Principles of Flow

Everything is flowing. Really – everything. Objects, energy, electricity, magnetic forces, atoms, subatomic particles, heat, ideas, information, emotions, photons, planets, galaxies,

Flow is patterned – it is not uniform.  There are many diverse/distinct flows occurring simultaneously and interacting in rich ways. (Sub-atomic particle groupings are patterns. Electron valences are patterns of flow. Molecular bonding, aggregated solids and crystal lattices,

Flows tend to follow previously established patterns.  Sometimes flows follow new paths, creating new patterns.  Example: It takes less energy for water to flow in previously established runoff patterns (dribbles, puddles, creeks, rivers, etc.) than to form new ones.  This is the root of morphogenesis (birth of a form).

An object is formed as an accumulation in a flow.  Any and every object is simply a temporary accumulation in a flow; eventually it will change forms (making flow primary over object persistence). Objects only have physical existence in three dimensions; flows exist in four dimensions (moving through time).

Interactions with other flows and objects shape patterns of flow.  Water flowing in a river changes its path because of other water flows as well as stones, logs and edges of the river.

Dense accumulations form boundaries for less dense flows. The persistence of a pattern of flow against change is the first aspect of density.  The second aspect of density is proximity in quantity.

Within any set of boundaries, there are inflows and outflows.

There is a relative balance of inflows and outflows.  When an inflow is greater than its outflow, it creates an accumulation

There are multiple levels of flow

Something seems static when inflows and outflows are balanced

No two distinct objects are the same, because they can never be in the same place of the same flow at the same time.  This means they can and eventually will each be affected by different factors in their flow process.

Accumulations can shift larger balances.  They can create tipping points when there is an accumulation to a great enough degree that it changes the dynamic of another flow.

Mutuality – nothing effects a flow without being effected. Flow is one way of describing the dance of those mutual interactions.

Systems?  There’s something really important about recurring patterns of flow with boundaries that last long enough to define a “system.”

Entrainment – flows adapt to similar flow patterns

Feedback loops

Upward/Downward Spirals

Motive force?

All boundaries are permeable – eventually.