A Different Kind of Conducting

When we think of orchestration we think of a conductor controlling, or dictating the pace, the tempo, and directing the various musicians to deliver a well-performed symphony.

That is of course not what Orchestra is about. Orchestra does not rely on the smarts and insight of a single person or even an elected team.

The origin of the word Orchestra is Greek — orkheisthai. It means “to dance”. Quite appropriate as we shall soon see. Nature provides us with many examples of large groups of living things “dancing” together without a central “conductor”. Starling murmuration at dusk is breathtaking. Consider that this elaborate and choreographed performance of thousands of birds is in fact decentralized and autonomous…

Indeed, for swarm behavior to happen we must have a lot of entities. Also, these magnificent examples of decentralized coordinated movement happen within a rigid set of constraints and “rules”. For example, a V-shaped flock of birds is created without a leader. It is formed by adhering to a single rule: “Fly where it is easy to fly”. Fluid mechanics show that flying behind another bird reduces drag. It is impossible to be exactly behind and so the following bird is either a bit to the right or to the left. Now the lowest drag is behind that bird and a little to the right (or left). This quickly forms a V shape. The unlucky bird at the front is desperately looking for another bird’s ass and indeed it tires first, leaving the front place to some other unlucky bird (this ensures the front flyers rotate). The point is that being decentralized does not mean that there are no rules.

The point we are making, without delving into complex system theory and stochastic phenomena, is that our approach in Orchestra is to start by setting some “axiomatic” rules. In addition, at first Orchestra will be directed by a small group. However, as it accrues more members it will automatically and gradually transfer governance to the community.

More to come.