Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein both produced successful theories of motion, which are technically time-reversible.2 They explain the motion of cannonballs, planets, and satellites without a clear distinction between where an object is and where it is going. This symmetry, which is true for simple systems, fails to explain why lions eat and digest

the ability to embody information outside our bodies is not unique to our species. In fact, our ability to print information in our environment makes us similar to other eusocial species, such as ants. Single ants are not very clever, but their ability to deposit information in the form of pheromones can make ant colonies extremely savvy.

The group of Bugatti wrecks, on the other hand, is a configuration with a higher multiplicity of states (higher entropy), and hence a configuration that embodies less information (even though each of these states requires more bits to be communicated). Yet the largest group of all, the one that is equivalent to people sitting randomly in the

Transaction cost theory, or new institutional economics, is the branch of economics that studies the costs of transactions and the institutions that people develop to govern them. In simpler terms, it is the branch studying the cost of economic links and the ways in which people organize to deal with commercial interactions.

Economic systems, just like all natural systems, have an ability to produce information that is constrained by the systems’ computational capacity. For information to grow in the economy, the computational capacity of the economy needs to grow as well.

it is common for people to confuse the value of products with the value of the knowledge and knowhow needed to make them, or to confuse knowledge and knowhow with ideas.

professionally run businesses that evolve in high-trust societies are more likely to result in networks of all sizes, including large ones. In contrast, familial societies are characterized by a large number of small businesses and a few dominant families controlling a few large conglomerates.

Information, when understood in its broad meaning as physical order, is what our economy produces. It is the only thing we produce, whether we are biological cells or manufacturing plants. This is because information is not restricted to messages. It is inherent in all the physical objects we produce: bicycles, buildings, streetlamps, blenders,

Language allows people to weave networks by empowering them with the ability to communicate complex ideas, coordinate their actions, and establish commercial links. Language is the quintessential standard.