Say a “catalytic pattern” is something like scaffolding, an entity that makes it easier to create (or otherwise obtain) another entity. An “autocatalytic pattern” is a sort of circular version of that, where the existence of an instance of the pattern acts as scaffolding for creating or otherwise obtaining another entity.
Autocatalysis is normally mentioned in the “origin of life” scientific field, but it also applies to cultural ratchets. An autocatalytic social structure will catalyze a few more instances of itself (frequently not expanding without end—rather, a niche is filled), and then the population has some redundancy and recoverability, acting as a ratchet.
For example, driving on the right(left) in one region catalyzes driving on the right(left) in an adjacent region.
Designing circular or self-applicable entities is kindof tricky, but it’s not as tricky as it might be—often, theres an attraction basin around a hypothesized circular entity, where X catalyzes Y which is very similar to X, and Y catalyzes Z which is very similar to Y, and so focusing your search sufficiently, and then iterating or iterating-and-tweaking can often get the last, trickiest steps.
Douglas Hofstadter catalyzed the creation (by Lee Sallows) of a “Pangram Machine” that exploits this attraction basin to create a self-describing sentence that starts “This Pangram contains four as, [...]” - see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pangram
Has there been any work on measuring, studying attraction basins around autocatalytic entities?
Say a “catalytic pattern” is something like scaffolding, an entity that makes it easier to create (or otherwise obtain) another entity. An “autocatalytic pattern” is a sort of circular version of that, where the existence of an instance of the pattern acts as scaffolding for creating or otherwise obtaining another entity.
Autocatalysis is normally mentioned in the “origin of life” scientific field, but it also applies to cultural ratchets. An autocatalytic social structure will catalyze a few more instances of itself (frequently not expanding without end—rather, a niche is filled), and then the population has some redundancy and recoverability, acting as a ratchet.
For example, driving on the right(left) in one region catalyzes driving on the right(left) in an adjacent region.
Designing circular or self-applicable entities is kindof tricky, but it’s not as tricky as it might be—often, theres an attraction basin around a hypothesized circular entity, where X catalyzes Y which is very similar to X, and Y catalyzes Z which is very similar to Y, and so focusing your search sufficiently, and then iterating or iterating-and-tweaking can often get the last, trickiest steps.
Douglas Hofstadter catalyzed the creation (by Lee Sallows) of a “Pangram Machine” that exploits this attraction basin to create a self-describing sentence that starts “This Pangram contains four as, [...]” - see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pangram
Has there been any work on measuring, studying attraction basins around autocatalytic entities?
I don’t know of any work on the question, but it’s a good topic. Nations seem to be autocatylitic.