth of data and peculiarities found in
nuclei to the small number of parameters and symmetries of quantum
chromodynamics is by that standard of exceptional beauty.
  Decade-long research on computational physics and on effective field theories
facilitate the assessment of the presumption that quark masses and strong and
electromagnetic coupling constants suffice to parameterize the nuclear chart.
By presenting the current status of that enterprise, this article touches the
methodology of predicting nuclei by simulating the constituting quarks and
gluons and the development of effective field theories as appropriate
representations of the fundamental theory.
  While the nuclear spectra and electromagnetic responses analyzed
computationally so far with lattice QCD are in close resemblance to those which
intrigued experimentalists a century ago, they also test the theoretical
understanding which was unavailable to guide the nuclear pioneers but developed
since then. This understanding is shown to be deficient in terms of
correlations amongst nuclear observables and their sensitivity to fundamental
parameters. By reviewing the transition from one effective field theory to
another, from QCD to pionful chiral theories to pionless and eventually to
cluster theories, we identify some of those deficiencies and conceptual
problems awaiting a solution before QCD can be identified as the high-energy
theory from which the nuclear landscape emerges.
