Resilience
A system's capacity to absorb shocks and keep functioning.
At a glance
Key signals
0% cross fields · reaches 8 more
- Ecology
- Engineering
- Economics
- Explanation
- Examples
- Misconception
- Sourced relations 5
- Attribution
Dependencies
What this concept builds on and what it makes possible — derived from the atlas’s dependency, causal and structural relations, not from every related edge.
Foundations · builds on
Resiliencedepends onFeedbackSupported
Resilience depends on balancing feedback that restores a system.
Mechanism: Resilience depends on feedback: balancing loops that quickly correct disturbances let a system absorb shocks without breaking.
- Thinking in Systems: A Primer (2008) verified
Functional redundancyenablesResilienceEstablished
functional redundancy enables resilience.
Mechanism: Redundant functions let a community keep working after species are lost.
- Wikipedia (English & German editions) verifiedmoderate evidence
- Microbiology (OpenStax) (2016) verification pendingmoderate evidence
Structural role & consequence
Interpreted from the current atlas graph — what the connections mean, not just how many there are.
Currently dark in the atlas: no key date stored · 5 of 5 of its relations lack claim-level evidence.
atlas representation · Describes the current Thinking OS representation, not the state of the world.
Builds on 2 foundations (requires / depends-on / derived-from / emerges-from).
structural · Structural graph analysis — not a claim of importance, causation or history.
Exercises 2 annotated mental models — a concept that connects several thinking patterns.
curated · Curated annotations, not a derived measure.
Structural neighbourhood: 5 → 25 → 144 concepts reachable within 3 hops.
structural · Structural reach — being reachable is not the same as being understood.
cross-field
5 within-field, 0 cross-field
Strengths & constraints
Constraints
- Evidence coverage currently thin in the atlas — few of its relationships carry claim-level evidence. atlas representation
- No dated history stored — the atlas records no key date for this concept. atlas representation
Conditions
- Its dependency reading rests on 2 foundation relations. structural
- Read structurally — most of its relationships carry no external evidence yet, so claims here are graph-derived. structural
Dependency radial
What this concept builds on (left) and what it makes possible (right) — derived from dependency and causal relations.
Seen through each discipline
How this concept sits in each of its fields — derived from its real connections in the graph, not asserted.
Through this lens it connects to Biodiversity, Functional redundancy and Ecological disturbance.
Through this lens it connects to Feedback and Efficiency.
Through this lens it connects to Efficiency.
Related ideas to explore
Concepts that look related but are not yet connected here — candidates for a connection to reason about, not established links.
This idea also appears in…
The same structure shows up in other disciplines. These are real recurrences drawn from the graph — a starting point for asking “what carries over, and what changes?”
Feedback loop45 disciplines · 43 concepts
Networks48 disciplines · 37 concepts
Concepts
shares a mental model
shares a mental model
shares a mental model
shares a mental model
shares a mental model
shares a mental model
Mental models at work here
Feedback loop
A loop where an effect feeds back to change its own cause. Reinforcing loops amplify change; balancing loops resist it.
Ask: does the result push the system further in the same direction, or pull it back?
Networks
A set of parts connected so that a change in one can spread to others through the links.
Follow the links: who is connected to whom, and what can travel along those connections?
- Connects 5 other ideas across 4 disciplines.
- A cross-disciplinary bridge — its connections reach into 8 other fields.
- Most of its connections are of the “Cause & effect” kind.
- It exercises 2 reusable thinking patterns.
Derived from the graph’s real structure — observations, not a score.
Sources
- Thinking in Systems: A Primer (2008) verified
- What kind of a science is sustainability science? (2011) verified