the timboucher experience

This is an interesting quote about the concept of order arising out of noise in complex systems theory. I think it applies especially well to social systems too, if you were to re-tool the language a bit…

…The only way to get the system out of a local minimum is to add a degree of indeterminism to the dynamics, that is, to give the system the possibility to make transitions to states other than the locally most fit one. This can be seen as the injection of “noise” or random perturbations into the system, which makes it deviate from its preferred trajectory. Physically, this is usually the effect of outside perturbations (e.g. vibrations, or shaking of the system) or of intrinsic indeterminacy (e.g. thermal or quantum fluctuations, or simply unknown factors that have not been incorporated into the state description). Such perturbations can “push” the system upwards, towards a higher potential.

A case could be made here to link this to some of my earlier posts about cognitive dissonance and the inputing of new information into social systems in order to evolve them to a higher level of functioning.

• Digital Noise ID’s Cameras
• Hemi-Sync: I’m ahead of the game
• The Holy Spirit: Signal to Noise
• Personal Bug Detectors
• The Din of Sin