Complex Economic Systems and Astrobiology
"The evolution of the economy parallels the unentailed evolution of the biosphere as species create niches for one another, often adaption of the evolving biosphere. In both cases, like the garage filling up with ever newly invented “stuff” for jury-rigging, life creates its own staggering possibilities of future becoming." (Stuart Kauffman, 2019)
Macroeconomics studies the economy at the level of a country; and perhaps there is no coincidence that macroeconomics has developed during the 20th century, a century marred by world wars and cold wars and, overall, by the idea of nations and states and countries. But in the 21st century we are more and more embedded in a globalized world, borders and boundaries become more fluid and diffused, as information, money, people and resources find their way cross countries and cross cultures faster. New global issues, such as climate and ecological sustainability, rapid technological innovations in information technologies and not only, cyberspace and space industries, and many more, are nudging us to think globally, and actually both globally and locally, and not only at the level of a country. Perhaps it is time for a planetary level economic thinking. Perhaps it's time to think of the economy of planet Earth and to understand how the fundamental economic principles are perpetuating from the bottom up and across humans and other species too.
The field of complex systems has been largely inspired by biology, as a departure in our way of thinking about societies and life on our planet, that is distinct from the way we are thinking about physical systems, which are more deterministic and governed by strict laws. Life on our planet is incredibly diverse from our own perspective, but at the same time all life functions based on fundamental principles that are the same across this diversity. Living systems highly depend on (and alter them too) their physical environments, but what is more complex about living systems is that they change and adapt to their communities and to other species as well. In other words, the diversity of life on our planet comes not only from the diversity of species, but also from the diversity of interactions they have among themselves. Such complex systems can be inherently non-deterministic, but at the same time the macro level behavior renders patterns and emergent behaviors that are characteristic to life alone. Human societies are no exception.
"All simplifying assumptions are too complicated". (SELF-ANNIHILATING SENTENCES - Saul Gorn's Compendium Of Rarely Used Cliches, 1985)