Attractors

• Attractors are phenomena that arise when small stimuli and probes (whether from leaders or others) resonate with people
• As attractors gain momentum, they provide structure and coherence
• Attractors are forces that hold the agents in place
• Attractors create BOUNDARIES while allowing FREEDOM within the boundaries

• Strange attractor = unpredictable complex patterns emerging over time
• Imagine if Red and Blue magnets in base turned ON or OFF, or REVERSED POLARITY

You don’t directly say “I’ll create an attractor”. Instead, “I’ll do a safe-to-fail experiment by changing system conditions and an attractor may emerge.”

[Marcus Jenal]

• Attractors embody a set of coherent values and beliefs – for example a religious tradition acts as a complex attractor
• They encode specific behavioural norms – for example how to behave on a busy intersection in traffic
• Attractors modulate how new information is processed – for example the way information on scientific evidence for climate change is interpreted by climate change skeptics