> Why don't societies fluctuate around an equilibrium of maximum complexity maintainable? I suppose in many cases if you overshoot it's not possible to go back

> Why don't societies fluctuate around an equilibrium of maximum complexity maintainable? I suppose in many cases if you overshoot it's not possible to go back to slightly below the equilibrium, but rather the overshoot causes some non-linear/exponential/whatever effect that causes a substantial drop (e.g. a collapse). See Lotka-Volterra model for a simple example.