Balance

What do a gas, a crystal, a cell, a cat, a city, a society, an economy, a biosphere, and the universe have in common? They all tend to balance. This is less impressive than one might think, because we define balance in retrospective: that which turned out to be sustainable. However, we can use a narrative of balance to describe, explore, and understand using plain language several concepts developed for the scientific and philosophical studies of complex systems. In Balance: A Narrative for Complexity, Carlos Gershenson begins with a brief history of balance, from ancient civilizations to modern science and daily life. He goes on to describe complexity as a balance between emergence and self-organization, explaining the concepts along the way. Criticality can be seen as a balance between order (robustness) and chaos (adaptability). The slower-is-faster effect is a prevalent aspect of systems that become less efficient when they try to be more efficient. Antifragility occurs when systems benefit from perturbations. Different probability distributions can also be described as different types of balance, and this becomes more evident with fractals and networks. Gershenson also explores the role of heterogeneity in the balance of complex systems; evolution at multiple scales; and the philosophical implications of balance. These concepts are useful to address complex challenges, from individual to global.