John F. Padgett
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691148670
- eISBN:
- 9781400845552
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691148670.003.0004
- Subject:
- Sociology, Economic Sociology
This chapter discusses the next frontier in autocatalytic modeling. Building on the model of production in Chapter 3, communication in two forms is added in the formal models in this chapter: ...
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This chapter discusses the next frontier in autocatalytic modeling. Building on the model of production in Chapter 3, communication in two forms is added in the formal models in this chapter: symbolic communication through primitive language and genealogical communication through biographies. Language here emerges out of token feedbacks and social-interactional learning. Genealogical descent and family organizations emerge out of reciprocity and teaching. In the terminology of a multiple-network ensemble, the first cross-sectional type of communication is equivalent to the emergence of relational social-network ties, and the second longitudinal type of communication is equivalent to the emergence of constitutive social-network ties. With these human-like extensions beyond biochemistry, three types of autocatalysis emerge: production autocatalysis, where material objects are produced and exchanged; cellular or biographical autocatalysis, where actors are constructed through intercalated biographies; and linguistic autocatalysis, where symbols are passed and reproduced in conversations.Less
This chapter discusses the next frontier in autocatalytic modeling. Building on the model of production in Chapter 3, communication in two forms is added in the formal models in this chapter: symbolic communication through primitive language and genealogical communication through biographies. Language here emerges out of token feedbacks and social-interactional learning. Genealogical descent and family organizations emerge out of reciprocity and teaching. In the terminology of a multiple-network ensemble, the first cross-sectional type of communication is equivalent to the emergence of relational social-network ties, and the second longitudinal type of communication is equivalent to the emergence of constitutive social-network ties. With these human-like extensions beyond biochemistry, three types of autocatalysis emerge: production autocatalysis, where material objects are produced and exchanged; cellular or biographical autocatalysis, where actors are constructed through intercalated biographies; and linguistic autocatalysis, where symbols are passed and reproduced in conversations.
John F. Padgett and Walter W. Powell
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691148670
- eISBN:
- 9781400845552
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691148670.001.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Economic Sociology
The social sciences have sophisticated models of choice and equilibrium but little understanding of the emergence of novelty. Where do new alternatives, new organizational forms, and new types of ...
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The social sciences have sophisticated models of choice and equilibrium but little understanding of the emergence of novelty. Where do new alternatives, new organizational forms, and new types of people come from? Combining biochemical insights about the origin of life with innovative and historically oriented social network analyses, this book develops a theory about the emergence of organizational, market, and biographical novelty from the coevolution of multiple social networks. The book demonstrates that novelty arises from spillovers across intertwined networks in different domains. In the short run actors make relations, but in the long run relations make actors. This theory of novelty emerging from intersecting production and biographical flows is developed through formal deductive modeling and through a wide range of original historical case studies. The book builds on the biochemical concept of autocatalysis—the chemical definition of life—and then extends this autocatalytic reasoning to social processes of production and communication. The chapters analyze a wide range of cases of emergence. They look at the emergence of organizational novelty in early capitalism and state formation; they examine the transformation of communism; and they analyze with detailed network data contemporary science-based capitalism: the biotechnology industry, regional high-tech clusters, and the open source community.Less
The social sciences have sophisticated models of choice and equilibrium but little understanding of the emergence of novelty. Where do new alternatives, new organizational forms, and new types of people come from? Combining biochemical insights about the origin of life with innovative and historically oriented social network analyses, this book develops a theory about the emergence of organizational, market, and biographical novelty from the coevolution of multiple social networks. The book demonstrates that novelty arises from spillovers across intertwined networks in different domains. In the short run actors make relations, but in the long run relations make actors. This theory of novelty emerging from intersecting production and biographical flows is developed through formal deductive modeling and through a wide range of original historical case studies. The book builds on the biochemical concept of autocatalysis—the chemical definition of life—and then extends this autocatalytic reasoning to social processes of production and communication. The chapters analyze a wide range of cases of emergence. They look at the emergence of organizational novelty in early capitalism and state formation; they examine the transformation of communism; and they analyze with detailed network data contemporary science-based capitalism: the biotechnology industry, regional high-tech clusters, and the open source community.
