Technological Innovation as an Evolutionary Process

Technological Innovation as an Evolutionary Process PDF Author: John M. Ziman
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521542173
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 404

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Book Description
Ground-breaking yet non-technical analysis of the analogy that technological artefacts 'evolve' like biological organisms.

Technological Innovation as an Evolutionary Process

Technological Innovation as an Evolutionary Process PDF Author: John M. Ziman
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521542173
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 404

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Book Description
Ground-breaking yet non-technical analysis of the analogy that technological artefacts 'evolve' like biological organisms.

Philosophy and Design

Philosophy and Design PDF Author: Pieter E. Vermaas
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 1402065914
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 349

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Book Description
This volume provides the reader with an integrated overview of state-of-the-art research in philosophy and ethics of design in engineering and architecture. It contains twenty-five essays that focus on engineering designing in its traditional sense, on designing in novel engineering domains, and on architectural and environmental designing. This volume enables the reader to overcome the traditional separation between engineering designing and architectural designing.

The Nature of Technology

The Nature of Technology PDF Author: W. Brian Arthur
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1439165785
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 258

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Book Description
“More than anything else technology creates our world. It creates our wealth, our economy, our very way of being,” says W. Brian Arthur. Yet despite technology’s irrefutable importance in our daily lives, until now its major questions have gone unanswered. Where do new technologies come from? What constitutes innovation, and how is it achieved? Does technology, like biological life, evolve? In this groundbreaking work, pioneering technology thinker and economist W. Brian Arthur answers these questions and more, setting forth a boldly original way of thinking about technology. The Nature of Technology is an elegant and powerful theory of technology’s origins and evolution. Achieving for the development of technology what Thomas Kuhn’s The Structure of Scientific Revolutions did for scientific progress, Arthur explains how transformative new technologies arise and how innovation really works. Drawing on a wealth of examples, from historical inventions to the high-tech wonders of today, Arthur takes us on a mind-opening journey that will change the way we think about technology and how it structures our lives. The Nature of Technology is a classic for our times.

Innovation and Industry Evolution

Innovation and Industry Evolution PDF Author: David B. Audretsch
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 9780262011464
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 236

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Book Description
It once took two decades to replace one-third of the Fortune 500; now a subset of new firms are challenging and displacing this elite group at a breathtaking rate, while armies of startups come and go within just a few years. Most new jobs are, in fact, coming from small firms, reversing the trend of a century. David Audretsch takes a close look at the U.S. economy in motion, providing a detailed and systematic investigation of the dynamic process by which industries and firms enter into markets, either grow and survive, or disappear. He shapes a clear understanding of the role that small, entrepreneurial firms play in this evolutionary process and in the asymmetric size distribution of firms in the typical industry.Audretsch introduces the large longitudinal database maintained by the U.S. Small Business Administration that is used to identify the startup of new firms and track their performance over time. He then provides different snapshots of the process of industries in motion: why new-firm startup activity varies so greatly across industries; what happens to these firms after they enter the market; the extent to which entrepreneurial firms account for an industry's economic activity and why that measure varies across industries; how small firms compensate for size-related disadvantages; and who exits and why.Audretsch concludes that the structure of industries is characterized by a high degree of fluidity and turbulence, even as the patterns of evolution vary considerably from industry to industry. The dynamic process by which firms and industries evolve over time is shaped by three fundamental factors: technology, scale economies, and demand. Most important, the evidence suggests that it is the differences in the knowledge conditions and technology underlying each specific industry -- key elements in innovation -- that are responsible for the pattern particular to that industry.

Evolution Made to Order

Evolution Made to Order PDF Author: Helen Anne
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022639011X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 296

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Book Description
Plant breeders have long sought technologies to extend human control over nature. Early in the twentieth century, this led some to experiment with startlingly strange tools like x-ray machines, chromosome-altering chemicals, and radioactive elements. Contemporary reports celebrated these mutation-inducing methods as ways of generating variation in plants on demand. Speeding up evolution, they imagined, would allow breeders to genetically engineer crops and flowers to order. Creating a new food crop or garden flower would soon be as straightforward as innovating any other modern industrial product. In Evolution Made to Order, Helen Anne Curry traces the history of America’s pursuit of tools that could intervene in evolution. An immersive journey through the scientific and social worlds of midcentury genetics and plant breeding and a compelling exploration of American cultures of innovation, Evolution Made to Order provides vital historical context for current worldwide ethical and policy debates over genetic engineering.

