Complexity Thresholds and Complexity Transitions
Discussion
Cadell Last:
"(Through) complexity science ... we can read a story articulating the notion that our universe undergoes fundamental transformations described as ‘complexity thresholds’ (Christian 2008). Complexity thresholds occur when a form of structural organization emerges and stabilizes a novel regime of phenomena (a new level of the materialist hierarchy). Dominant descriptions of these complexity transitions have been grounded in either an informational base (universal complexity as best understood in algorithmic terms) (Baker 2013), or with an energetic base (universal complexity as best understood in thermodynamic terms) (Spier 2005). In these respective frames we seek to understand the way in which the universe generally processes information and the way in which the universe generally organizes energetic flows of matter.
The most common linear demarcation of these information-energy complexity thresholds into a universal narrative includes the following fundamental distinctions:
(MB: I adapted line 8 and 9)
- 1 Origin of the universe (spacetime)
- 2 First stars and galaxies (heterogeneity)
- 3 Formation of chemical elements (diversification)
- 4 Formation of Earth, solar system (localization)
- 5 Emergence of life (self-reference)
- 6 Emergence of humanity (narrativization)
- 7 Transition to agriculture (civilization)
- 8 Modern industrial revolution (national to international)
(note MB: I would add
- 9: informational (global to cosmo-local)