A universal framework describing how adaptive systems maintain directional stability through continuous cycles of drift and realignment.
Research-backed framework • Applies across 8 domains • 30-page whitepaper
From immune systems to relationships, from organizational culture to economic markets, from neural networks to planetary ecosystems—adaptive systems across all scales face the same fundamental challenge:
"How do you maintain a consistent direction when drift is inevitable?"
Existing theories illuminate pieces of this puzzle—cybernetics, control theory, resilience science, complex systems—but none provide a domain-general account of directional stability.
Coherence Dynamics Theory fills that gap.
CDT builds on four fundamental concepts that describe how systems maintain coherence over time.
Entropy-like directional deviation. Not moral failure, but a universal property of adaptive systems operating in noisy environments. Drift is inevitable and continuous.
Structured correction processes with four stages: Detection (identify deviation) → Regulation (activate correction) → Return (restore direction) → Reintegration (re-embed into operation).
Emergent directional continuity. A system maintains coherence when it repeatedly returns to its directional baseline despite perturbations. Not static equilibrium, but dynamic stability.
Distributed coherence maintenance. Coupled systems propagate correction through resonance pathways—when one component realigns, others follow. Strong resonance amplifies coherence; weak resonance allows fragmentation.
These principles predict when systems maintain coherence, when they collapse, and when they transition to new regimes.
Coherence requires that coherence propagation outpaces drift propagation.
When correction spreads faster through a system's coupling network than deviation does, the system maintains coherence. When drift spreads faster, the system fragments. This explains why some systems are resilient (strong coherence resonance) while others collapse despite having correction mechanisms (drift propagates too quickly).
When a directional regime becomes untenable, components must realign to a new regime or become decoupled.
Persistent drift despite sustained realignment effort signals that the regime itself—not execution—is the problem. Chronic drift is diagnostic information, not moral failure. DRTP predicts when systems need to change direction entirely rather than just correct course.
Orthogonal directional changes can preserve or destroy coherence depending on attractor basin membership.
An Anchored Orthogonal Leap (AOL) originates within the same coherence attractor basin—identity, capabilities, and meaning structures remain intact. A Schismatic Divergence Event (SDE) originates outside the basin—identity ruptures and resonance pathways sever. The angle of change doesn't determine coherence; basin membership does.
CDT provides a unified framework for understanding coherence dynamics across biological, cognitive, collective, ecological, technological, psychological, relational, and economic systems.
Circadian rhythms, immune response, metabolic regulation
Attention regulation, cognitive control, belief updating
Organizational culture, social norms, institutional coherence
Ecosystem stability, trophic cascades, regime shifts
Network protocols, error correction, distributed systems
Ego depletion, habit formation, self-verification
Gottman's 5:1 ratio, demand-withdraw patterns, attachment dynamics
Financial instability, Minsky moments, institutional economics
Cybernetics focuses on maintaining values around fixed setpoints (e.g., temperature regulation). CDT focuses on maintaining directional patterns—not static equilibria but dynamic trajectories. CDT also introduces the propagation competition framework (CPP), which doesn't appear in classical control theory.
Resilience theory (Holling, 1973) focuses on functional persistence—can the system maintain its function after disturbance? CDT focuses on directional continuity—can the system maintain its directional pattern? A resilient ecosystem might recover function in a different configuration; a coherent system restores its directional trajectory.
Complex systems theory describes emergent behavior and self-organization. CDT complements this by specifically modeling how systems maintain directional coherence through drift-correction dynamics. CDT adds the regime transition heuristics (DRTP/ORTP) for predicting when systems will maintain, adapt, or collapse.
The complete CDT whitepaper includes formal definitions, cross-domain case studies, regime transition heuristics, and multi-attractor coherence frameworks.
Adaptable Discipline is the practical application of CDT principles specifically for neurodivergent minds and executive dysfunction. Concepts like "drift," "realignment loops," and "comeback speed" derive directly from CDT constructs.
Learn About Adaptable Discipline