I've been thinking about the way things change. And the way they stay the same.

I've been thinking about the way we think of their physical body as a fairly permanent structure, while we also know that our bodies are undergoing constant renewal. As they say there's a whole new you every 7 years.

But the new you is easily recognizable to almost anyone who knew the old you. Which means that we ought to see ourselves not as an immutable, permanent structure, but more like a standing wave.

Kinda like this one on the Eisbach river running through Munich's Englishergarten. But what is true for the individual. Is true for society and its structures and organisations. Multi-national corporations have emerged and remained highly recognisable as structures and entities over long periods of time.

The same is true of social, political and legal systems. Even though all the people that made up these social institutions have been replaced over and over again the system, like a standing wave has kept its essential recognisable character.

Institutions appear permanent and solidly fixed. But what we are actually seeing is a robust standing wave. Ever changing. Robust and dynamic. Most of the time. But also predictably susceptible to unexpected collapses. Permanent, robust, ever-present institutions are not as solid a rock but as collapsable as a wave.

I suppose, this is what Heraclitus was getting at when he said "All is flux" "Everything flows, nothing stands still."

I also like to think that the tradition of periodically rebuilding the Ise Shinto Shrines in Japan touches on this view of permanence. The Ise Shrine is a wooden structure that has existed for thousands of years because it is periodically dismantled and rebuilt in a meticulous manner.

Making the Shrine forever new and forever ancient. The Shrine stands as a demonstration and testament to the fact that lasting permanence can be supported on the back of a standing wave of social and cultural traditions. So maybe, the next time we are thinking of building and maintaining something robust and long-lasting.

Maybe we should consider adopting a standing wave as a metaphor. Instead of a rock.

I'm currently reading and re-reading.

The Wealth of Networks. Yochai Benkler. (2006) A dense and immensely satisfying work from the leading intellectual of the internet age. Bonus link: Its also freely available in many formats including wiki, remixes and formats where you can take and share notes as you read. Complex Adaptive Systems. Miller and Page (2007). The focus here is specifically on society as a complex adaptive system. A great romp through the key concepts and experimental approaches demonstrating how complex economic, political, organisational systems emerge 'bottom up' from the activity of agents following simple interactional rules. Social Emergence. R. Keith Sawyer (2005). Another book focusing on societies as complex dynamical systems. In this book Sawyer presents a critical review of sociological theories through the ages resurrects and redevelops ideas first put forward by Durkheim (swarm intelligence) and combines insights derived from computational agent-based models (more on these below) with insights of his own developed from his work with improvisational theater groups. Growing Artificial Societies (1996) Epstein and Axtell. The authors both member of the Sante Fe institute bring the reader through groundbreaking landmark Sugarscape model to demonstrate that a wide range of important social phenomena can emerge from the interaction of individual agents following a few simple rules. More on Epstein. More on Axtell. Generative Social Science (2006) Epstein. A powerful consolidation of the research activity relevant to society as a complex adaptive systems in the decade since the publication of Growing Artificial Societies. Emergence (2001) Steven Johnson. Popular science book. Very good. For the most part the focus in on physical structures that emerge from stigmergic interaction eg anthills, cities, network structures on the internet as opposed to explaining emergent phenomena that give rise to sophisticated social, political and economical structures. (Bonus link: StevenBerlinJohnson's blog. where I discovered he is the co-founder of Web2.0 startup outside.in )