Chapter 7
Digitally Assisted Self-Organization
Making the Invisible Hand Work
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from
magic.
—Sir Arthur Clarke
Complex dynamical systems are difficult to control because they have a natural tendency
to self-organize, driven by the inherent forces between their system components. But selforganization may have favorable results, too, depending on how the system’s components
interact. By slightly modifying these interactions – usually interfering at the right moment in
a minimally invasive way – one can produce desirable outcomes, which even resist moderate
disruptions. Such assisted self-organization is based on distributed control. Rather than
imposing a certain system behavior in a top-down way, assisted self-organization reaches
efficient results by using the hidden forces, which determine the natural behavior of a complex
dynamical system.
We have seen that the behavior of complex dynamical systems—how they evolve
and change over time—is often dominated by the interactions between the system’s
components. That’s why it is hard to predict how the system will behave, and why
it is so difficult to control complex systems. In an increasingly complex and interdependent world, these kinds of challenges will become ever more relevant. Even if
we had all information and the necessary means at our disposal, we couldn’t hope
to compute, let alone engineer, an optimal system state because the computational
requirements are just too high. For this reason, the complexity of such systems undermines the effectiveness of centralized control. Such centralized control efforts might
not only be ineffective but can make things even worse. Steering society like a bus
cannot work, even though nudging seems to enable it. It rather undermines the selforganization that is taking place on many levels of our society all the time. In the
end, such attempts result in “fighting fires”—struggling to defend ourselves against
the most disastrous outcomes.
If we’re to have any hope of managing complex systems and keeping them from
collapse or crisis, we need a new approach. As Albert Einstein (1879–1955) said: “We
cannot solve our problems with the same kind of thinking that created them.” Thus,
what other options do we have? The answer is perhaps surprising. We need to step
back from centralized top-down control and find new ways of letting the system work
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
D. Helbing, Next Civilization,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-62330-2_7
131
Digitally Assisted Self-Organization
Making the Invisible Hand Work
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from
magic.
—Sir Arthur Clarke
Complex dynamical systems are difficult to control because they have a natural tendency
to self-organize, driven by the inherent forces between their system components. But selforganization may have favorable results, too, depending on how the system’s components
interact. By slightly modifying these interactions – usually interfering at the right moment in
a minimally invasive way – one can produce desirable outcomes, which even resist moderate
disruptions. Such assisted self-organization is based on distributed control. Rather than
imposing a certain system behavior in a top-down way, assisted self-organization reaches
efficient results by using the hidden forces, which determine the natural behavior of a complex
dynamical system.
We have seen that the behavior of complex dynamical systems—how they evolve
and change over time—is often dominated by the interactions between the system’s
components. That’s why it is hard to predict how the system will behave, and why
it is so difficult to control complex systems. In an increasingly complex and interdependent world, these kinds of challenges will become ever more relevant. Even if
we had all information and the necessary means at our disposal, we couldn’t hope
to compute, let alone engineer, an optimal system state because the computational
requirements are just too high. For this reason, the complexity of such systems undermines the effectiveness of centralized control. Such centralized control efforts might
not only be ineffective but can make things even worse. Steering society like a bus
cannot work, even though nudging seems to enable it. It rather undermines the selforganization that is taking place on many levels of our society all the time. In the
end, such attempts result in “fighting fires”—struggling to defend ourselves against
the most disastrous outcomes.
If we’re to have any hope of managing complex systems and keeping them from
collapse or crisis, we need a new approach. As Albert Einstein (1879–1955) said: “We
cannot solve our problems with the same kind of thinking that created them.” Thus,
what other options do we have? The answer is perhaps surprising. We need to step
back from centralized top-down control and find new ways of letting the system work
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
D. Helbing, Next Civilization,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-62330-2_7
131