I think that there is a pattern to revolutions.

• Revolutions reflect a zeitgeist, a mutual understanding between a large group of people, that change is necessary
• Revolutions happen through individuals, but the specific individual is not instrumental to the revolution: the individual just happens to be the catalyst

I like to explain this process as a superposition of two probability functions: one is the intensity of the mutual understanding — over time it grows and declines. The other is the ability for the specific individuals to push the group over the boundary. Revolutions then happen with a probability that is a compounding of those two effects. If a particularly strong individual comes around, the revolution is simply more likely to happen.

This entry was posted on Monday, June 14th, 2010 at 11:16 and is filed under paramathematics, reductions, whatis. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.