Module 05
Capacity
What does it actually mean for a human system to have more capacity?
The common assumption
Capacity = “I can handle more.”
A person can endure enormous amounts of suffering while having very few available responses.
Endurance is not the same thing as structural capacity.
Capacity
Capacity involves the amount, intensity, complexity, and contradiction of information a system can receive while maintaining sufficient differentiation to continue organizing effectively.
Amount
How much information is present?
Intensity
How strongly is the system activated?
Complexity
How many interacting variables must remain available?
Contradiction
Can incompatible information coexist without compulsory resolution?
I love this person AND I am angry with them.
I am afraid AND the available evidence does not establish danger.
I want an answer AND I do not currently know.
Someone is disappointed in me AND I may still believe my decision is correct.
Not affirmations — contradictory information remaining available simultaneously
Capacity does not necessarily mean less activation.
↓More activation can occur without activation organizing the whole system.
More can happen without what is happening organizing the whole system.
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