What theoretical physics says about the future of our government
We’ve all heard campaigning politicians — especially those who want to be president of the United States — say that if elected, they’ll fix what’s wrong in Washington. But what if the tangle of issues faced by our government is just too complex for one person to manage?
Physicist Yaneer Bar-Yam has concluded that’s the case, using a mathematical framework borrowed from quantum field theory. Bar-Yam, who directs the New England Complex Systems Institute, would know: He once crunched big data to predict the Arab Spring, a wave of pro-democracy uprisings across the Middle East.
The framework he uses to analyze complex systems like governments is a concept that also helps scientists study how boiling water turns into vapor. “If you think about [the transition] as a smooth system, you just don’t describe what’s happening,” he explains. “You have to think about it by zooming in and seeing progressively more fluctuations that are happening.”
His findings, in short: Hierarchical systems with just one or a few people at the top are no match for the complexities of our society. That’s a recent shift, he explains: Historically, hierarchies like kingdoms, companies and even our own representative democracy have been very successful.
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