The Language of Patterns

• Patterns are inherently memetic in nature. They thrive within culture in the same way that memes do, and they encapsulate a certain worldview

Patterns in Time and Space §

Pattern Languages §

• Pattern Languages are the Genetic code to the things we build. All acts of building have an underlying pattern language — a byproduct of the languages which people use.

  • Language is our way of ascribing patterns in the world.
  • Each pattern encapsulate some rule of thumb followed by people.
  • Every person has a unique pattern language in his mind based on their own experiences.

• The things we build are unique yet suited for a particular function. This is possible because we copy patterns where they are useful.

• The pattern language is constructed using the network of connections among individual patterns.

  • This language emerges as a consequence of the composability of patterns and how interconnected these patterns are. Patterns influence other patterns.
  • As with regular languages, we can think of other patterns within the language as words which provide additional context to each other
  • We say that the pattern language is good when it is
    • Morphologically complete — the patterns together form a complete structure. It is easy to reify the abstract structure encoded by the patterns into something concrete
    • Functionally complete - the system of patterns is self-sufficient
  • A pattern language is complete if every pattern in the language is complete. The pattern is complete when we can identify all of its principal components

• The Syntax of the pattern language lets us rule out meaningless patterns. The pattern language gives us precision

  • A pattern language is a collection of patterns which correspond to profound observations about what makes something beautiful.
  • The most mystical and wonderful are not less ordinary than most things — they are more ordinary than most thing, and because of that they strike to the core.
  • Depth is not achieved by the fact a rule can be expressed, but rather by the fact the rule is extremely deep.
  • It takes great powers of observation to formulate the rules in this language.
  • The syntax of the pattern language lets us specify an ordering for these patterns such that reading this order lets us gradually design an image of a structure one pattern at a time. The more this ordering is enforced, the more coherent a person’s vision of the final structure becomes. It requires that
    • If pattern is above pattern in the network of the language, take before .
    • Take all the patterns immediately above as close together in sequence.
    • Take all the patterns immediately below the pattern as close together in sequence

• The language created for a structure must be judged as if it were a finished, concrete structure. Just from the underlying language alone, one should be able to assess the quality of the structure

• Pattern languages, themselves, are composable with each other.

  • The patterns in these pattern languages tend to overlap.
  • Different patterns in different languages have underlying similarities, which suggest they can be reformulated to make them more general in a greater variety of cases .
  • Languages can be combined to form bigger languages
  • A common pattern language for an entire community arises due to a shared pool of patterns based on shared experiences.
  • As patterns evolve, the pool of patterns available within the pattern language also changes.

• The pattern language is a living picture of a culture and a way of life.

Pattern Structure §

Patterns and Society §

• Everything that has ever been made was made within the framework of a pattern language.

  • Patterns are not just responsible for the specific shape a building has, but to the extent to which it comes to life.
  • Patterns are composable in an infinite number of ways
  • A living pattern language gives rise to creations that are alive
  • The rules within these pattern languages are simple and easy to convey between speakers of this language.

• Pattern languages that are widely shared thrive.

• Those that lose its speakers, and those where the people using the creations from a pattern language, themselves, do not speak this language, die.

  • When people lose their pattern languages, they lose touch with their most elementary intuitions. They make decisions which fundamentally do not make sense with respect to nature.
  • As soon as a few people begin to build for the many, their patterns about what is needed becomes abstract — gradually losing touch with reality. ¹
  • This only fuels a negative feedback loop where pattern languages become more fragmented.
  • So long as people are separated from the pattern languages used to create things, these creations cannot be alive

• To make sure that pattern languages live ultimately requires a paradigm shift

• Every act of building brings a handful of patterns into existence

• Every pattern language exists as part of a larger language. Each pattern in this language helps the other patterns emerge

  • The pattern language as a whole helps perpetuate the creative process that is constantly in flux.

Bringing Patterns To Life §

• To work our way toward a shared and living language once again, we must first learn how to discover patterns which are deep and capable of generating life.
• This requires finding a way to talk about patterns in a way that can be shared
  • This, first, requires understanding how patterns are structured.
  • Then we make the inner structure of the pattern clear (see here)
  • A pattern is shareable only if one knows how to reify it into the real world.
• Gradually, by hard work, it is possible to discover many patterns which are deep and which can help to bring a structure to life. They vary from culture to culture, but it is possible to discover them and to write them down so they can be shared.
• A language can live only if it is shared and only if it each person can speak a dialect / personal variant of it
  • To reach this state requires that each person re-create the pattern language in their mind.
  • As each person makes up their own pattern language for themselves, the language becomes a living one.
  • Each person shapes the language with their own experiences.
• When people share the pattern language, it will evolve on its own accord. The language evolves because it can evolve one pattern at a time.
  • This process is a genetic process — good patterns are naturally selected for while bad patterns die out.
  • Each pattern evolves on its own accord.

Timelessness §

• Language lets us be egoless.
• We cannot achieve the nameless quality if we slavishly cling onto our patterns.
• timelessness is not a byproduct of languages. Languages only remind us of its character. It reminds us of what we well and truly know as true.
• The language frees us to be ourselves. It gives us permission to do what is natural. It brings out our genuine thoughts.
• The language gives us confidence in what seemed once like trivial things. It teaches us to be receptive of what is real.

Links §

• The Timeless Way of Building by Christopher Alexander

Footnotes §

1. Effectively a abstraction trade off but on a memetic scale. ↩