Abstract

The discovery of the structure of the functionality of biological and social catalysts allowed developing social catalysts which are necessary to accelerate processes and drive the evolution of cultures.

Catalysts simplify the functionality of processes by solving their implicit weaknesses using a superior technology that accelerates them.

Catalysts are objects that are naturally integrated in any living being. Among the most well-known catalysts in biology are the enzymes that catalyze multiple processes to ensure the survival and evolution of living beings. 

One differentiated characteristic of social catalysts is that they need to achieve the necessary threshold of energy to influence the environment.

The 4^th Industrial Revolution introduced the concept of adaptiveness in the industrial, economic and social world. This increases notoriously the market orientation but demands managing environments as adaptive systems, which require the use of catalysts to ensure their functionality and evolution.

Social catalysts are process accelerators that allow ensuring the functionality and evolution of adaptive systems of any kind. The concept of social catalysts applies to social, economic and political evolution, to the functionality of any kind of communities or institutions and to businesses.

Social catalysts are process accelerators that allow ensuring the functionality and evolution of adaptive social functions.

The researches made at The Unicist Research Institute demonstrated that the evolution of living beings, social entities and businesses require the use of catalysts. Therefore, the success of sustainable evolution fully depends on the use of catalysts.

Evolution is Driven by Objects

All developed, developing and emergent cultures use social objects to foster their evolution. Social objects are “encapsulated” entities that regulate the functionality of cultures.

Laws, regulations, and social, economic and political systems, including institutions, and organizations of any kind, are examples of social objects. The conceptual structure of objects is defined by a purpose, an active and entropic function and an energy conservation function.

The functionality of subjects and institutions is defined by their roles. Role is a different name given to the objects in a culture. Roles have the same conceptual structure of objects.

About Objects in the Social Field

Objects are productive adaptive units that have a concept, an added value, the necessary quality assurance and a methodology to ensure the minimum strategy. To imagine an object please consider an automatic pilot in an airplane. It can be considered a “paradigmatic” object.

From a functional point of view there are different types of objects:

• Driving Objects
  To drive processes
• Catalyzing Objects
  To accelerate processes
• Entropy Inhibiting Objects
  To inhibit the entropy of social processes
• Inhibiting Objects
  To inhibit dysfunctional events in a society
• Gravitational Objects
  To influence the results of processes

The social functions are regulated by driving, inhibiting and entropy inhibiting objects. The catalysts are part of the restricted context of the process that is being catalyzed, while the gravitational objects are part of the wide context. These catalysts need to be redundant with the gravitational objects that sustain the basic framework of the functions involved.

In developed cultures, legality and legitimacy tend to be overlapped. These cultures use driving, inhibiting, entropy inhibiting, catalyzing and gravitational objects that establish the framework and administrate the operational rules of the environment.

The gravitational objects, like the constitution of a country, establish the basic framework of a culture considered as a system. The catalyzing objects establish the acceleration that ensures the synchronicity of actions for the evolution of any adaptive system.

The drivers, inhibitors and entropy inhibitors establish the operational rules that have to be followed to be part of the system.

The Functionality of Catalysts

Catalyst are objects with a specific function. The purpose of a social catalyst is to increase the speed of functional processes. This purpose is achieved by increasing significantly the efficiency of processes and diminishing the level of efficacy that is necessary. The use of catalysts saves energy.

The maximal strategy of catalysts is to simplify the functionality of processes by solving their implicit weaknesses using a superior technology that accelerates them.

The minimum strategy establishes a superior framework of the process that expands the possibilities and ensures results. All developed cultures and expanding businesses use catalyzing objects.

Types of Catalysts:

Based on their functionality, there are four types of social catalysts: Conjunctural, Specific, Systemic and Generic. Dysfunctional catalysts inhibit processes instead of accelerating them.

Conjunctural Catalysts

These catalysts accelerate specific conjunctural processes to achieve the critical mass that is necessary to ensure “survival”. They are focused on the expansion of possibilities by considering the conjuncture. These types of catalysts tend to be absorbed by the system.

Specific Catalysts

The specific catalysts are focused on accelerating specific functions that can be managed as autonomous units. They are focused on ensuring the results that need to be achieved by using a superior solution to minimize the consumption of energy. The critical mass of specific functions is sustained by these catalysts.

Systemic Catalysts

The systemic catalysts accelerate the functionality of the unified field of processes. They are focused on increasing the efficiency of the system by introducing a superior technology. These catalysts ensure the critical mass of the functionality of adaptive environments considered as a system.

Generic Catalysts

Generic catalysts are those that accelerate the evolution of the environment where they are applied. They are focused on simplifying processes and solving their implicit weaknesses. These catalysts ensure the critical mass that is necessary to evolve.

Catalysts Simplify Processes

The functionality of catalysts requires that their work be “redundant” with the causes of the problem they solve. Catalysts cannot work in non-adaptive environments. Catalysts accelerate social and business processes:

1) They simplify processes by increasing their efficiency. Therefore, there is less need of efficacy to ensure the achievement of effectiveness.

2) They manage the root causes of social problems, which are driven by the dysfunctionality of the concepts and fundamentals that underlie their processes.

3) They palliate the dysfunctionality of the implicit weaknesses of the strengths of processes. Implicit weaknesses are the dysfunctional consequences of any strength in adaptive environments.

Levels of Acceleration

The levels of acceleration catalysts introduce in processes, depend on the specificity of their functions.

a) Generic Catalysts accelerate the functionality of institutions or organizations. Their acceleration is (+).
b) Systemic Catalysts accelerate the functionality of functions and roles. Their acceleration is (++).
c) Specific Catalysts accelerate the functionality of processes. Their acceleration is (+++).
d) Conjunctural Catalysts accelerate the functionality of conjuncture driven processes. Their acceleration is (++++).

The dysfunctionality of catalysts, because they are inconsistent with the environment or because they don’t have the necessary influence on it, deaccelerates social and business processes. The pilot testing of catalysts ensures their functionality.

The Development of Social Catalysts in an Ongoing Project

Social evolution of established cultures, whatever their archetype, can only be empowered using catalysts. Direct actions might produce conjunctural but not sustainable results.

Catalysts are necessary to manage adaptive processes in adaptive environments. Social catalysts have been and are used intuitively without defining them as such. For example, an external threat works as a catalyst that builds cohesion in a group and increases its level of focus on what needs to be done.

Catalysts simplify the functionality of processes by solving their implicit weaknesses using a superior technology that accelerates them.

The Unicist School started in 2019 a non- profit project on Microeconomics driven Development. It is a transgenerational 50-year project to establish sustainable economic catalysts that foster growth and well-being while they minimize economic crises.

Microeconomics driven Development is, by definition, a bottom up catalyst driven project that fosters sustainable social and economic evolution. Access

Cultural changes occur along multiple generations and are catalyzed by technological changes. The discovery of fire, the wheel and gunpowder are examples of how cultural change is driven and catalyzed by technologies. 

The project is based on installing catalysts for social evolution. Social catalysts are accelerators of social and microeconomic evolutionary processes which require being based on the archetypes of cultures and their institutions empowering their functionality.

The unicist evolutionary approach fosters evolution and minimizes facileness by managing the unified field of social and business functions. It works as a generic social catalyst to generate sustainable growth.

The Unicist Research Institute