Since before Adam Smith, economists have been concerned with development. However, they have seldom understood it or paid it enough mind. For example, the “sequence” economists, such as Marx in the 19th Century and Rostow in the 20th sought to force development everywhere into a rigid pattern. Since 1874, the marginalists and their Neoliberal descendents have emphasised...
One of the most fundamental laws of Nature is formulated by the Second Law of Thermodynamics. At present, in its usual formulation the central concept is entropy characterized in terms of equilibrium state variables. We point out that because thermodynamic changes arise when systems are out of equilibrium and because entropy is not a natural state variable characterizing non...
Standard economic models predict that a ceteris paribus increase in the overall productivity results in an increased production if the economy departs from an equilibrium state. We show that this result is valid under specific conditions In other cases, even if the initial conditions of an economic system are so that the economy converges into (or starts from) an equilibrium...
In the past, the energy planners through setting the desired level of economic growth simply used this figure as a base to which additional increases were made, dependent on changing population and supply conditions. Planning proceeded from the national, macroeconomic position, to the aggregate, sectoral and finally project levels. Such process was a virtual one-way linkage from...
This paper proposes a dynamic economic model with wealth accumulation and human capital accumulation. The economic system consists of one production sector and one education sector. We take account of three ways of improving human capital: learning by producing, learning by education, and learning by consuming. The model describes a dynamic interdependence between wealth...
The study of empires’ development has prided itself on great traditions in historical sciences. However, understanding the development courses meets difficulties if the geographical environment is disregarded. In my opinion, with the help of studying the geographical environment and also Krugman’s economic geographical theory, a more complex understanding of empires’ history can...
A visualization method is proposed for understanding the structure of complex networks based on an extended Curvelet transform named Dyadic Curvelet Transform (DClet). The proposed visualization method comes to answer specific questions about structures of complex networks by mapping data into orthogonal localized events with a directional component via the Cartesian sampling...
This paper explores a new idea about the future development of science and teams, and predicts its possible applications in science, education, workforce development and research. The inter-relatedness of science and teamwork developments suggests a growing importance of team facilitators’ quality, as well as the criticality of detailed studies of teamwork processes and team...
Physical conditions for spontaneous growth and development of complex structures are discussed: using the concept of {free energy (thermodynamic negentropy)} -> {structural information (Shanonnian) negentropy} transformation. The phenomena of structure ageing and decay are analysed. Degree of complexity of a structure, direction of its evolution is related to the number of...
Chaos theories developed in the last three decades have made very important contributions to our understanding of dynamical systems and natural phenomena. The meaning of chaos in the current theories and in the past is somewhat different from each other. In this work, the properties of dynamical systems and the evolution of chaotic systems were discussed in terms of the views of...
The assumption that society is a complex system is a common and trivial in sociology. Most of the great sociological theories treat society as a complex system explicitly or implicitly. Because social system is always multidimensional it is easier to build such a theory than to apply it to practice. Therefore, it is still not fully explored issue, especially when theory meets...
The paper deals with the problems encountered in exploring/describing cognising systems. It is argued that these are mostly an issue of epistemology and that some of the aspects of the above mentioned systems cannot be described without taking into account the researcher’s participation in the process of researching (and describing).
Non-linear, stochastic, thermodynamic, agent based or network modelling are powerful tools brought from other fields into economics. Applied in almost every sub-field of economics, these tools had however substantial success only in the analysis of financial markets. We suggest that the reason for this is less the insufficiency of these technical tools but rather the incapacity...
In this paper the energy concept used in economic activity is investigated. It is not a “useful” part of physical energy, but an economically defined quantity. To reach this conclusion we first give a summary of the classification of the different concepts – all bearing the name energy. There are at least six distinct concepts to be distinguished. Three of them are scientific...
Regarding the widespread confusion about the concept and nature of complexity, information and biological organization, we look for some coordinated conceptual considerations corresponding to quantitative measures suitable to grasp the main characteristics of biological complexity. Quantitative measures of algorithmic complexity of supercomputers like Blue Gene/L are compared...
The issue of modelling international financial aid to underdeveloped countries baffled economists for decades. The initial assumptions (that outside aid could help bolster up the internally insufficient investment, thus helping economic growth) were statistically proven wrong; most of the recipient countries did not experience rapid growth, rather an increasing dependence on...
The Clausian introduction of entropy is based on an unnecessary restriction, namely that diminishing circle integral leads to a unique state variable. Eliminating that restriction a family of entropy-like function is introduced. After we have chosen one, called extropy, which has better properties as the well known entropy.
In this paper the properties of the wealth function of an economic system are studied. An economic analog of the Gibbs-Duhem equation is derived. Equilibrium states and limiting profit extraction regimes in non-equilibrium economic systems are obtained for the Cobb-Douglas wealth function.
The paper tries to tackle the question of connection between entropy and the living. Definitions of life as the phenomenon that defies entropy are overviewed and the conclusion is reached that life is in a way dependant on entropy - it couldn't exist without it. Entropy is a sort of medium, a fertile soil, that gives life possibility to blossom. Paper ends with presenting some...
Based on available data on various organisations and networks, the article explores some key properties of the structure of a terrorist organisation. Analytical focus is on lower levels of organisational hierarchy, where network structure with exponential distribution of the number of links among network nodes is clearly visible. Such networks tend to grow organically, are very...
During the last decade, the advance of Internet has enabled the emergence of previously nonexistent type of human social structures - virtual 'online' communities. As compared to the traditional communities, online communities are distinguished by the drastic reduction of the requirement for the physical proximity and geographical clustering of their members. The primary cause of...
Collaborative work is increasing in frequency and importance in business, academia, and communities. The knowledge behind what makes for a successful collaboration is also increasing but is normally focused on only one aspect of collaboration theory. The understanding of how successful collaborations are built is greatly improved by the creation of a unified framework that...
Two main processes are common for an economic system. They are consumption and accumulation. The first one is described by utility function, either cardinal or ordinal one. The mathematical model for accumulation process can be constructed using wealth function introduced within the frame of irreversible microeconomics. Characteristics of utility and wealth functions are compared...
Characterisation of unbounded resources of a social system within the sociological interpretation has resulted in a large number of different notions, which are relevant in different situations. From the view point of statistical mechanics, these notions resemble free energy. In this paper the concept of social free energy is introduced and first steps toward its development...
This paper describes general methodology that allows one to extend Carnot efficiency of classical thermodynamic for zero rate processes onto thermodynamic systems with finite rate. We define the class of minimal dissipation processes and show that it represents generalization of reversible processes and determines the limiting possibilities of finite rate systems. The described...