{"id":24969,"date":"2017-04-06T08:43:36","date_gmt":"2017-04-06T06:43:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.limbicnutrition.com\/blog\/?p=24969"},"modified":"2020-09-26T21:55:25","modified_gmt":"2020-09-26T19:55:25","slug":"criticality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.limbicnutrition.com\/blog\/criticality\/","title":{"rendered":"Criticality"},"content":{"rendered":"

I love discovering the correct name for a mental model. For years I was using the metaphor of supersaturated solution to describe a state I now know is called being “critical”:<\/p>\n

\n

“In physics we say a system is in a critical state when<\/strong> it is ripe for a phase transition<\/b>. Consider water turning into ice, or a cloud that is pregnant with rain. Both of these are examples of physical systems in a critical state.<\/p>\n

The dynamics of criticality, however, are not very intuitive. Consider the abruptness of freezing water. For an outside observer, there is no difference between cold water and water that is just about to freeze. This is because water that is just about to freeze is still liquid. Yet, microscopically, cold water and water that is about to freeze are not the same.<\/p>\n

When close to freezing, water is populated by gazillions of tiny ice crystals, crystals that are so small that water remains liquid. But this is water in a critical state, a state in which any additional freezing will result in these crystals touching each other, generating the solid mesh we know as ice. Yet, the ice crystals that formed during the transition are infinitesimal. They are just the last straw. So, freezing cannot be considered the result of these last crystals. They only represent the instability needed to trigger the transition; the real cause of the transition is the criticality of the state.<\/p>\n

But why should anyone outside statistical physics care about criticality?<\/p>\n

The reason is that history is full of individual narratives that maybe should be interpreted in terms of critical phenomena.<\/p>\n

Did Rosa Parks start the civil rights movement? Or was the movement already running in the minds of those who had been promised equality and were instead handed discrimination? Was the collapse of Lehman Brothers an essential trigger for the Great Recession? Or was the financial system so critical that any disturbance could have made the trick?”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

From the 2017 Edge question “WHAT SCIENTIFIC TERM OR CONCEPT OUGHT TO BE MORE WIDELY KNOWN?<\/a>“<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I love discovering the correct name for a mental model. For years I was using the metaphor of supersaturated solution to describe a state I now know is called being “critical”: “In physics we say a system is in a critical state when it is ripe for a phase transition. Consider water turning into ice, … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[290,17,25],"tags":[300,296],"class_list":["post-24969","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mental-models","category-science","category-words","tag-processed","tag-published"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/prY0k-6uJ","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":8739,"url":"https:\/\/www.limbicnutrition.com\/blog\/the-power-of-networks\/","url_meta":{"origin":24969,"position":0},"title":"The Power of Networks","author":"Limbic","date":"September 3, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"A new video from the lovely RSA Animate team, this time on the Power of Networks. https:\/\/youtu.be\/nJmGrNdJ5Gw Introduced me to the concept of \"Rhizome\": Gilles Deleuze and F\u00e9lix Guattari use the term \"rhizome\" and \"rhizomatic\" to describe theory and research that allows for multiple, non-hierarchical entry and exit points in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Anthropology"","block_context":{"text":"Anthropology","link":"https:\/\/www.limbicnutrition.com\/blog\/category\/science\/anthropology\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/nJmGrNdJ5Gw\/0.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":25587,"url":"https:\/\/www.limbicnutrition.com\/blog\/mental-model-inversion\/","url_meta":{"origin":24969,"position":1},"title":"Mental Model: Inversion","author":"Limbic","date":"April 15, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"One of the best mental models I know: Inversion. From Warren Buffet and Charlie Munger to star Quarterback Tom Brady, the secret to success is to simply avoid stupidity. In the Brady case, here is an example I read in the Farnam Street newsletter. A quote from his coach Bill\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Critical Thinking"","block_context":{"text":"Critical Thinking","link":"https:\/\/www.limbicnutrition.com\/blog\/category\/critical-thinking\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":21595,"url":"https:\/\/www.limbicnutrition.com\/blog\/let-the-world-do-the-work-for-you\/","url_meta":{"origin":24969,"position":2},"title":"Let the world do the work for you","author":"Limbic","date":"October 15, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"\u201cWhat the pupil must learn, if he learns anything at all, is that the world will do most of the work for you, provided you cooperate with it by identifying how it really works and aligning with those realities. If we do not let the world teach us, it teaches\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Philosophy & Critical Thinking"","block_context":{"text":"Philosophy & Critical Thinking","link":"https:\/\/www.limbicnutrition.com\/blog\/category\/humanities\/philosophy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":16709,"url":"https:\/\/www.limbicnutrition.com\/blog\/mill-on-eccentricity\/","url_meta":{"origin":24969,"position":3},"title":"Mill on Eccentricity","author":"Limbic","date":"May 31, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"\"In this age the mere example of non-conformity, the mere refusal to bend the knee to custom, is itself a service. Precisely because the tyranny of opinion is such as to make eccentricity a reproach, it is desirable, in order to break through that tyranny, that people should be eccentric.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Contemporary Culture"","block_context":{"text":"Contemporary Culture","link":"https:\/\/www.limbicnutrition.com\/blog\/category\/humanities\/contemporary-culture\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4519,"url":"https:\/\/www.limbicnutrition.com\/blog\/lights-among-the-ruins\/","url_meta":{"origin":24969,"position":4},"title":"Lights among the ruins","author":"Limbic","date":"October 2, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Excellent post by Bldgblog discusses a topic that I also keep returning to, the horrors of northern Germany in 1944 and 1945. From Lights among the ruins: ...while working on The BLDGBLOG Book tonight (due out Spring 2009! from Chronicle Books! buy loads!), I was re-reading W.G. Sebald's extraordinary On\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/www.limbicnutrition.com\/blog\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":17531,"url":"https:\/\/www.limbicnutrition.com\/blog\/michael-mauboussin\/","url_meta":{"origin":24969,"position":5},"title":"Michael Mauboussin","author":"Limbic","date":"March 26, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Just heard an interview with Michael Mauboussin on The Knowledge Project podcast (a Farnum Street blog production) and he was super interesting. A few quotes form the podcast. These are paraphrased: \"An expert is someone who has a predictive model that works.\" \"When it comes to decision making, Daniel Kahneman\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Anthropology"","block_context":{"text":"Anthropology","link":"https:\/\/www.limbicnutrition.com\/blog\/category\/science\/anthropology\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.limbicnutrition.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24969","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.limbicnutrition.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.limbicnutrition.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.limbicnutrition.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.limbicnutrition.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24969"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.limbicnutrition.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24969\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.limbicnutrition.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24969"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.limbicnutrition.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24969"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.limbicnutrition.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24969"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}