What question did this study set out to answer?

The aim is to redefine serendipity as a product of intentional actions rather than random events.

April 28, 2026Open Access

WITZ-ZUFALL: Serendipity as Autopoietic Operation — Why Luck Is Not Random and How Intentional Structural Coupling Generates Fortunate Coincidence

Key Points

The aim is to redefine serendipity as a product of intentional actions rather than random events.
Introduces the neologism WITZ-ZUFALL to define fortunate coincidences.
Explores the conceptual relationship between autopoiesis and structural coupling.
Analyzes the mechanisms that facilitate emergent outcomes from committed actions.
Demonstrates that serendipity is not a stochastic process but arises through intentional structural actions.
Identifies attractor states as critical factors for generating fortunate coincidences.

Abstract

This paper introduces WITZ-ZUFALL as a formal neologism: the class of fortunate coincidences that arise as emergent outcomes of intentional autopoietic action rather than random events. WITZ (wit, intelligence, creative leap) + ZUFALL (coincidence, chance, falling-together) formally names what the passive observer calls luck and the active participant experiences as the world meeting them halfway. The paper demonstrates that serendipity is not stochastic but structurally generated — an attractor state produced by committed action and authentic perturbability. Dedicated to Vera F. Birkenbihl on her 80th birthday.

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