Wealth redistribution with finite resources

We present a simplified model for the exploitation of finite resources by interacting agents, where each agent receives a random fraction of the available resources. An extremal dynamics ensures that the poorest agent has a chance to change its economic welfare. After a long transient, the system self-organizes into a critical state that maximizes the average performance of each participant. Our model exhibits a new kind of wealth condensation, where very few extremely rich agents are stable in time and the rest stays in the middle class.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, RevTeX 4 styl

Hybridization, ecological races and the nature of species: empirical evidence for the ease of speciation

Species are generally viewed by evolutionists as ‘real’ distinct entities in nature, making speciation appear difficult. Charles Darwin had originally promoted a very different uniformitarian view that biological species were continuous with ‘varieties’ below the level of species and became distinguishable from them only when divergent natural selection led to gaps in the distribution of morphology. This Darwinian view on species came under immediate attack, and the consensus among evolutionary biologists today appears to side more with the ideas of Ernst Mayr and Theodosius Dobzhansky, who argued 70 years ago that Darwin was wrong about species. Here, I show how recent genetic studies of supposedly well-behaved animals, such as insects and vertebrates, including our own species, have supported the existence of the Darwinian continuum between varieties and species. Below the level of species, there are well-defined ecological races, while above the level of species, hybridization still occurs, and may often lead to introgression and, sometimes, hybrid speciation. This continuum is evident, not only across vast geographical regions, but also locally in sympatry. The existence of this continuum provides good evidence for gradual evolution of species from ecological races and biotypes, to hybridizing species and, ultimately, to species that no longer cross. Continuity between varieties and species not only provides an excellent argument against creationism, but also gives insight into the process of speciation. The lack of a hiatus between species and ecological races suggests that speciation may occur, perhaps frequently, in sympatry, and the abundant intermediate stages suggest that it is happening all around us. Speciation is easy

Circulation: A Theoretical Toolkit

This paper introduces a framework for researchers involved in the analysis of design history and practice. We show how design can be understood as a circulation process, and how design elements can be understood as forms identified by design studies scholars, which can be followed as they circulate from one instance to another, being either created, conserved, or dissipated. Using the example of the evolution of the iPhone calculator, we illustrate how this framework facilitates a dynamic understanding of how design elements are transported and transformed when traveling through human and nonhuman entities