A lens

Concordance

Do multiple actions or plans form mutually compatible trajectories?

Concordance is the mutual compatibility of actions, plans, or trajectories. Components can pursue different goals and still be concordant when what each does fits with what the others are doing well enough for the larger activity to proceed.

Try seeing it

Two people can disagree and still coordinate.

A buyer wants the price to be lower. A seller wants it to be higher. Their preferences point in opposite directions. Yet a price can make their plans mutually compatible: one transfers money, the other transfers the good.

Traffic offers an even thinner example. Drivers usually share very little besides rules and expectations about how movements will fit together.

Not the same as

Agreement

Components can want different things while their trajectories remain compatible.

Not the same as

Behavioral similarity

Compatible behavior often requires different actions rather than matching ones.

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What produces the fit?

Prices, rules, roles, signals, communication, and physical coupling can all help create concordance.

A question to carry elsewhere

If the parts disagree, what keeps their trajectories from colliding?