Resilient systems that can absorb shocks (short peaks of rapid change) have multiple layers that move at different speeds. For example, technology is a fast moving layer—it changes very quickly. In contrast, culture is a slower moving layer which, over the course of time, is nudged along over a longer time period.
In fast to slow order, we can model civilization as fashion/art, commerce, infrastructure, governance, culture, and nature.
See also:
- The Clock of the Long Now introduced this model and talks about how violations in this framework cause problems e.g. radical fast change in governance like the USSR.
- Amara’s Law might explain why this is a difficult model to understand
- Doughnut economic model
Links to this note
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A visualization of sustainability represented by concentric rings (hence the doughnut). At the center are twelve factors necessary to support life that array outward. The first ring closest to the center is the minimum required for society to function, but as it extends outward it reaches the ‘ecological ceiling’ such as climate change, pollution, etc.
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Taking the Long View Penetrates the Illusion
Our senses are attuned to things that change quickly (like the lottery), but this causes us to miss what is actually going on (gambling means losing). If one is to cut through this illusion to what’s real, one needs to take the long view.
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Paying Taxes Is Like Investing in an Index Fund of State Sponsored Causes
Many people (myself include) bemoan paying taxes. You might not agree with the lawmakers and policies for spending tax dollars but it does help people. The fundamental disagreement centers around who it helps and how much it helps, not that it helps at all.
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Societies Live by Decades, Civilizations by Centuries
Thinking in different scales of time reveals problems in our rapid rate of technological progress. Societies last decades and civilization by centuries, but modern storage mediums (tape, floppy disk, CD) last far less than that. How much useful information is now lost because old tape drives decayed or because no device can still read an obsolete storage medium?