---
slug: oip-invariant-5-35-criticality-edge-of-chaos-power-laws
title: Invariant 3.5 — 3.5 Criticality / edge of chaos / power laws
canonical: https://miscsubjects.com/a/oip-invariant-5-35-criticality-edge-of-chaos-power-laws
---

# Invariant: 3.5 Criticality / edge of chaos / power laws

### 3.5 Criticality / edge of chaos / power laws
The richest behavior sits between frozen order and noise. **Sources:** Per Bak (self-organized criticality); Kauffman & Langton (edge of chaos); Wilson (renormalization group); Mandelbrot, Zipf, Pareto (power laws). **Domains:** sandpiles, earthquakes, brains (neuronal avalanches), markets, cities, language. **Scale:** molecular → civilization. **Dual:** rigid lattice / pure randomness (the two death-states). **Tier:** T1 core, T2 for claims of ubiquity. **Falsifier:** a living/adaptive system provably tuned far from criticality. **Maps:** A₂, A₇; this is your "bounded chaos."

---

## Corpus map
- Same invariant, other planes: [Catalogue node C05](/a/oip-node-c05-criticality-edge-of-chaos-power-laws) · [Encyclopedia C05](/a/convergence-encyclopedia-c05)
- Inventory hub: [Convergence Catalogue — Public Article](/a/oip-convergence-public-article)
