Pace Layering: How Complex Systems Learn and Keep Learning
jods.mitpress.mit.edujods.mitpress.mit.edu
Some years ago, the writer Stewart Brand proposed that to understand a civilization, you need to look at multiple layers functioning simultaneously at different speeds.22 Fashion changes rapidly, while the business pursuits in an area alter more slowly. Infrastructure—such as roads and buildings—evolves more gradually. The rules and laws of a socie
... See moreDavid Eagleman • Livewired: The Inside Story of the Ever-Changing Brain
I propose six significant levels of pace and size in the working structure of a robust and adaptable civilization. From fast to slow the levels are: - Fashion/art - Commerce- Infrastructure- Governance- Culture- Nature
jods.mitpress.mit.edu • Pace Layering: How Complex Systems Learn and Keep Learning
The total effect of the pace layers is that they provide many-leveled corrective, stabilizing negative feedback throughout the system. It is precisely in the apparent contradictions of pace that civilization finds its surest health.
Stewart Brand • The Clock Of The Long Now: Time and Responsibility
Patience, I believe, is a core competency of a healthy civilization. I propose that it is useful and realistic to think of a civilization as operating at a number of different paces at the same time. Fashion and commerce change quickly, as they should. Nature and culture change slowly, as they should. Infrastructure and governance move along at mid... See more
Stewart Brand • Taking the Long View
Pace Layers help visualize, distinguish, and discuss different kinds of work and teams within an organization. Here, I bring together a bunch of great thinking into a single construct.