Dec 28, 2025

Human Viscosity & Fluid Dynamics

Part 2 of a four part series on organizational bureaucracy as a physical system

#social physics #reynolds number #fluid dynamics #constructal law #chaos #system science

OBSERVATION LOG: Creation (Innovation) is not humanoıde. Creation is Turbulence. If you enforce total order, you mathematically eliminate the possibility of genius and innovation.

In the last article, we observed that organizations die of the Thermodynamics of Bureaucracy.

Now let’s link Thermodynamics with Fluid Dyncamics and dive into the Mathematics.

Fluid Dynamics

In Fluid Dynamics, the way a fluid moves, whether it flows smoothly or crashes chaotically, is determined by the Reynolds Number ( $Re$ ).

Re = \frac{\rho u L}{\mu} = \frac{\text{Inertial Forces}}{\text{Viscous Forces}}

ρ := The density of the fluid (talent and resources)
u := The flow speed
L := The characteristic length (steps to finish a task)
μ := The dynamic viscosity

When we keep L & ρ the same, the Reynolds number is effectively a ratio between Momentum and Viscosity = Friction.

Information Flows Like Water

We say “Information flows like water.” You should be taking this seriously, meaning that Rules increase the Friction, and therefore the Viscosity ( $\mu$ ) of the medium.

Adding Rules doesn’t just block a specific BAD flow. It changes the properties of the channel. It thickens the medium (system/organization).

Thinly Ruled vs Thickly Ruled

In the first post of this series, we explained how Complexity Science states every system sits on a spectrum of rules, which in fluid dynamics is represented with viscosity.

In a thinly ruled system at high $Re$ , inertial forces such as innovation and speed dominate, so the fluid flows fast and can become turbulent, creating chaos & innovation.

In a tightly ruled system at low $Re$ , viscous forces such as compliance and rules dominate. The fluid crystallizes.

This leads to a trivial conclusion: Innovation & Creation are Turbulence.

From the perspective of fluid dynamics, we redefine Rules not as Order, but as Viscosity.

In physics, mixing (a.k.a. innovating et creating) only happens at HIGH Reynolds numbers. In high viscosity systems, nothing mixes. The particles stay in their lanes forever.

Innovation & Creation (Turbulence) is mathematically impossible in a high compliance environment, not because of culture, but because the Reynolds Number drops below the critical threshold for mixing.

Innovation & Creation $ Turbulence.

Stability = Laminar Flow. You cannot have both.

Corporate best practices are just thickening agents that lower the Reynolds Number until the organization becomes a solid block of ice.

Bureaucracy is Laminar Flow death.

There are four things we need to reiterate.

Bureaucracy is not Order, it is Entropy (Friction/Heat/Chaos).
Rules increase the thickness of the medium, but bounds the chaos of the medium at the same time.
Creation is impossible when $Re$ gets to absolute zero.
As we age, we lose the ability to adapt to the environment. And we die.

The Constructal Law and Phase Transitions

In Part 1, we established that every new rule creates friction, generating heat as the organization freezes into a rigid lattice (see how it freezes to death while generating heat to the environment).

Adrian Bejan says: “For a finite-size system to persist in time (to live), it must evolve in such a way that it provides easier access to the imposed currents that flow through it.”

A system fails when it stops adapting to the environment. The resulting death is not a failure, but a necessity. A necessity for a million new systems to BE BORN. A phase transition (Solid $\to$ Gas) driven by internal pressure.

Accumulated heat generated by constrained, vibrating active matter (THE Rouge Agent) finally shatters the rigid lattice, freeing the bound particles (talent and resources) to fly and form a new creation.