Diversity and Complexity by Scott E. Page

Author:Scott E. Page
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Published: 2011-06-15T00:00:00+00:00

Constraint #6: Plasticity and Rate of Adaptation The ability of entities in the system to explore new functional possibilities, and the rate at which those explorations occur.

Plasticity seems like a great idea. Species that can adapt to changing circumstances would seem to have a reproductive advantage. True enough, but adaptability comes at a cost. Strawberries can alter their chemistry to adapt to changing light, but photosynthetic flexibility requires extra sensory apparatus (Levin 2000).

Creative systems have amazing plasticity and therefore lots of diversity. Beinhocker (2006) estimates that world markets support on the order of ten billion stock keeping units (SKUs). SKUs uniquely identify a type of product. They’re familiar to us as the bar codes we see on packages. That’s more than one product for each person who ever lived.

Finally, the amount of plasticity depends on the extent to which exploration has limited range. In computer science, a search is referred to as local if it only changes a small number of attributes or features. If innovations must be near existing entities, then diversity will be limited. The extent to which search is local depends on the process that produces variation. In asexual reproduction, variation comes solely from mutation and is therefore quite limited. In architecture, it’s possible for someone to design anything—witness Frank Gehry’s Guggenheim museum in Bilbao and Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles. Even though anything could be possible (subject to physical constraints), architects are often quite conservative. They’re hemmed in by cultural constraints as discussed in the previous chapter.

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