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Peak Complexity
Peak Complexity is the concept that human societies address problems by adding social and economic complexity but that process is subject to diminishing marginal returns. Adding additional complexity will then impose growing burdens on those societies, making them more vulnerable to external threats. Origin and Definitions Who first coined the term is unclear. The first published use of the term may have been by Christopher Burr Jones, in the context of climate change, in 2019, although the term had been used online before that. The 'peak' element refers by analogy to peak oil and peak minerals, although the comparisons are not exact. The concept is credited to Joseph Tainter, who argued that ancients civilisations collapsed because they encountered diminishing marginal returns on complexity. Tainter did not use the term peak complexity, however. Melia defines peak complexity as: "the diminishing marginal returns, and proliferating unintended consequences, of increasin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Social Complexity
In sociology, social complexity is a conceptual framework used in the analysis of society. In the sciences, contemporary definitions of complexity are found in systems theory, wherein the phenomenon being studied has many parts and many possible arrangements of the parts; simultaneously, what is complex and what is simple are relative and change in time. Contemporary usage of the term ''complexity'' specifically refers to sociologic theories of society as a complex adaptive system, however, social complexity and its emergence, emergent properties are recurring subjects throughout the historical development of social philosophy and the study of social change.Eve, Raymond, Sara Horsfall and Mary E. Lee (eds.) (1997). ''Chaos, Complexity and Sociology: Myths, Models, and Theories.'' Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. Early sociological theory, theoreticians of sociology, such as Ferdinand Tönnies, Émile Durkheim, and Max Weber, Vilfredo Pareto and Georg Simmel, examined the ex ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Economic Complexity
Complexity economics is the application of complexity science to the problems of economics. It relaxes several common assumptions in economics, including general equilibrium theory. While it does not reject the existence of an equilibrium, it features a non-equilibrium approach and sees such equilibria as a special case and as an emergent property resulting from complex interactions between economic agents.Beinhocker, Eric D. The Origin of Wealth: Evolution, Complexity, and the Radical Remaking of Economics. Boston, Massachusetts: Harvard Business School Press, 2006. The complexity science approach has also been applied to computational economics. Models The "nearly archetypal example" is an artificial stock market model created by the Santa Fe Institute in 1989. The model shows two different outcomes, one where "agents do not search much for predictors and there is convergence on a homogeneous rational expectations outcome" and another where "all kinds of technical trading s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Marginal Return
Marginal Return is the rate of return for a marginal increase in investment; roughly, this is the additional output resulting from a one-unit increase in the use of a variable input, while other inputs are constant. See also *Diminishing returns *Returns (economics) Returns, in economics and political economy, are the distributions or payments awarded to the various suppliers of a good or service Wages Wages are the return to labor—the return to an individual's involvement (mental or physical) in the creati ... References {{economics-stub Investment Marginal concepts ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Peak Oil
Peak oil is the point when global oil production reaches its maximum rate, after which it will begin to decline irreversibly. The main concern is that global transportation relies heavily on gasoline and diesel. Adoption of electric vehicles, biofuels, or more efficient transport (like trains and waterways) could help reduce oil demand. Peak oil relates closely to oil depletion; while petroleum reserves are finite, the key issue is the economic viability of extraction at current prices. Initially, it was believed that oil production would decline due to reserve depletion, but a new theory suggests that reduced oil demand could lower prices, affecting extraction costs. Demand may also decline due to persistent high prices. Over the last century, many predictions of peak oil timing have been made, often later proven incorrect due to increased extraction rates. M. King Hubbert introduced the concept in a 1956 paper, predicting U.S. production would peak between 1965 and 1 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Peak Minerals
Peak minerals marks the point in time when the largest production of a mineral will occur in an area, with production declining in subsequent years. While most mineral resources will not be exhausted in the near future, global extraction and production has become more challenging. Miners have found ways over time to extract deeper and lower grade ores with lower production costs. More than anything else, declining average ore grades are indicative of ongoing technological shifts that have enabled inclusion of more 'complex' processing – in social and environmental terms ''as well as'' economic – and structural changes in the minerals exploration industry and these have been accompanied by significant increases in identified Mineral Reserves. Definition The concept of peak minerals offers a useful model for representing the changing impacts associated with processing declining resource qualities in the lead up to, and following, peak mineral production in a particular region ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Joseph Tainter
Joseph Anthony Tainter (born December 8, 1949) is an American anthropologist and historian. Biography Tainter studied anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley and Northwestern University, where he received his Ph.D. in 1975. he holds a professorship in the Department of Environment and Society at Utah State University. His previous positions include Project Leader of Cultural Heritage Research, Rocky Mountain Forest and Range Experiment Station, Albuquerque, New Mexico and assistant professor of anthropology at the University of New Mexico. Tainter has written and edited many articles and monographs. His best-known work, ''The Collapse of Complex Societies'' (1988), examines the collapse of Maya and Chacoan civilizations, and of the Western Roman Empire, in terms of network theory, energy economics and complexity theory. Tainter argues that sustainability or collapse of societies follow from the success or failure of problem-solving institutions and that societi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
2008 Financial Crisis
The 2008 financial crisis, also known as the global financial crisis (GFC), was a major worldwide financial crisis centered in the United States. The causes of the 2008 crisis included excessive speculation on housing values by both homeowners and financial institutions that led to the 2000s United States housing bubble, exacerbated by predatory lending for subprime mortgages and deficiencies in regulation. Cash out refinancings had fueled an increase in consumption that could no longer be sustained when home prices declined. The first phase of the crisis was the subprime mortgage crisis, which began in early 2007, as mortgage-backed securities (MBS) tied to U.S. real estate, and a vast web of Derivative (finance), derivatives linked to those MBS, collapsed in value. A liquidity crisis spread to global institutions by mid-2007 and climaxed with the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers in September 2008, which triggered a stock market crash and bank runs in several countries. The crisis ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Additive Bias
Additive bias is the tendency that prompts solving problems from a wrong or non expected way. It is a cognitive urge/ tendency of human beings facing problem that they add resources instead of taking or subtracting. According to Keith Holyoak, "Humans seeks to strengthen an argument or a manager seeks to encourage desired behaviour, thus requires a mental search for possible changes. Leidy Klotz conducted a series of laboratory experiments, demonstrating how, when faced with a problem, subjects were more likely to add elements rather than subtract, even where subtraction would have led to a better solution. See also * List of cognitive biases Cognitive biases are systematic patterns of deviation from norm and/or rationality in judgment. They are often studied in psychology, sociology and behavioral economics. Although the reality of most of these biases is confirmed by reproducible ... References Citations Further reading * {{Biases Cognitive biases ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Leidy Klotz
Leidy Klotz (born July 14, 1978) is an American scientist and author who studies and writes about design and problem-solving. He is a professor of engineering and architecture at the University of Virginia. Klotz has published in scientific journals including ''Nature'' and ''Science'' and in other publications such as ''The Washington Post'', ''Harvard Business Review'', ''Fast Company'', and ''The Globe and Mail''. He is also the author of two popular books: ''Subtract: The Untapped Science of Less'' (2021), which discusses design and problem-solving, and ''Sustainability through Soccer'' (2016), a work about systems thinking. Klotz is a retired United Soccer League soccer player. Soccer career Klotz played professionally for the Pittsburgh Riverhounds, making 31 appearances and scoring 3 goals in the 2000 and 2001 seasons. Klotz was a 2x Division I All-American at Lafayette College. He was inducted into the Lafayette College Hall of Fame in 2016 and the Homer High School H ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
