But saying that both economic and biological systems are subclasses of a more general and universal class of evolutionary systems tells us a lot. This is because researchers believe that there are general laws of evolutionary systems.28 Scientists consider certain features of nature universal. For example, gravity works the same way on the earth as

While economists were pursuing their vision of the economy as an equilibrium system, during the latter half of the twentieth century, physicists, chemists, and biologists became increasingly interested in systems that were far from equilibrium, that were dynamic and complex, and that never settled into a state of rest. Beginning in the 1970s,

just as biology became a true science in the twentieth century, so too will economics come into its own as a science in the twenty-first century.

Nelson notes that while Physical Technologies have clearly had an immense impact on society, the contributions of Social Technologies have been equally important and in fact, the two coevolve with each other.36 During the Industrial Revolution, for example, Richard Arkwright’s invention of the spinning frame (a Physical Technology) in the

But why does the fashion industry go through this iterative, and in many ways, wasteful, process? The reason that your shirt was evolved rather than designed is that no one could predict exactly what kind of shirt you would want out of the almost infinite space of possible shirt designs. The old Soviet Union tried this kind of rational prediction

The Economy Evolves Modern science provides just such a theory. This book will argue that wealth creation is the product of a simple, but profoundly powerful, three-step formula—differentiate, select, and amplify—the formula of evolution. The same process that has driven the growing order and complexity of the biosphere has driven the growing order

Businesses are themselves a form of design. The design of a business encompasses its strategy, organizational structure, management processes, culture, and a host of other factors. Business designs evolve over time through a process of differentiation, selection, and amplification, with the market as the ultimate arbiter of fitness. One of the

It’s the best possible time to be alive, when almost everything you thought you knew is wrong.

Businesses fuse Physical and Social Technologies together and express them into the environment in the form of products and services.