The Principles of Economics & Evolution
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THE PRINCIPLES OF ECONOMICS & EVOLUTION A Survival Guide for the Inhabitants of Small Islands, Including the Inhabitants of the Small Island of Earth$ I MATT FUNK, FLS A Lifeboat Foundation Scientific Advisory Committee Report Published online 5 May 2010 Revised Memorial Day, 31 May 2010£ http://lifeboat.com/papers/matt.funk.on.the.principles.of.economics.and.evolution.pdf $ Perhaps such an effort of effectively thinking through these implications requires a combination of qualifications which nobody possesses to a sufficient degree and which the specialist who feels sure in his own field therefore hesitates to undertake. To do it adequately one would indeed have to be equally competent… as a logician and as a mathematician, and as a physicist and as a philosopher. I need scarcely say that I possess none of these qualifications. But since it is doubtful whether anybody does, and since at least nobody who possesses them as yet has tried his hand at this problem, it is perhaps inevitable that the first attempt should be made by somebody who had to try and acquire the necessary equipment as he went along – F.A. von Hayek, The Sensory Order: An Inquiry into the Foundations of Theoretical Psychology, 1952 £ We can not dedicate—we can not consecrate—we can not hallow—this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they here gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth – Abraham Lincoln, The Gettysburg Address, 1863 PDF compression, OCR, web optimization using a watermarked evaluation copy of CVISION PDFCompressor A THESIS Presented to the Faculty of The University of Prince Edward Island, in Candidacy for the Degree of Master of Arts in Island Studies Submitted on April 25th, 2010. Recommended for Acceptance by Dean Richard Gordon Kurial on April 30th, 2010. i PDF compression, OCR, web optimization using a watermarked evaluation copy of CVISION PDFCompressor TABLE OF CONTENTS$ §I – DEDICATION – page iv §II – COPYRIGHT NOTICE – page v §III – A NOTE ON THE DIGITAL SUPPLEMENT & TABLE OF CONTENTS – page vi §IV – EPIGRAPH – page x §V – ABSTRACT – page xi §VI – ON THE GAME OF LIFE: A FOREWORD – page xii §VII – ON THE PRINCIPLES OF ECONOMICS & EVOLUTION – page xlix A Survival Guide for the Inhabitants of Small Islands, Including the Inhabitants of the Small Island of Earth §VIII – ON THE ORIGIN OF MASS EXTINCTIONS: AN AFTERWORD – page lxxvi APPENDIX I – CANADIAN WINNER BEMOANS BUREACRACY – page lxxviii APPENDIX II – ON A TIME WHEN SURVIVAL WAS THE ULTIMATE ACHIEVEMENT – page lxxx APPENDIX III – ON THE PROBLEM OF ICELANDIC ERUPTIONS – page lxxii APPENDIX IV – ON SHARING GOOD BOOKS & REVOLUTIONARY IDEAS – cvi BIBLIOGRAPHY – page cx LIST OF FIGURES Figure I – An Evolutionarily Stable “Buy” Recommendation – cover Figure II – A Birth of a Theory, Prince Edward Island, March 2008 – page v Figure III – Evolutionarily Stable Personal Transport Strategy – page lxviii Figure IV – Theory of Games and Economic Behaviour – page lxix Figure V – Canadian Winner Bemoans Bureacracy – page lxxviii Figure VI – Stunning Natural Beauty – page lxxxiii Figure VII – Blue Hot Springs – page lxxxiii Figure VIII – Gorgeous Horses – page lxxxiv $ Please note numbers correspond to the page numbers of this Adobe® portable document file: typing a desired page number into the window in the top-left corner of the Reader window directs to the desired page. ii PDF compression, OCR, web optimization using a watermarked evaluation copy of CVISION PDFCompressor Figure IX – Scary Sheep – page lxxxv Figure X – The Home of Halldór Laxness – page lxxxv Figure XI – Iceland's Major Volcanoes & Tectonic Plate Boundaries – page xcii Figure XII – Map of Flathead Valley, Montana – page xcv Figure XIII – Recent Home Sales in Woods Bay, Montana – page xcvi Figure XIV– Downtown Whitefish, Montana, pop. 5,000 – page c Figure XV – Glacier Park International Airport Route Map – page c Figure XVI – The Yellowstone Caldera – page cv Figure XVII – Nontrivial News – page cviii Copyright © William Matthew Funk 2010. All rights reserved. iii PDF compression, OCR, web optimization using a watermarked evaluation copy of CVISION PDFCompressor §I – DEDICATION For my Son, William.