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{{a|bi| | {{a|bi|{{image|Pace layering|jpg|}}}}{{Quote|In Europe you can see it in terminology, where the names of months (governance) have varied radically since 1500, but the names of signs of the Zodiac (culture) are unchanged in millennia. Europe’s most intractable wars have been religious wars. | ||
:—{{author|Stewart Brand}}, ''Pace Layering: How Complex Systems Learn and Keep Learning''<ref>https://jods.mitpress.mit.edu/pub/issue3-brand/release/2</ref>}} | |||
}}{{Quote|In Europe you can see it in terminology, where the names of months (governance) have varied radically since 1500, but the names of signs of the Zodiac (culture) are unchanged in millennia. Europe’s most intractable wars have been religious wars. | |||
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Stewart | {{author|Stewart Brand}}’s ''pace layering'' concept, which evidently he developed in a collaboration with Brian Eno, explains the resilience of a [[complex system]], how it resists shocks and how it adapts over time by the [[metaphor]] of “layers” of which the system is comprised, and that operate at different scales and at different rates of change. It also acknowledges that such systems are not hermetically-sealed clockwork engines, but rather amorphous, boundary-less ephemeral contrivances that borrow from or depend on, ''other'' pre-existing systems with their own dependencies. | ||
Brand | Brand described six layers. From the bottom up: ''nature'', ''culture'', ''governance'', ''infrastructure'', ''commerce'' and ''fashion''. To work through these, let’s take the example of a single market. | ||
=== Layers=== | === Layers=== | ||
“'''Nature'''” describes the most universal, fundamental, difficult-to-fiddle-with engineering of the system, on which all other levels depend. Nature applies universally, well beyond the scope of the individual market in our example. It includes biology, chemistry, physics, meteorology, geology to the extent these determine how the participants behave, and are impacted by the behaviour of participants in the market. The market may generate changes in nature (as to life expectancy, crop yield, climate and so on) but they happen over extremely long time scales and would require concerted effort amongst many different markets. It may not change very fast, but nature is highly determinative of what a market can and cannot do. | “'''Nature'''” describes the most universal, fundamental, difficult-to-fiddle-with engineering of the system, on which all other levels depend. Nature applies universally, well beyond the scope of the individual market in our example. It includes biology, chemistry, physics, meteorology, geology to the extent these determine how the participants behave, and are impacted by the behaviour of participants in the market. The market may generate changes in nature (as to life expectancy, crop yield, climate and so on) but they happen over extremely long time scales and would require concerted effort amongst many different markets. It may not change very fast, but nature is highly determinative of what a market can and cannot do. | ||
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{{Quote|''“Fast learns, slow remembers. Fast proposes, slow disposes. Fast is discontinuous, slow is continuous. Fast and small instructs slow and big by accrued innovation and by occasional revolution. Slow and big controls small and fast by constraint and constancy. Fast gets all our attention, slow has all the power.”''}} | {{Quote|''“Fast learns, slow remembers. Fast proposes, slow disposes. Fast is discontinuous, slow is continuous. Fast and small instructs slow and big by accrued innovation and by occasional revolution. Slow and big controls small and fast by constraint and constancy. Fast gets all our attention, slow has all the power.”''}} | ||
So to understand how deep and persistent a system effect is and how fixable it is, consider the level are which it presents. A local gang conflict can fix easily, a religious grievance won’t. | So to understand how deep and persistent a [[system effect]] is and how fixable it is, consider the level are which it presents. A local gang conflict can fix easily, a religious grievance won’t. | ||
If an issue presents as a matter of ''fashion'' but proves inexplicably resistant to change, it may be an indication that it is really operates at a deeper level. | If an issue presents as a matter of ''fashion'' but proves inexplicably resistant to change, it may be an indication that it is really operates at a deeper level. | ||