Anatomy of a System: The Network Level
Part 2: The Network Level
The Object level tells us what is there. The Network level tells us how those things relate to each other. In many ways, the Network is where the real action happens. The same set of objects, connected differently, produces entirely different system behavior.
SiD uses two sets of network parameters: nine for Resilience and five for Harmony.
Resilience Network Parameters (CRAFTDCCV)
The nine resilience network parameters examine how the network is structured, how it behaves, and what flows through it. They are grouped into three categories:
Structure (how the network is built):
| Parameter | What it measures |
|---|---|
| Connectivity | The degree to which nodes are connected to each other |
| Redundancy | The degree to which backup pathways and duplicate functions exist |
| Centrality | How concentrated control and connection are in a few nodes versus distributed across many |
Character (how the network behaves):
| Parameter | What it measures |
|---|---|
| Flexibility | How quickly the network can reconfigure in response to change |
| Diversity | The variety of node types and connection types |
| Complexity | A compound of nodes, connections, and diversity; governs emergent behavior |
Content (what flows through the network):
| Parameter | What it measures |
|---|---|
| Awareness | The degree to which nodes know about relevant information in the network |
| Transparency | How freely and quickly information moves between nodes |
| Validity | The truthfulness and reliability of information in the network |
Connectivity
Connectivity measures how well the nodes in a system are linked. It is the most basic network property. Counting your friends is easy; if you have more, more people come to your birthday party. More roads between cities mean shorter travel times.
Generally: high connectivity is good, if cost and management are not limiting. Quality of connections also matters (covered by other parameters).
Diversity
Diversity indicates the range of types among nodes and connections. It helps systems withstand environmental change, resolve problems internally, and generate inventiveness.
Generally: moderate to high diversity is desirable. Too low makes the system fragile. Too high may cause fragmentation and poor cohesion. A warehouse with one product is vulnerable. A warehouse with thousands is resilient but harder to manage. Diverse people in an organization broaden the platform of experience and perspective.
Complexity
Complexity combines the number of nodes, connections, and diversity. It is a compound indicator with such fundamental effects that it serves as a base parameter.
Complexity is also paired with the law of diminishing marginal returns. Joseph Tainter, in The Collapse of Complex Societies (1988), demonstrated that this effect has been a major cause of societal collapse. This leads SiD to adopt a general strategy of decomplexification: since other properties (redundancy, connectivity) tend to drive complexity up, complexity serves as a check and balance, much like efficiency.
Redundancy
Redundancy measures the degree to which backup pathways and duplicate functions exist. If one road closes, is there another? If one team member is sick, can another fill in?
Generally: some redundancy is critical for resilience. Too much is wasteful. The right balance depends on how critical the function is.
Centrality
Centrality measures how concentrated power, connection, or control is within a few nodes. High centrality means a few nodes dominate. Low centrality means distribution is even.
Generally: for resilience, lower centrality (more distribution) is usually better. Highly centralized systems are efficient but fragile; remove the central node and the system collapses. Decentralized systems are harder to disrupt.
Flexibility
Flexibility measures how quickly a network can make and break connections, reconfigure itself, and adapt to new conditions.
Generally: higher flexibility supports resilience. Rigid networks break under stress. Flexible ones bend and reform.
Awareness
Awareness measures how much the nodes in a network know about what is happening elsewhere in the network. A system with low awareness cannot respond to threats or opportunities because it does not know they exist.
Transparency
Transparency measures how freely information flows. Censorship, secrecy, and information hoarding reduce transparency. High transparency does not guarantee good outcomes (the information may be invalid), but low transparency reliably harms resilience.
Validity
Validity measures the truthfulness and reliability of information in the network. A system can have high transparency and high awareness, but if the information flowing through it is false, the system makes bad decisions. Misinformation degrades resilience just as effectively as censorship.
Applying the Network Parameters: Two Thought Exercises
Bottom-up exercise (Numbernet): Imagine a social network. For each of the nine parameters, determine a simple formula that would measure it. Do this once for the social aspects (users, friendships) and once for the technical aspects (servers, devices). Then identify which parameters most influence the network's success.