John F. Padgett and Walter W. Powell
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691148670
- eISBN:
- 9781400845552
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691148670.003.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Economic Sociology
This chapter elaborates on a theory of the co-evolution of social networks—a synthesis of social science and biochemistry—and shows its empirical significance for the study of human organizations. ...
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This chapter elaborates on a theory of the co-evolution of social networks—a synthesis of social science and biochemistry—and shows its empirical significance for the study of human organizations. First, the chapter describes the problem of organizational novelty in the context of multiple social networks. Second, the core dynamic motor of autocatalysis both at the level of chemical and economic production and at the level of the biographical production of persons through interactive learning, communication, and teaching is explained. Third, the chapter describes eight network mechanisms of organizational genesis that have been discovered in this volume's case studies. Finally, it points to the important outstanding issue of structural vulnerability to tipping.Less
This chapter elaborates on a theory of the co-evolution of social networks—a synthesis of social science and biochemistry—and shows its empirical significance for the study of human organizations. First, the chapter describes the problem of organizational novelty in the context of multiple social networks. Second, the core dynamic motor of autocatalysis both at the level of chemical and economic production and at the level of the biographical production of persons through interactive learning, communication, and teaching is explained. Third, the chapter describes eight network mechanisms of organizational genesis that have been discovered in this volume's case studies. Finally, it points to the important outstanding issue of structural vulnerability to tipping.
John F. Padgett
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691148670
- eISBN:
- 9781400845552
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691148670.003.0002
- Subject:
- Sociology, Economic Sociology
This chapter provides an extensive review of the biochemistry literature on the origins of life where the concept of autocatalysis figures most prominently. There is a lively debate in the scientific ...
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This chapter provides an extensive review of the biochemistry literature on the origins of life where the concept of autocatalysis figures most prominently. There is a lively debate in the scientific literature between scientists who subscribe to an RNA-first hypothesis and scientists who subscribe to a metabolism-first hypothesis about the origin of life. Both are different versions of autocatalysis, and a sensible conclusion could be that biological life really took off when a symbiosis developed between the two. After that, the chapter reviews past formal modeling in this area, which is spotty but highly suggestive. The chapter identifies Eigen's and Schuster's model of hypercycles as the path-breaking work that first placed empirical chemistry and formal models into fruitful dialogue with each other. Finally, the chapter reviews a less successful, more philosophical descendant of autocatalysis called autopoiesis, which is the guise under which autocatalysis first was presented to social scientists.Less
This chapter provides an extensive review of the biochemistry literature on the origins of life where the concept of autocatalysis figures most prominently. There is a lively debate in the scientific literature between scientists who subscribe to an RNA-first hypothesis and scientists who subscribe to a metabolism-first hypothesis about the origin of life. Both are different versions of autocatalysis, and a sensible conclusion could be that biological life really took off when a symbiosis developed between the two. After that, the chapter reviews past formal modeling in this area, which is spotty but highly suggestive. The chapter identifies Eigen's and Schuster's model of hypercycles as the path-breaking work that first placed empirical chemistry and formal models into fruitful dialogue with each other. Finally, the chapter reviews a less successful, more philosophical descendant of autocatalysis called autopoiesis, which is the guise under which autocatalysis first was presented to social scientists.
Jeannette A. Colyvas and Spiro Maroulis
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691148670
- eISBN:
- 9781400845552
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691148670.003.0016
- Subject:
- Sociology, Economic Sociology
This chapter extends previous work analyzing the origins of academic entrepreneurship at Stanford with an agent-based model that simulates the rise and spread of patenting by research faculty, ...
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This chapter extends previous work analyzing the origins of academic entrepreneurship at Stanford with an agent-based model that simulates the rise and spread of patenting by research faculty, drawing on archival analysis of divergent approaches taken by different lab directors. In so doing, this chapter builds on the formal model of autocatalysis developed in Chapter 3, which enables this chapter to disentangle competing explanations. The results are quite surprising. Incentives or mimicry alone are less likely to account for academic embrace of patenting, whereas preemptive efforts to preserve scientific autonomy do play a large role. The pursuit of safeguards from commercial co-optation by other researchers has the transformative effect of making the emergence of proprietary science more likely.Less
This chapter extends previous work analyzing the origins of academic entrepreneurship at Stanford with an agent-based model that simulates the rise and spread of patenting by research faculty, drawing on archival analysis of divergent approaches taken by different lab directors. In so doing, this chapter builds on the formal model of autocatalysis developed in Chapter 3, which enables this chapter to disentangle competing explanations. The results are quite surprising. Incentives or mimicry alone are less likely to account for academic embrace of patenting, whereas preemptive efforts to preserve scientific autonomy do play a large role. The pursuit of safeguards from commercial co-optation by other researchers has the transformative effect of making the emergence of proprietary science more likely.
