ABSTRACT
Human society involves many networks of human relationships, as
well as the interplay between people, institutions and processes.
Social organization has evolved many ways of reducing and contain-
ing complexity, especially encapsulation, but several processes still
lead to unplanned social trends. These processes include cascading
contexts, positive feedback, changes in network connectivity, and
brittleness of “divide and rule” strategies. Examples of these are
evident in the social side effects of new technologies.
