Complex Cultural Systems

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From the course by Macquarie University

Analysing Complexity

33 ratings

Macquarie University

Analysing Complexity

33 ratings

Course 1 of 4 in the Specialization Solving Complex Problems

The first course of the specialization ANALYZING COMPLEXITY will teach you what unifying patterns lie at the core of all complex problems. It advances your knowledge of your own field by teaching you to look at it in new ways. ANALYZING COMPLEXITY is constructed in the following way: Week I. "What is Complexity?" - What is at the core of all complex problems Week II. "Complex Physical Systems" - What complex problems all have in common in the inanimate world Week III. "Complex Adaptive Systems" - What complex problems all have in common in nature Week IV. "Complex Cultural Systems" - What complex problems all have in common in human society Week V. "Complexity, Fragility, and Breakdown" - Why complex problems arise Week VI. "Complexity in the Anthropocene" - What complex problems face us today

From the lesson

Complex Cultural Systems

In this module, we'll look at an even more powerful adaptive system - culture. We'll survey what is at the root of this new form of complexity and how this impacts our thinking about how human society, the most complex system of which we are aware, functions and evolves.

Complex Cultural Systems3:25

Meet the Instructors

David Baker
Associate Lecturer
Big History Institute
David Christian
Professor
Big History Institute
Shawn Ross
Associate Professor
Big History Institute

The big question for this segment is,

what can be distilled from our examination of complex cultural systems?

[MUSIC]

Humans represent a new form of complexity that generates systems that are,

in many ways, more complex than what came before us.

This is due to the emergent property of culture,

which evolved from biological evolution,

which in turn evolved from the chemical and stellar evolution that came before it.

Humans have the ability to accumulate thousands,

if not millions, of adaptations with every single passing generation.

This is what has delivered humans from stone tools to skyscrapers

in just 200,000 years, in an evolutionary blink of an eye.

Due to faster adaptations, the pathways are more numerous and

more difficult to predict than ever before.

Newly emerged complex systems tend to disturb feedback cycles and

make it difficult for an ecosystem to find its way back to equilibrium.

Humans completely alter the landscape of our rapidly changing world.

These breakthroughs have also happened at a smaller scale throughout human history.

Depending on the industry, career path, or set of problems, this succession of upsets

and breakthroughs may happen on the scale of decades or even daily.

Due to the propensity of complex systems to produce breakthroughs and to upset

the equilibrium, we must understand the larger context in which they happen.

And regardless of the sector or station,

anticipate the numerous pathways in which these unforeseen breakthroughs may tend.

There are two primary generators of all human innovation.

The number of potential innovators, those buzzing human brains

that could generate a minor or earth-shattering innovation at any time.

And the connectivity between those brains to exchange information and

build upon each other's innovations.

A proper understanding of those two main drivers not only allows us to anticipate

future evolutionary pathways for human culture and technology.

It also allows us to better harness their complexity-generating power.

Right now, we live in a world of 7 billion people, where only a fraction of them

possess full and unfettered access to extensive education and

also information networks like the internet.

Now imagine a world full of 7 billion potential innovators with

all potentially useful information and collaboration at their disposal.

Increase the number of potential innovators

addressing a particular problem.

And increase the connectivity and

efficiency of information transfer between them.

And you increase your odds of another breakthrough.

But with every breakthrough comes a potential upset

to the ecosystem from which it emerged.

Complex systems are highly dependent on extremely fragile networks,

which they require some form of energy flow to sustain.

In the next module, we shall investigate

the other side of the coin, decline and collapse.

[MUSIC]

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