Robert E. Ulanowicz
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780198564836
- eISBN:
- 9780191713828
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198564836.003.0016
- Subject:
- Biology, Aquatic Biology
Recent advances in the theory of complexity have engendered a shift away from ‘physicalism’, where all nature is reducible to fundamental physical laws towards ‘naturalism’, where natural phenomena ...
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Recent advances in the theory of complexity have engendered a shift away from ‘physicalism’, where all nature is reducible to fundamental physical laws towards ‘naturalism’, where natural phenomena are considered within a circumscribed domain of time and space. The study of ecological networks has led the way in this shift, because it can be demonstrated that ecological dynamics are incompatible with the fundamental assumptions that have supported science since Newton. The direction in which causality operates in ecosystems proves more likely to come from the larger configurations of processes (networks) towards their more ephemeral and complicated constituents and their attendant mechanisms. This focus on the macroscopic makes possible a self-consistent description of ecosystem dynamics based solely on the attributes of the network of processes.Less
Recent advances in the theory of complexity have engendered a shift away from ‘physicalism’, where all nature is reducible to fundamental physical laws towards ‘naturalism’, where natural phenomena are considered within a circumscribed domain of time and space. The study of ecological networks has led the way in this shift, because it can be demonstrated that ecological dynamics are incompatible with the fundamental assumptions that have supported science since Newton. The direction in which causality operates in ecosystems proves more likely to come from the larger configurations of processes (networks) towards their more ephemeral and complicated constituents and their attendant mechanisms. This focus on the macroscopic makes possible a self-consistent description of ecosystem dynamics based solely on the attributes of the network of processes.
Gennaro Auletta
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199608485
- eISBN:
- 9780191729539
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199608485.003.0007
- Subject:
- Physics, Soft Matter / Biological Physics
In order to explain how the brain and also elementary organisms are able to refer to external things and processes we need to consider complexity. Complexity is a specific combination of order and ...
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In order to explain how the brain and also elementary organisms are able to refer to external things and processes we need to consider complexity. Complexity is a specific combination of order and disorder in which several subsystems are interconnected but do not share an overall information. This allows for information encapsulation and modularization as well as for the necessary plasticity of organisms. A proto-metabolism can emerge when several autocatalytic processes are interconnected.Less
In order to explain how the brain and also elementary organisms are able to refer to external things and processes we need to consider complexity. Complexity is a specific combination of order and disorder in which several subsystems are interconnected but do not share an overall information. This allows for information encapsulation and modularization as well as for the necessary plasticity of organisms. A proto-metabolism can emerge when several autocatalytic processes are interconnected.
John F. Padgett
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- May 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780262035385
- eISBN:
- 9780262337717
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262035385.003.0011
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, History of Economic Thought
To blend evolutionary theory with complexity theory,this chapter uses Padgett and Powell’s. The Emergence of Organizations and Markets to review the evolability of organizations and institutions. ...
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To blend evolutionary theory with complexity theory,this chapter uses Padgett and Powell’s. The Emergence of Organizations and Markets to review the evolability of organizations and institutions. There “evolutionary theory” means “autocatalysis,” and “complexity theory” means “dynamic multiple networks in regulatory feedback.” Together (but not separately), these two theoretical building blocks can explain the sudden emergence or invention of novel forms of organizations not previously observed in history. This chapter draws on an empirical case study from the book, the emergence of international finance in medieval Tuscany, to illustrate the theory.Less
To blend evolutionary theory with complexity theory,this chapter uses Padgett and Powell’s. The Emergence of Organizations and Markets to review the evolability of organizations and institutions. There “evolutionary theory” means “autocatalysis,” and “complexity theory” means “dynamic multiple networks in regulatory feedback.” Together (but not separately), these two theoretical building blocks can explain the sudden emergence or invention of novel forms of organizations not previously observed in history. This chapter draws on an empirical case study from the book, the emergence of international finance in medieval Tuscany, to illustrate the theory.
