Social organization as the collective management of uncertainty

This paper explores the notion of complementarity in the modeling of social systems. Complementary variables in physics exhibit a duality , and similar dualities are found in the analysis of social, political, cultural, and neurophysiological structures. In this paper, I show that the management of uncertainty in a hierarchical model exhibits certain dualities that closely parallel those observed in social systems. I argue that, due to the necessity of coordination within collectives, agents will mirror each other to a large extent, and will develop heuristics and tactics that are aligned with how each agent is managing uncertainty dualities. I connect sociological literature on social structures with neuroscientific, economic, and psychological developments, and show a simplified derivation of these connections from free energy principles. I then explore how these connections can be used to gain insights into observable socio-cultural processes.