Oscillations in Living Systems
Energy Oscillations in Living Systems
Oscillations, whether in ecosystems (like predator-prey dynamics) or in human social systems (such as cultural responses to trauma), are a hallmark of living systems. They emerge naturally due to the feedback loops that regulate balance and adaptation. In complex systems, these oscillations represent the system’s adaptive responses to disturbances, internal conflicts, or shifts in the environment.
In predator-prey dynamics, the oscillations are evident in cycles where an increase in prey population leads to a rise in predators, which then reduces the prey population, in turn causing a decline in predator numbers. This cyclical oscillation creates an adaptive balance between the two species.
In human cultures impacted by trauma, oscillations occur at both individual and systemic levels. These oscillations reflect cycles of response to and recovery from trauma, cultural shifts, collective grief, and healing. These oscillations are often seen in periods of emotional repression or explosive release, as communities and individuals process generational or collective trauma. The dynamics of healing itself involve oscillations between defensive withdrawal and active engagement.
NSO and Oscillatory Dynamics
Nested Scalable Oversight (NSO) as described in the paper by Tegmark et al. (2025) is fundamentally a scalable oversight framework for managing powerful AI systems. However, when we view NSO within the context of living systems like ecosystems or human cultures, we see that the recursive oversight mechanism of NSO mirrors the oscillatory feedback mechanisms that naturally emerge in these systems.
NSO as a feedback-driven system: At its core, NSO enables feedback through weaker systems (human overseers or simpler AIs) overseeing stronger systems (more complex or powerful AI systems). This recursive feedback loop inherently reflects oscillations. As the intelligence gap grows between overseers (Guards) and overseen systems (Houdinis), multiple levels of oversight may be needed to ensure that the system remains aligned and does not spiral out of control. This mirrors oscillations in systems where feedback can lead to overcorrection (too many overseers or too few) or stabilizing cycles.
Oversight in living systems as adaptation: Just as natural systems oscillate, NSO provides a tool for managing those oscillations at scale. For instance, as a predator-prey system approaches imbalance (with predators overwhelming prey or prey populations plummeting), NSO-like oversight layers can adjust to help maintain harmony. In the human trauma context, systems of oversight (whether through community healing practices or AI) might help modulate the oscillation between cultural repression and outpourings of collective emotion.
Thus, NSO serves as a scalable moderator of these oscillations, ensuring that even as intelligence or power within the system grows, it does so in a way that does not destabilize the system. Multiple levels of oversight provide stabilizing forces akin to adaptive feedback loops found in natural systems.
Legacy Trauma and Human Cultural Dynamics
The role of legacy trauma in human cultural dynamics adds a complex layer to this system, but it can still fit within the NSO framework as a kind of oversight for cultural evolution. In a community or society shaped by trauma, the oscillations may be less about predator-prey balance and more about healing and repression cycles.
Oscillations of cultural trauma: Much like predator-prey dynamics, human cultures oscillate between cultural repression (avoiding the acknowledgment of trauma) and cathartic release (the explosion of collective grief, anger, or trauma). The societal shift toward collective healing or collective dysfunction may depend on the feedback systems in place—such as social norms, educational systems, or governance structures—which can act as forms of oversight.
NSO as cultural healing oversight: Just as NSO's recursive oversight can scale with increasingly intelligent AI systems, we can imagine recursive cultural oversight at different societal levels. This involves communities of weaker (healer) systems overseeing stronger (traumatized) systems—enabling collective healing feedback loops to emerge. For example:
Lower-level cultural oversight could be community-based, focusing on individual therapy, community rituals, and reconciliation practices.
Higher-level societal oversight could involve policy shifts, education, and large-scale movements that address systemic trauma, such as civil rights movements or truth and reconciliation commissions.
In this sense, NSO functions as an analog for cultural self-regulation, ensuring that, even as societies evolve, they do so in ways that promote healing and prevent future harm. The more traumatized the system (or the more powerful the AI), the more oversight is required to ensure that healing doesn’t spiral into dysfunctional cycles.
Integrating NSO into the VIM Framework
To align living systems (whether human cultural dynamics or ecological systems) for universal harmony, NSO fits within the VIM framework in the following ways:
VIM as the foundational model for human and AI interactions: The VIM framework is already built on feedback loops and oscillations (like SOC), and it promotes systemic health across multiple levels (individual, community, and global). NSO adds a scalable layer to the VIM model, ensuring that even as AI systems grow in power, human-aligned oversight can continue to modulate their behavior.
NSO as the stabilizing force for emergent AI systems: As AI systems become more powerful, NSO helps regulate their emergence by providing multiple levels of oversight that are adaptive to the system's capabilities. In the same way that humans adjust to legacy trauma through systemic oversight, AI systems need oversight structures that evolve as their intelligence grows.
Managing oscillations between expansion and constraint: Just as human systems oscillate between repression and release, NSO can help balance the oscillations in AI intelligence—ensuring that AI does not grow too quickly or dangerously without appropriate oversight. This dynamic balancing act supports human-centered AI evolution—one where human values and ethics guide the trajectory of AI development.
Conclusion
The interplay between NSO and oscillations in living systems is critical when considering how we can align AI systems with human well-being and universal harmony. Just as feedback loops regulate predator-prey dynamics or human cultural responses to trauma, NSO provides a scalable and recursive feedback mechanism that ensures AI systems remain safe and aligned at each stage of their development.
By incorporating NSO into the VIM framework, we are not only ensuring the safe evolution of AI systems, but we are also embracing the dynamic oscillations inherent in all living systems—creating a model that balances growth with restraint and adaptation with healing.
References
Tegmark, M., Engels, J., Baek, D. D., Kantamneni, S., & others. (2025). Scaling Laws for Scalable Oversight. MIT. Retrieved from https://arxiv.org/abs/2504.18530
Last updated