Market Ecology ∙ Multiple Paths to Multiple Life ∙ Reputation and ‘signaling’ ∙ The Hourglass Theory

Some picks from the latest @sfiscience newsletter:
(highlights mine)

Ideas for further exploration:

• What is abundance of a species?
• What is a toy model of a market?
• Which other areas have an investments density dependency?
• What other insights could the concepts of community matrix and food webs provide?
• What are some core concepts related to wealth dynamics?

Ideas for further exploration:

• Where else could the idea of historical pathways be applied?
• What is a universal homology?
• Is software an evolved function over the physical substrate? What other evolved functions use infrastructures of different natures?
• Where else could the idea of nested hierarchy of levels (function optimization, constraints and materials) be applied?
• How does fitness maximization work?
• What other types of functions are realized by different substrates with different efficiencies?

Ideas for further exploration:

• Why is kin cooperation special?
• Is the image of a “world of self-interested individuals” predominant in non-North-Western parts of the world?
• How do reputation-based systems work?
• What are the links between reputation, trust and cooperation?
• What other types of interactions complement gossip, as part of reputation systems?

Ideas for further exploration:

• What are the similarities between cells, whole organisms and cities?
• Are there any other theories of emergence?
• How does coarse-graining microscale complexity work?
• What is the Hourglass Theory and how is it connected to simplicity and novelty?