Pace Layering: How Complex Systems Learn and Keep Learning

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

As someone who has decades of experience on the web, I hate to compare myself to the tortoise, but hey, if it fits, it fits. Let’s be more like that tortoise: diligent, direct, and purposeful. The web needs pockets of slowness and thoughtfulness as its reach and power continues to increase. What we depend upon must be properly built and intelligent... See more

there are very different rhythms of change for different things, like the very long time horizons for transforming infrastructures, developing new drugs or changing the make-up of the armed forces. At the other extreme, there are the very short time horizons of news cycles and software development. In between are the rhythms of schools and hospital

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