Temporal hierarchies

Temporal hierarchies are the layered structure of timescales within complex adaptive systems, ranging from the nearly instantaneous to the geological. In any system with temporal hierarchy — a forest, a brain, a society — processes at each level operate too fast to be controlled by the level above and too slow to be perturbed by the level below. This relative autonomy is what makes the system functional rather than chaotic. The hierarchy is not a chain of command but a chain of rhythm: each level sets the beat that the level below dances to.

See also Cross-scale interactions, Scale separation, Panarchy, Adaptive Cycle.