Social complexity requires dividing selective processes across many actors

Evidence

A very complex world, which is rich in possibilities but is nevertheless determined or determinable, can only be formed and held in view if, and in so far as, the consequential tasks of selecting experience and action can be regulated and divided within social systems. The individual’s capacity, which is limited, can only be increased marginally. Thus a high degree of complexity in the world assumes a multiplicity of selective processes – means by which selections are connected one with the other. And it can only guarantee a simultaneous and present world if selection can be presented not only as the result of one’s own actions but also as a simultaneous and present, or currently memorizable or expected, selectivity of others. — Niklas Luhmann, Trust and Power, 206

Categorization

• DEFINE: Core Luhmann mechanism: complexity reduction demands socially divided, interconnected selection processes.