CONCLUSION: ON THE INTERNET, ‘MORE IS DIFFERENT’
Complexity economics warns against attempts to synthesize the dynamics of a system by reference to reductionist universal laws. Theorists of complexity often point to physicist Philip Anderson’s 1972 essay, ‘More is different’ in the journal Science (Anderson, 1972).
There, he explains that although we can describe individual components of a complex system, we cannot predict with certainty what will happen when they interact. That is not to say that trying to understand the Internet through the lens of complexity theory is a lost cause. As Anderson (1972, p. 396) notes: ‘In general, the relationship between the system and its parts is intellectually a one-way street. Synthesis is expected to be all but impossible; analysis, on the other hand, may be not only possible but fruitful in all kinds of ways’. He then notes that by observing certain principles or phenomena - often cross-pollinated from one discipline to another - scholars can obtain a far more accurate understanding of systems than from reductionist approaches. In this spirit, we have highlighted here the most enduring technological design principles of the Internet in order to elucidate why it has been such a remarkable economic catalyst.The Internet Protocol has helped to fashion a ‘virtuous hourglass’ from disparate activities at the different network layers. The Internet drives convergence at the IP (middle) layer, while at the same time facilitating divergence at the physical networks (lower) and applications/content (upper) layers. The interconnected, end-to-end nature of the network allows innovations to build upon each other in self-feeding loops.
The result is not just more activity and growth, but the flourishing of many different ways for humans to innovate and interact. This layered network of relationships and interconnected technologies relies upon and creates a self-feeding infrastructure, driven by principles that are simultaneously simple and complex.
NOTE
* The ideas expressed here are those of the authors alone, and do not reflect the opinion of Princeton University or Motorola Mobility LLC/Google Inc. (the organizational affiliations of the authors at the time of writing). This chapter draws significantly from Whitt and Schultze (2009) and Whitt (2013).
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