Characteristics of Revolutions

Part of a series on revolutions.

On this page I’ll keep a list of observations I’ve made about revolutions, as defined here. This represents thinking I’ve been doing since the end of April. Unlinked pages are as yet unwritten.

• Revolutions occur in conditions of abundance
• Abundance means the persistence of a far-from-equilibrium state
• Revolutions stabilize out-of-equilibrium conditions
• Sometimes abundance results from a glut of resources
• Sometimes abundance occurs within a protected sandbox
• Sometimes pressure produces abundance
• Revolutions are produced by virtuous or vicious cycles
• Revolutions are preceded by long periods of experimentation
• Revolutions are preceded by competition
• Revolutions follow irruption or diaspora
• Revolutions break bottlenecks
• Revolutions are recombinant rather than fully novel
• Revolutions often occur from a change in conditions
• Revolutions make fuel from previously inert parts of the environment
• Revolutions must overcome inertia
• Revolutions create unexpected winners and losers
• Revolutions change the nature of a game
• Some revolutions occur when top-down pressure is reduced (increased entropy)
• Some revolutions occur when chaos is reduced through ordering (decreased entropy)
• Revolutions create new identities
• Revolutions are often accompanied by arms races
• Revolutions require diversity
• Revolutions result in a reduction of diversity at one level, but often an increase at another level
• This reduction is rarely (but sometimes) total

I'm Bryan Kam. I'm thinking about complexity and selfhood. Please sign up to my newsletter, follow me on Mastodon, or see more here.