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Evolutionary economics Part 2 — Within and between

Evolution has infused life with economic principles — not just in individual cells and in individual organisms’ relationships with each other, but also within organisms, and between the members of entire societies

(Part 1 is here.)

By some accounts, economic principles are almost as old as life itself. Mutations that enabled organisms to deal more efficiently with scarcity became persistent adaptations. Bacteria evolved adaptations using opportunity cost to maintain vital processes, plants and fungi developed nutrient exchange networks, and insects evolved specialized castes embodying division of labour. These examples, however, only illustrate how these principles apply to individual cells or between organisms. This post examines the more intricate coordination systems operating within organisms and between members of entire populations.

Economies within

We have seen how individual cells have components that specialize in particular activities, but in multicellular organisms, this is taken a lot further. Our body must maintain (almost literally) countless simultaneous transactions, all of which boil down to the constant redirection…