Collective Consciousness
The shared information processing and meaning-making capabilities that emerge when multiple agents coordinate their cognitive activities through cultural transmission and social interaction mechanisms.
Compatibility Matching
The process by which information systems achieve adoption and persistence through structural alignment with host capabilities, cognitive architecture, social context, and resource constraints. Compatibility matching represents a key mechanism of organizational agency, where systems succeed not through persuasion but by providing more efficient pathways for accomplishing tasks or meeting needs. Educational curricula that match students' developmental capacities and software interfaces that align with user expectations exemplify compatibility matching dynamics.
Competitive Dynamics
The processes by which different information systems, agents, or organizational patterns compete for resources, substrates, and influence within shared environments, driving evolutionary development and structural optimization.
Complex Adaptive Systems (CAS) Theory
A theoretical framework for understanding systems composed of many interacting components whose collective behavior is emergent and adaptive. CAS theory explores how such systems (e.g., economies, ecosystems, social groups) self-organize, learn, and evolve in response to changing conditions without centralized control.
Consciousness
The recursive application of the inside-out lens architecture to its own operations, creating self-referential processing capabilities that enable subjective experience and meta-cognitive awareness.
Cognitive Biases
Systematic deviations from rationality in judgment and decision-making, representing information processing patterns that can influence agent behavior and meaning interpretation.
Cognitive Dissonance
The psychological discomfort experienced when holding contradictory beliefs, values, or attitudes simultaneously, often driving information system competition within individual agents.
Cognitive Dominance
The capacity for information systems to establish preferential access to agent cognitive resources, attention, and decision-making processes through various competitive mechanisms.
Cognitive Entrenchment
The process by which repeated use of an information system leads to its deep integration into a host's cognitive processes. This occurs as neural pathways adapt, making system operations feel intuitive and effortless, fostering cognitive habits and specialized pattern recognition. While promoting stability, it can lead to resistance to alternative systems. (See also: Maladaptive Rigidity)
Cultural Evolution
The development and transmission of information systems, behavioral patterns, and organizational templates through social learning mechanisms rather than genetic inheritance.
Cultural Frameworks
Organized systems of shared meanings, values, and practices that structure social interaction and collective information processing within specific communities or societies.
Cultural Narratives
Shared stories, explanations, and meaning-making frameworks that organize collective understanding and guide social behavior within specific cultural contexts.
Coherence (of an Information System)
The internal consistency, logical integrity, and harmonious integration of an information system's components, rules, and content. High coherence contributes to an IS's perceived Value and stability.