Pace Layering: How Complex Systems Learn and Keep Learning

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

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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

The combination of fast and slow components makes the system resilient, along with the way the differently paced parts affect each other. 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 occasional revolution. Slow and big controls s

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