Examples:
- Connectivity: total users multiplied by total connections
- Awareness: the number of users who see an important message within 24 hours
- Redundancy: the number of devices a single user can access the network on
- Validity: total messages transmitted divided by a consensus measure of their truthfulness
Top-down exercise (Billistan): Imagine a small country with a few dozen towns, set a few hundred years ago. For each network parameter, identify what modern technology or policy measure could change it, and predict the systemic effects.
Example: news and awareness. If Billistan has no news propagation (no radio, TV, newspaper), connectivity and awareness are low. One town hears of another's failed harvest only when a traveler passes through. Famined villages collapse when they could have been helped. Adding a news network increases connectivity and awareness. If the news stays true (validity), the country becomes more resilient against famine, at the cost of some efficiency (people must dedicate time to making news instead of producing resources).
Example: censorship. An oppressive political system that censors bad news reduces transparency. Perceived awareness diverges from reality. The system makes decisions based on false comfort, harming resilience.
Example: educational diversity. Low diversity of education, social class, and background creates consensus and echo chambers. Diversity of lifestyles and demographics increases resilience through disease resistance, creative power, and flexibility.
Harmony Network Parameters (PEAIE)
Harmony measures internal tension. It considers social justice and the rights of humans and other organisms. The five parameters are:
| Parameter | What it examines |
|---|---|
| Power Balance | Who controls resources, wealth, and decision making? |
| Expression | Who can communicate, who is heard, what can be said? |
| Access | Who can reach important information, resources, education? |
| Inclusion | To what extent are all people and other life considered valuable? |
| Equity | To what degree are specific needs met fairly (not equally, but equitably)? |
Power Balance
Power balance reflects how the resources that give agents power (physical resources, information, capital, decision-making agency) are distributed. An oppressed population revolting is a direct consequence of low power balance: the resulting strife endangers the entire system.
Power balance is dynamic. Historically, it was anchored in food and natural resources. Now it is shifting to information. The most valuable companies in the world deal in data. Power is migrating from ownership of property to control of networks.
Expression
Expression concerns how agents communicate. The resilience parameters of Transparency and Awareness cover part of this, but Expression goes deeper into freedom of speech, repression, and commitment to voluntary information flow.
If Expression is high but Validity is low, the system will have tension. If Expression is high but Access is low, only some agents benefit from that expression, which also creates tension.
Access
Access focuses on whether agents can reach critical assets, information, education, and opportunities. A person with official access to higher education but no financial means to pursue it has low Access in practice. Access is defined in terms of actual capacity to participate, not just formal permission.
Restricted access to valuable resources for large groups produces tension. The effects of educational deprivation may only become visible in the next generation, and correcting them takes at least one generation.
Inclusion
Inclusion measures the extent to which agents are included in the ethical set: the group to which rules of fairness, rights, and ethics apply. Historically, only men of good standing were included. Over centuries, women, children, and (to varying degrees) animals have gained inclusion. Slavery is officially illegal worldwide, yet prison slavery persists in some US states, and practices resembling slavery remain widespread.
Inclusion also serves as a fairness measure within organizations: which rules apply to which people?
Equity
Equity measures whether agents with specific needs have those needs met proportionally, according to their ability and circumstance. This differs from equality, which distributes identical amounts to everyone. A wheelchair ramp costs more than a standard entrance, but equitable access requires it. Equity creates a level playing field.
Justice and Human Rights Frameworks
When evaluating Harmony parameters in practice, several frameworks help:
- Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR): 30 articles, fitting on one page, adopted in 1946
- UN Human Rights Indicators (2012): comprehensive framework for evaluating nations, governments, and supply chains
- Natural Capital: frameworks for quantifying the value of natural resources and ecosystem services
- EU Social Justice Index: 28 quantitative and 8 qualitative indicators across poverty prevention, education, labor, social cohesion, health, and intergenerational justice
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