Non-fiction

Why Information Grows: The Evolution of Order, from Atoms to Economies

Name: Why Information Grows: The Evolution of Order, from Atoms to Economies
Author: César A. Hidalgo

César A. Hidalgo

30 minAudio9 insights

What you'll learn

•The physical principles behind the emergence and persistence of information.
•How human imagination is crystallized into physical products embodying knowledge.
•The limits of individual and organizational knowledge accumulation and the concept of quantization.
•The role of social networks, trust, and transaction costs in shaping economic knowledge networks.
•How economic complexity connects knowledge accumulation with income and growth.
•Why economic development is uneven and tied to the ability to accumulate and diffuse knowledge.
•The interplay between physical, social, and economic systems in the growth of information.

Who should read this

✓Economists and policymakers interested in development and growth
✓Students and researchers of information theory and complexity science
✓Social scientists studying networks and institutions
✓Entrepreneurs and innovators curious about knowledge and innovation dynamics

About this book

An interdisciplinary journey explaining the physical and social mechanisms driving the growth of information and economic complexity.

Did You Know?

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The author uses the metaphor of a 'personbyte' to represent the maximum knowledge and knowhow capacity of a human.

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Audio Summary

Section 1

The Dance of Order and Disorder: Understanding Information's Physical Roots

3:45

10 Sections

Preview: The Dance of Order and Disorder: Understanding Information's Physical Roots

Imagine the universe as a vast canvas, painted with energy, matter, and information. While energy and matter are familiar to us as the building blocks of reality, it is information—the specific arrangement of these elements—that breathes life into complexity and order. Information is not an ethereal, intangible concept; it is as physical as the atoms that compose a Bugatti or the DNA strands in every living cell. This physicality means that the value and uniqueness of objects come not from their constituent atoms alone, but from the precise way these atoms are arranged.

Consider the concept of entropy, often misunderstood as mere disorder. Entropy actually measures the number of ways a system can be arranged while appearing the same at a macro level. For instance, a stadium half full of people can have countless seating arrangements, all representing the same average occupancy. This multitude of equivalent states means high entropy. Yet, among these countless possibilities, certain arrangements—like people sitting to spell out the word 'INFORMATION'—are incredibly rare and ordered, embodying high information content.

This distinction reveals a profound insight: entropy and information, though related, capture different aspects of physical systems. Entropy focuses on the commonality and multiplicity of states, while information highlights the rarity and specificity of order. The universe, guided by the laws of physics, tends toward increasing entropy, yet pockets of order—information-rich islands—emerge and persist, especially in out-of-equilibrium systems such as our planet.

Understanding information as physical order sets the stage for exploring how life, knowledge, and economies grow complexity. It challenges us to see beyond the abstract and appreciate the tangible structures that carry meaning and function.

As we move forward, we will delve into how these pockets of information arise naturally, persist against entropy, and become the foundation for the growth of knowledge and human creativity.