Playful thoughts #5: Spontaneous Order from an absence of traffic lights

This is a reflection on the road traffic videos I saw on youtube. The videos show that in the absence of traffic lights people naturally adjust their behavior to deal more efficiently with traffic situations.

It is an interesting micro-cosmic example of how order can emerge spontaneously from individuals who are acting in their self-interest and who do not intentionally try to create a planned order. This spontaneous order is, in my opinion, analogous to an anarchist society where culture and morality emerge through an evolutionary process that is beyond the understanding of human beings. The videos have reminded me of the Taoist concept of "wu wei" (non-action) and Laozi's following saying in the Dao De Qing:

I will do nothing (of purpose), and the people will be transformed of themselves;
I will be fond of keeping still, and the people will of themselves become correct.

Rulers are hence discouraged from trying to centrally coordinate the people through a multitude of self-made laws and regulations if they wish to create harmonious societies. I strongly believe that man is mentally incapable of designing such a society, because society itself is the result of the interactions of innumerable human actions that no one, unless he is omniscient, can fully understand.

Other examples where spontaneous orders arise are in language and the free market. Man could not have designed a language with such great complexity and refinement as ours through centralized conscious interventions. Likewise, as Milton Friedman has famously stated in his analogy of the pencil, not one single person can make a pencil. However, still we have been able to produce pencils due to the emergence of a spontaneous productive order.

If you enjoy reading this article, please consider following me. I mainly write about philosophy, economics, and my travels.

Follow me @chhaylin

E-mail: chhaylinlim@hotmail.com

Wordpress: www.chhaylinlim.wordpress.com