The patterns of energy flow studied
by gradient-based thermodynamics can be seen also to apply in many
areas of economics. An argument can be made that economics needs
to be revamped to reflect our understanding of economic systems as
nonequilibrium energy systems. Indeed, despite academic inertia, this
only stands to reason. Economies form from the activities of organisms,
themselves nonequilibrium systems.
As, in ecology, organisms able to garner more resources
for their maintenance and growth tend to prosper, so, too, economic
profits tend to accrue preferentially to those operators best able
to commandeer materials and resources to maintain or expand their own
operations: that "money
makes money" is not only a truism of capitalism but a reflection
of the growth process typical of nonequilibrium systems. Such systems
increase their differentiation and complexity vis-à-vis the outside
world by funneling resources into their own expansion as they target,
use, and sometimes use up the gradient differences that drive energy
flow. In addition, because human beings are nature's premier known symbol
manipulators, the economic equivalent to biomass or metabolic energy—money—can
be made by systematically reducing "merely symbolic" price
differentials.
Historically, markets arise along trade routes
and concentrate in cities, increasing the flow of materials among human
beings whose organization becomes more efficient when they differentiate
into specialized tasks and professions. Nonetheless, neither cities
nor trading—the fundamental
process that reduces a supply-demand gradient—are explicitly treated
by traditional economic theory. Indeed, orthodox economics assumes that
the economy is an efficient, equilibrium system stabilized by rational
actors. But the agents of economic systems are neither particularly rational
(consider the greed and fear of stock market booms and busts), nor are
economies, feeding on external reserves of food and fuel, in true equilibrium.
Despite the mathematics that would describe them, economies are not stable
but metastable dissipative systems. Like organisms and ecosystems, they
tend to grow and to find ways of tapping gradients to reduce entropy
and cycle materials. In the words of economist C. Dyke
It might seem that the greater wisdom would be to treat economic systems
as if they were mere analogues to the dissipative structures normally
discussed in the literature of NET. But I do not think this would be
right . . . But scarcity is not the primary condition for an economy.
What economies rest on are gradients. They depend on finding ways of
keeping material flow at a suitable rate. Sometimes this is recognized
by economists themselves . . . More often, however, the need for gradients
is misrecognized.
Other new businesses that can be traced to the
recognition and reduction of gradients include Amazon, eBay, Yahoo,
and other survivors in the Internet economy. Although many companies
and shareholders lost money (again, a little knowledge is a dangerous
thing), the companies that survived were those that used the World
Wide Web to reduce supply-demand gradients between buyers and sellers.
In addition, Internet companies were able to use the new technology
to get rid of middlemen, lowering costs. But while web companies such
as discount brokerages, travel agencies, auction houses, and booksellers
may be historically unique, the process by which they enrich themselves
is not. For example, long before the Internet brought down the price
of commissions, augmenting global cycling, the completion of the Erie
Canal in 1825 allowed food to be transported more cheaply from the
Midwest to New York and Boston. The canal eliminated the need for a
portage around Niagara or a voyage through enemy territory—Quebec.
Global business is part of thermodynamic biology. Profits from rapid
movement of low-margin product (a product making little profit per
item), or slower movement of high-margin product (a large-ticket, highly
profitable item), ensure biospheric circulation of new products, materials,
and tools in the autocatalytic networks of life.
Sustainability and Long-Term Survival
To survive sustainably we need to live like climax ecosystems. This
means to:
Use sustainable energy gradients
Control our human population
Increase energy efficiency.
Recycle
Close leaky cycles whenever possible
Develop ecology as a worldview
Encourage cultural and biological diversity
Encourage interconnectivity, but not to the point of a single homogeneous
system.
Stressed ecosystems and ecosystems deprived of energy
retreat to earlier stages of organization. These tendencies are predictable,
and humans are not exempt.
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