Quantum Social Innovation
I’ve been rereading “The Grand Design” by Stephen Hawking recently, I like how he makes many of the very nonintuitive recent theories of physics accessible to a layperson like myself. And, as a social innovation practitioner, it feels like there might be interesting parallels between quantum theory and how we think about social innovation. Exploring these parallels might yield insights about useful ways to work in the field of social innovation
For example:
Model-Dependent Realism — Stephen uses the analogy of a fish bowl; if there were goldfish physicists inside a fish bowl, they’d have to develop theories of physics about how the universe works to adjust for the distortion created by the fishbowl. →in social innovation, we talk about how “the map is not the territory”, and understanding our mental maps, models, and underlying worldview, affect and shape how we see things, how we do things, and the outcomes this ultimately leads to.
M-Theory- a closely related idea Stephen talks about is M-Theory; this is not really one theory but a collection of theories that describe different “parts of the world” in physics, like electromagnetic forces, strong and weak nuclear forces, and gravity. While there is intent to create a “unifying grand theory” which sews it all neatly together, at the moment it is more like a bunch of different models that have overlapping edges, a bit like venn diagrams. In the areas of intersection it works to use either model, or “whichever is the most convenient”. →social innovation: rather than having “one method to rule them all” perhaps it’s more useful to think about different methods as different lenses which are most relevant to various domains, with overlapping edges.
The Observer Effect — this is the effect that’s been demonstrated through experiments like the “double slit experiment” that observing the path of a particle changes the behaviour of that particle; most interestingly that it can change the behaviour of that particle in the past.
To be continued…