Modern Evolutionary Economics

Modern Evolutionary Economics PDF Author: Richard R. Nelson
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108660789
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 285

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Book Description
Evolutionary economics sees the economy as always in motion with change being driven largely by continuing innovation. This approach to economics, heavily influenced by the work of Joseph Schumpeter, saw a revival as an alternative way of thinking about economic advancement as a result of Richard Nelson and Sidney Winter's seminal book, An Evolutionary Theory of Economic Change, first published in 1982. In this long-awaited follow-up, Nelson is joined by leading figures in the field of evolutionary economics, reviewing in detail how this perspective has been manifest in various areas of economic inquiry where evolutionary economists have been active. Providing the perfect overview for interested economists and social scientists, readers will learn how in each of the diverse fields featured, evolutionary economics has enabled an improved understanding of how and why economic progress occurs.

What Technology Wants

What Technology Wants PDF Author: Kevin Kelly
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0143120174
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 417

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Book Description
From the author of the New York Times bestseller The Inevitable— a sweeping vision of technology as a living force that can expand our individual potential In this provocative book, one of today's most respected thinkers turns the conversation about technology on its head by viewing technology as a natural system, an extension of biological evolution. By mapping the behavior of life, we paradoxically get a glimpse at where technology is headed-or "what it wants." Kevin Kelly offers a dozen trajectories in the coming decades for this near-living system. And as we align ourselves with technology's agenda, we can capture its colossal potential. This visionary and optimistic book explores how technology gives our lives greater meaning and is a must-read for anyone curious about the future.

Technological Development as an Evolutionary Process

Technological Development as an Evolutionary Process PDF Author: John Hagedoorn
Publisher: Elsevier Publishing Company
ISBN:
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 244

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Book Description


Diffusion of Technologies and Social Behavior

Diffusion of Technologies and Social Behavior PDF Author: Nebojsa Nakicenovic
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 3662027003
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 616

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Book Description
Wee felt it before in sense; but now wee know it by science. Edward Misselden (1623) The collective effort reported in this volume is the outcome of the diffusion of the idea of diffusion as a fundamental process in society. The considerable number of disciplines represented here indicates the weight of the problem area. The editors are to be congratulated for their initiative in drawing together present thinking at a vivid meeting, now also in print. An old timer in the business has not much to add. But maybe some things, bearing in mind that a Preface is a celebration and not a review. As always with ideas it is hard to identify those who first gave shape to the idea of diffusion. In a general sense it is probably an observation as old as human self-reflection that groups of populations exchange ideas and copy habits and implements from each other. Sometimes it has even been recommended, as a Chinese proverb suggested millenia ago, "If you want to become a good farmer, look at your neighbor" .

Cultural Evolution

Cultural Evolution PDF Author: Peter J. Richerson
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262019752
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 499

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Book Description
Leading scholars report on current research that demonstrates the central role of cultural evolution in explaining human behavior. Over the past few decades, a growing body of research has emerged from a variety of disciplines to highlight the importance of cultural evolution in understanding human behavior. Wider application of these insights, however, has been hampered by traditional disciplinary boundaries. To remedy this, in this volume leading researchers from theoretical biology, developmental and cognitive psychology, linguistics, anthropology, sociology, religious studies, history, and economics come together to explore the central role of cultural evolution in different aspects of human endeavor. The contributors take as their guiding principle the idea that cultural evolution can provide an important integrating function across the various disciplines of the human sciences, as organic evolution does for biology. The benefits of adopting a cultural evolutionary perspective are demonstrated by contributions on social systems, technology, language, and religion. Topics covered include enforcement of norms in human groups, the neuroscience of technology, language diversity, and prosociality and religion. The contributors evaluate current research on cultural evolution and consider its broader theoretical and practical implications, synthesizing past and ongoing work and sketching a roadmap for future cross-disciplinary efforts. Contributors Quentin D. Atkinson, Andrea Baronchelli, Robert Boyd, Briggs Buchanan, Joseph Bulbulia, Morten H. Christiansen, Emma Cohen, William Croft, Michael Cysouw, Dan Dediu, Nicholas Evans, Emma Flynn, Pieter François, Simon Garrod, Armin W. Geertz, Herbert Gintis, Russell D. Gray, Simon J. Greenhill, Daniel B. M. Haun, Joseph Henrich, Daniel J. Hruschka, Marco A. Janssen, Fiona M. Jordan, Anne Kandler, James A. Kitts, Kevin N. Laland, Laurent Lehmann, Stephen C. Levinson, Elena Lieven, Sarah Mathew, Robert N. McCauley, Alex Mesoudi, Ara Norenzayan, Harriet Over, Jürgen Renn, Victoria Reyes-García, Peter J. Richerson, Stephen Shennan, Edward G. Slingerland, Dietrich Stout, Claudio Tennie, Peter Turchin, Carel van Schaik, Matthijs Van Veelen, Harvey Whitehouse, Thomas Widlok, Polly Wiessner, David Sloan Wilson