$ $ Most people, [Dear William], complain about the meanness of nature, because we are born for a brief span of life, and because this spell of time that has been given to us rushes by so swiftly and rapidly that with very few exceptions life ceases for the rest of us just when we are getting ready for it. Nor is it just the man in the street and the unthinking mass of people who groan over this – as they see it – universal evil: the same feeling lies behind complaints from even distinguished men. Hence the dictum of the greatest of doctors: 'Life is short, art is long.' Hence too the grievance, most improper to a wise man, which Aristotle expressed when he was taking nature to task for indulging animals with such long existences that they can live through five or ten human lifetimes, while a far shorter limit is set for men who are born to a great and extensive destiny. It is not that we have a short time to live, but that we waste a lot of it. Life is long enough, and a sufficiently generous amount has been given to us for the highest achievements if it were all well invested. But when it is wasted in heedless luxury and spent on no good activity, we are forced at last by death’s final constraint to realize that it has passed away before we knew it was passing. So it is: we are not given a short life but we make it short, and we are not ill-supplied but wasteful of it. Just as when ample and princely wealth falls to a bad owner it is squandered in a moment, but wealth however modest, if entrusted to a good custodian, increases with use, so our lifetime extends amply if you manage it properly. Why do we complain about nature? She has acted kindly: life is long if you know how to use it. But one man is gripped by insatiable greed, another by a laborious dedication to useless tasks. One man is soaked in wine, another sluggish with idleness. One man is worn out by political ambition, which is always at the mercy of the judgment of others. Another through hope of profit is driven headlong over all lands and seas by the greed of trading. Some are tormented by a passion for army life, always intent on inflicting dangers on others or anxious about danger to themselves. Some are worn out by the self-imposed servitude of thankless attendance on the great. Many are occupied by either pursuing other people’s money or complaining about their own. Many pursue no fixed goal, but are tossed about in ever-changing designs by a fickleness which is shifting, inconstant and never satisfied with itself. Some have no aims at all for their life’s course, but death takes them unawares as they yawn languidly – so much so that I cannot doubt the truth of that oracular remark of the greatest poet: ‘It is a small part of life we really live’ – Seneca, On the Shortness of Life, c. 60 AD iv PDF compression, OCR, web optimization using a watermarked evaluation copy of CVISION PDFCompressor §II – COPYRIGHT NOTICE Fig. II – The Birth of a Theory, Prince Edward Island, March 2008 This Scientific Advisory Committee Report was published by The Lifeboat Foundation in Minden, Nevada, USA, and is protected under United States Copyright law. All materials reprinted herein—published, unpublished, under copyright protection, and in the public domain— have been clearly cited and judiciously utilized with “fair use”, and included “for the purposes of fair and reasonable criticism” (Story 1841), and “the Progress of Science and useful Arts” (Jefferson, Adams, Paine 1788, Art. I ; cf Story 1840). This report was written with the sole intention of the advancement of science, namely the advancement of new knowledge. All materials – under copyright protection or otherwise – have been utilized in a “transformative” manner.$ $ The author thanks all friends, family, fellow students, faculty, and correspondents whom have graciously granted permissions to publish their generous and much-appreciated correspondences; special thanks are also in order for Clifton La Bree for permission to publish an excerpt (APPENDIX II) from New Hampshire's General John Stark, Live Free or Die, Death is not the Worst of Evils. The author would also like to extend a heartfelt thanks to the good people of Prince Edward Island and Premier Robert Ghiz for permission to reprint A Search for a Measure of the Quality of Life on Prince Edward Island: An Inter-Provincial 'Cost of Living' Inquiry. And, last but certainly not least, this report was made possible through the generosity and unwavering support of Eric Klein and The Lifeboat Foundation. v PDF compression, OCR, web optimization using a watermarked evaluation copy of CVISION PDFCompressor §III – A NOTE ON THE DIGITAL SUPPLEMENT For your convenience, twenty-three supplementary theoretical developments & supporting documents (DS §1 – §23), and thirty-eight fabulous photographs, topical tables, and fascinating figures (Fig.