Attractor
An attractor is a set to which a dynamical system evolves over time. This is can a point, a curve or manifold to which a system tends to move. If the manifold is chaotic, then it is a strange attractor. If it is a temporary attractor in the dynamical behaviour of a system, it can be called a transient attractor. Seen from another point of view, an attractor is a set of points which 'attracts' orbits and trajectories.
Strange Attractor
Strange attractors in a dynamical system (described by one or more differential or difference equations) are bounded regions of phase space which have a fractal dimension. Trajectories within a strange attractor appear to skip around randomly. Examples of strange attractors include the Hénon attractor, Rössler attractor, and the Lorenz attractor.
Social Attractor
What is a “social attractor” ? Perhaps a macroscopic pattern of organization or special micro-macro link which arises inevitably through repeated interactions on microscopic scale. The pattern of a “social attractor” may be considered as the character of a social group (or the personality of the person who represents the group). Depending on the preferences, likes and dislikes, people are drawn to certain groups. A Wikipedia article about religiosity and intelligence says for example: “people with a low intelligence are more easily drawn toward religions, which give answers that are certain, while people with a high intelligence are more skeptical”. (There is also a passage in the bible which reads ‘Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven’). Religions can be characterized as a kind of social attractor in many ways, they are also a basic form of social organization for societies and groups.
A group itself can be an attractor for discussions in the group. A typical attractor for discussions and conversations in social groups are common features of the members: if a few members of a group come together and start to discuss topics, they will sooner or later start discussing certain common features and properties of the group, even if they have met originally for a completely different reason, for example a birthday, a marriage, or a death of a member:
- Neighbors will discuss the neighborhood
- Employees will discuss the company
- Relatives will discuss the family
No matter why the group members came together in the first place, in the end they discussed always something which they all had in common: for example the neighborhood, the company or the family.
Books
- Steven Strogatz, Nonlinear dynamics and chaos : with applications to physics, biology, chemistry, and engineering, Perseus Books, 1994
- Julien C. Sprott, Strange Attractors: Creating Patterns in Chaos
