What are the characteristics of social evolution?
These are listed in the Introduction in a study of collective problem solving, in the context of distributed, self-organizing systems. Social evolution posses many of the same characteristics as biological evolution, the least appreciated being (1) persistent disequilibrium (the absence of a stable state), (2) the absence (or of low extent) of centralized control and (3) the lack of unique solutions. These attributes are emphasized over the others, because they offer unique insights or challenge our common understanding. These are briefly discussed below; a more detail discussion can be found elsewhere. Without discussion, we also note that diversity is essential to both social and biological systems. (1) The disequilibrium of social systems has the consequence of an apparent chaotic dynamic. As individuals within this dynamical system we often see more chaos than stability. But on a global level our social system is observably stable, although we would have difficulty to say why. (2)
