Systems and their Mechanisms

A system's mechanisms are fast or slow. Fast mechanisms are inherent and thus adopted by default. Slow mechanisms are formed by actors and take time, energy and cooperation. Actors are things which knowingly or unknowingly take advantage of fast mechanisms and are composed of slow mechanisms.

Fast or Inherent Mechanisms

Fast mechanisms are fast because they are static in the system. Some systems heavily comprised of fast mechanisms are nature, unregulated markets and pure democracies. All of these systems can thrive under the correct circumstances, but their inherent problems are insurmountable. Natural selection is a fine mechanism for change if you're willing to wait for millions of years. Unregulated markets are bountiful until monopolies inevitably form. Pure democracies are effective until size makes discourse impossible.

Accepting fast mechanisms (aka doing nothing) with no other action is taking a leap of faith that the system will not collapse. All systems collapse eventually from the perspective of a status quo, thus humans are always fighting to keep a set of status quos. Examples of status quos many take for granted are a breathable atmosphere, farmable soil and potable water. None of the aforementioned things would exist for long in a world dependent only on fast mechanisms, thus durable human systems employ slow mechanisms in order to protect the status quos which people depend on.

Another important thing about fast mechanisms is that many exist unbeknownst to the actors within the system, thus effective actors take time to discover the fast mechanisms within their system. Fast mechanisms can also be greatly misunderstood and entire disciplines can be formed around faulty understanding (e.g. alchemy, witchcraft, religious practices). The process of discovering fast mechanisms is what humans call science.

Examples of fast mechanisms:

Physics: fundamental constants, entropy, conservation laws.
Economics: global market forces, exogenous shocks, and price levels.
Political Science: public opinions, cultural inertia, black swan events.

Slow or Composed Mechanisms

Slow mechanisms are slow because they require pre-meditation and time for integration. There is an infinite set of slow mechanisms to employ and this is part of what makes them slow: time must be allocated for searching the space of mechanisms. Another reason sl...

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