**Pace layers** are the various elements of a [[Complex Adaptive Systems|complex adaptive system]] that evolve along different temporal scales. They might be considered as the different modes of a default hierarchy that emerges across geologic time, where biomes evolve across eons while organisms evolve across millennia. Pace layers are effectively the temporal descriptions of different parts in any given system. Every bounded system has pace layers that inform which elements to respond to during a disturbance. Pace layering as a design concept was first [described](https://jods.mitpress.mit.edu/pub/issue3-brand/release/2) by Stewart Brand as a continuation of [How Buildings Learn](https://openlibrary.org/books/OL1428924M/How_buildings_learn), an elaboration of the concept of [shearing layers](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shearing_layers) developed by architect Frank Duffy. Pace layering generalizes the patterns found between six layers of architecture (Site, Structure, Skin, Services, Space Plan, and Stuff) to a broader context. In architecture, each layers follows different trends in their lifetimes, as tenants change, technology develops, and cultures change. Organizing the built environment around each layer ensures the adaptability of a structure across a longer time span. >[!quote] Stewart Brand >Each layer is functionally different from the others and operates somewhat independently, but each layer influences and responds to the layers closest to it in a way that makes the whole system resilient. Pace layers can be seen in the successional model of ecosystem development and in the individual response mechanisms described by [[The Grime general model]]. These inform the [[Resilience]] of the overall system. The speed at which each layer operates can inform an observer or a designer of that layer's function and information capacity. Fast layers operate intermittently, adapting quickly to environmental changes, building structure, and innovating new solutions. Slow layers proceed steadily, storing memory, metabolizing resources, and stabilizing the accrued structure and experience of the entire system. Fast layers respond to disturbance, while slow layers maintain continuity. Each layer can be considered its own system with agents defining the manner and pace with which it behaves. The slow layers regulate and inform the constraints under which the fast layers operate. #### Human Body Immune system→digestive system→[[Wisdom]]?? - What other systems? #### Forest Weed→Trees - How do animals fit in? Disturbance? #### Civilization Per Brand the layers are: Fashion/art → Commerce→ Infrastructure → Governance → Culture → Nature ##### Social As it applies to intellectuals: different people operate at different paces of thought and respond to different priorities within a complex system...so there is understandably friction between various personalities within an organization. An employee who is able to observe inequities in the way the organization operates is thinking at the level of paradigm, the slowest layer, but generally will make demands at an operational level, or similar faster layer. This could influence morale of a group of employees who are aware of the inconsistencies between mission and execution, but also need to feed families and to feel good about the work they are doing in order to be productive. So the contrarian is fired. Example I'm thinking of is Timnit Gebru. We are taught to believe that the fashion and commerce layers are most important, likely as a result of [[5. Availability Bias|availability bias]], however the nature and culture layers possess the most power. Rapid change at the lower layers often feels threatening because they are the most salient and visible. Such changes, however, are natural to the layer and can often be dismissed as threats. We don't have to fear destabilizing positive-feedback loops (such as [[The Technological Singularity|the Singularity]]) crashing the whole system. Understanding both natural and cultural patterns is the key to long term success. Slower pace layers often operate counter-intuitively to the outcomes of faster layers, ie what improves nature over the long term is often not fashionable in the short term. The focus on [[Economics MOC|economic]] growth, for instance, is often cited as a panacea for poverty, hunger and environmental destruction. However, the source of these issues is usually economic growth. Pace layering helps to discern how we might approach the concept of economic growth by regulating its speed, its type, whether it is positive or negative. Understanding pace layers is useful as a landscape design principle and in cultivating [[Planetary realism]] as a political paradigm. ## Notes - How fit in with [[Leverage Points|leverage points]]? - How relate to [[Meaning#^db0bf1|valences]]?