Synchronization pattern

During the day, we all share the same world. During the night, each of us lives in his own world. And this change continues day by day. 6,6 billion little universes synchronized each day. No two are exactly equal, but many are similar.

Religious groups, organizations and families work similar: during ordinary days, each member lives in his own world, but during special days all members share for a moment the same world, when they are taking part in ritual processions or meetings. In religions these are 'holy' or 'sacred' days, usually in churches, temples or public places, in families these are weekends, holidays, and feasts, and in organizations these are meetings, assemblies and gatherings. Nations have their national holidays, armies their shows and military parades. Politicians have their party congresses, and scientists their conferences. All of them are important if individuals want to act together as organized and disciplined units. During the ordinary days, each member tries to make sense of the world as he sees it. During the special community days, each member learns the rules of the group by observing how the group sees the world.

Usually the individual mode is longer than the community mode, but the difference varies strongly. Nevertheless, the continuous perodic switch between individual and community mode seems to be a universal synchronization pattern for groups consisting of intelligent adaptive agents. It seems to be a trade-off between the needs of the group and the needs of the invididual.