16 chunks · 15 episodes
...swarm or not to swarm is about cohesion vs resilience. Swarms can be enormously adaptive systems. They require limited coordination but can have powerful emergent results. Top-down approaches give cohesive results. All of the actions add up to m...
... across all of the sub-domains. So you can use key words like "GTD" or "complex adaptive systems", and that efficiently retrieves a whole bunch of rich meaning very efficiently into the working session.
... the reason for this is the same reason that boundaries emerge in every complex adaptive system. Within a boundary, signals propagate like a broadcast. That means that the larger the boundary volume (the more emitters contained) and the higher t...
Boundaries must emerge in every complex adaptive system. Without them you'd get background cacophony that drowns out everything but the average. Don't try to fight the formation of boundaries. Just make su...
... reasoning doesn't muddy up the main context window, and vice versa. In complex adaptive systems, boundaries always emerge to handle the compounding cacophony. This reverse engineering of Claude Code by Simon Willison is fascinating.
Goodharts law emerges fundamentally from the nature of complex adaptive systems. Interdependent networks of decisions from individuals leads to emergent behavior of the collective. The behavior of the collective is distinct from...
... independent agents making interdependent decisions. It shows up in any complex adaptive system, humans or no.
...ic to that person[qd]. For example, if I'm familiar with the concept of complex adaptive systems, a summary of an email might be able to elide that concept where for other readers it would have to be included. So that means there is information ...
In adaptive systems, the system, in its swarming and jostling, is constantly trying lots of little variations from the baseline. Most of them don't work and fade away, ...
...tems where interactions can be precisely modeled, but could not work in complex adaptive systems.
...do, always for a thing they decided to do on their own. Coevolutionary loops in adaptive systems are also a mutual zone of proximal development. Coevolutionary loops give huge amounts of momentum. Because you have an adversary that is well match...
Complex adaptive systems can't be understood just at the agent or the collective level. For example, the bee vs the hive. If you focus on just optimizing one level you'll cr...
...ence. An overwhelming white noise that nothing could stand out from. In complex adaptive systems, boundaries must emerge between components to prevent this heat death of the system and allow useful gradients of potential energy.
... The games were effectively little agent-based modeling toys. They made complex adaptive systems cool. In most games, you play the role of a single avatar, making heroic decisions, the most important individual in the world. A finite game mindse...
The lifeforce of complex adaptive systems comes from their ability to adapt. Being alive, and self-repairing, is what makes them resilient. But it's possible for a previously complex adaptiv...
...nk. It can be impossible to predict any particular black swan, but in a complex adaptive system, the existence of at least one black swan, over long enough time horizons, is a certainty. Everyone is constantly placing bets. The world is an inher...