Peter E. Nielsen
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- August 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780262182683
- eISBN:
- 9780262282093
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262182683.003.0015
- Subject:
- Biology, Microbiology
This chapter presents some of the experimental evidence for replication at the molecular level. It discusses molecular replicators in terms of enzyme-catalyzed replication, minimal molecular ...
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This chapter presents some of the experimental evidence for replication at the molecular level. It discusses molecular replicators in terms of enzyme-catalyzed replication, minimal molecular replicators, replicase ribozymes, and higher-order autocatalysis. The chapter also analyzes the dynamics of replicators and a pre-protocell.Less
This chapter presents some of the experimental evidence for replication at the molecular level. It discusses molecular replicators in terms of enzyme-catalyzed replication, minimal molecular replicators, replicase ribozymes, and higher-order autocatalysis. The chapter also analyzes the dynamics of replicators and a pre-protocell.
Manfred Eigen
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- May 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780198570219
- eISBN:
- 9780191748974
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198570219.003.0005
- Subject:
- Physics, History of Physics
So far, our discussion has mainly been concerned with inanimate matter. Only in Chapter 3 did we notice what is missing in “information” if “meaning” is excluded. A phenomenological theory of the ...
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So far, our discussion has mainly been concerned with inanimate matter. Only in Chapter 3 did we notice what is missing in “information” if “meaning” is excluded. A phenomenological theory of the generation of “meaningful information” is given in Chapter 4 and this chapter. If we are dealing with genetic sequences, making use of four classes of symbols (referring to the four nucleotides used in nucleic acids), a sequence including n positions has 4n different possibilities. The sequence space is then a point space including 4n points, one for each possible sequence. The distances between any two sequences of this length corresponds to the number of positions occupied by different symbols. A value parameter is introduced which finally determines the population structure. The mutant spectrum appears in the form of a rather dissipated “cloud” that has one or several value maxima, a fact that is due mainly to the presence of “neutral sequences” (i.e. sequences of equal fitness value). The theory confirms formally Darwin’s result. However, the interpretation is completely different from the one generally encountered. Under normal conditions there is no fittest single individual. Rather, fitness is a property of a population, expressed by an eigenvalue of a matrix to which contribution is made by all the individuals present. Since we are dealing with coupled differential equations, the linear case can be expressed by the matrix of rate coefficients. However, according to a mathematical theorem by Perron and Frobenius, only the largest eigenvalue of the matrix is stable. To this we can assign the term “fittest”. The theory uncovers many surprising details. It also unifies the mechanisms of origin and evolutionary adaptation, both referring to different regions in the solutions of the same system of coupled differential equations. Some mathematical details can be found in the Appendices, including contributions from Peter Richter and Peter Schuster.Less
So far, our discussion has mainly been concerned with inanimate matter. Only in Chapter 3 did we notice what is missing in “information” if “meaning” is excluded. A phenomenological theory of the generation of “meaningful information” is given in Chapter 4 and this chapter. If we are dealing with genetic sequences, making use of four classes of symbols (referring to the four nucleotides used in nucleic acids), a sequence including n positions has 4n different possibilities. The sequence space is then a point space including 4n points, one for each possible sequence. The distances between any two sequences of this length corresponds to the number of positions occupied by different symbols. A value parameter is introduced which finally determines the population structure. The mutant spectrum appears in the form of a rather dissipated “cloud” that has one or several value maxima, a fact that is due mainly to the presence of “neutral sequences” (i.e. sequences of equal fitness value). The theory confirms formally Darwin’s result. However, the interpretation is completely different from the one generally encountered. Under normal conditions there is no fittest single individual. Rather, fitness is a property of a population, expressed by an eigenvalue of a matrix to which contribution is made by all the individuals present. Since we are dealing with coupled differential equations, the linear case can be expressed by the matrix of rate coefficients. However, according to a mathematical theorem by Perron and Frobenius, only the largest eigenvalue of the matrix is stable. To this we can assign the term “fittest”. The theory uncovers many surprising details. It also unifies the mechanisms of origin and evolutionary adaptation, both referring to different regions in the solutions of the same system of coupled differential equations. Some mathematical details can be found in the Appendices, including contributions from Peter Richter and Peter Schuster.
