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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. | 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. | ||
===The 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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“'''Infrastructure'''” is a step easier to fix, but still requires commitment over a time horizon too long for individuals or corporations matching to the cadence of the quarterly results. We see here how culture Influences infrastructural appetite: the American cultural commitment to communally-owned infrastructure (epecially transport, healthcare, and to a degree education) is markedly weaker than the European one (or even the British one). | “'''Infrastructure'''” is a step easier to fix, but still requires commitment over a time horizon too long for individuals or corporations matching to the cadence of the quarterly results. We see here how culture Influences infrastructural appetite: the American cultural commitment to communally-owned infrastructure (epecially transport, healthcare, and to a degree education) is markedly weaker than the European one (or even the British one). | ||
{{Quote|“Infrastructure, essential as it is, can’t be justified in strictly commercial terms. The payback period for things such as transportation and communication systems is too long for standard investment.”<ref>Brand, ibid</ref> | {{Quote|“Infrastructure, essential as it is, can’t be justified in strictly commercial terms. The payback period for things such as transportation and communication systems is too long for standard investment.”<ref>Brand, ibid</ref>}} | ||
, | “'''Commerce'''” ''does'' march to the cadence of the quarterly earnings report, and fights off competing products, market development and customers who are influenced by fashionable views. | ||
“'''Fashion'''” is ephemeral, random, dynamic, fluctuating, noisy — in the sense of “loud” and in the sense of “obscuring signal” — but even this can effect the adjacent layers if persistent through time. | “'''Fashion'''” is ephemeral, random, dynamic, fluctuating, noisy — in the sense of “loud” and in the sense of “obscuring signal” — but even this can effect the adjacent layers if persistent through time. | ||
The scale of operation of the successive layers is different: Nature affects a species, but chances at a glacial, evolutionary pace. Culture affects a people — values and customs do change, but gradually, and these cultural groupings may be more profound than the nations in which we find them. There are commonalities between the alpine people of Germany, Austria, Switzerland, France and Italy that are not shared by others from those countries. Governance is of a nation, infrastructure a city, business a market and fashion whoever likes it. The fastest layers are the most innovative: the slowest are the most stable. | |||
Fast layers learn. Slow layers remember. | |||
===What are not layers=== | |||
''[[Technology]] is not a layer'' but operates across the spectrum at different layers, which means you should be careful, [[legaltechbro]]s, to consider where your application fits in.<ref>[https://open.spotify.com/episode/6cjjZ4mjKHcEfOHraLimzb? Stewart Brand and Paul Saffo, ''Pace Layers Thinking] (about 38 minutes in).</ref> | ''[[Technology]] is not a layer'' but operates across the spectrum at different layers, which means you should be careful, [[legaltechbro]]s, to consider where your application fits in.<ref>[https://open.spotify.com/episode/6cjjZ4mjKHcEfOHraLimzb? Stewart Brand and Paul Saffo, ''Pace Layers Thinking] (about 38 minutes in).</ref> | ||