worldview from dynamical systems

This article aims to explore alternative worldviews in the eyes of dynamical systems, specifically:

  • positive and negative feedback loops

Examples will be given to apply the concepts to real-world scenarios, and the goal is to provide a new perspective, a new language, and possibly a new methodology.

Modern society is built on the reductionist worldview, assuming that partitioning the world into smaller parts and analyzing part by part gives the overall picture. Highly successful in the physical sciences, it's also taken for granted in social sciences, showing as individualism, privatization, profit maximization, and capitalistic proliferation, and hiding the complexity and other possibilities underneath. In addition, it emphasizes the absolute "things", like "true self", "rationality", "efficiency", etc., ignoring the fact that everything is relative.

The basic idea is positive feedback loops, applied widely from rationality to social systems. The reductionist methodology is not absolute truth, but a positive feedback loop, enhanced by the belief from people, and the capitalistic economy.

All social organizations, companies, and a person's life, are all positive feedback loops. How those loops are running is called "pattern", and the pattern may change over time, but not suddenly.

A key idea is "catalyst", borrowing from chemistry, which makes certain reactions happen or makes them happen faster. Without catalyst, the reaction may not happen at all.

Similarly, in social systems, It is the ingredient to enhance the positive feedback loop, and keep the system running.