Germany happens too, like all the time

MY EDITORIAL ON YOU TUBE

I am experiencing an unusually long pause between consecutive updates on my blog. I published my latest update, entitled The balance between intelligence and the way we look in seasoned black leather, on June 23rd, 2020. This specific paragraph is technically in the introduction to a new update, yet I am writing it on June 30th, 2020, after having struggled with new writing for 6 entire days. There are two factors. Firstly, quite organically, we are having a persistent storm front over our part of Europe and with storms around, I have hard time to focus. I am in a bizarre state, as if I was sleepy and was having headaches in the same time. No, this is not hangover. There is nothing I could possibly have hangover after, like really, parole d’honneur. Sober as a pig, as we say in Poland.

Tough s**t makes tough people, and I when I experience struggle, I try to extract some learning therefrom. My learning from such episodes of intellectual struggle is that I can apply to my writing the same principles I apply to my training. Consistency and perseverance rule, intensity is an instrument. I can cheat myself into writing by short bouts. I can write better when I relax. I can write better when I consider pain and struggle as an interesting field of experience to explore and discover. By the way, this is something I discovered over the last 3,5 years, since I started practicing the Wim Hof method: that little fringe of struggle at the frontier of my comfort zone is extremely interesting. I discover a lot about myself when I place myself in that zone of proximal development, just beyond the limits of everyday habits. Nothing grand and impressive, just a tiny bit of s**t which I give to myself. When I keep it tiny, I can discover and study my experience thereof, and this is real stuff, as learning comes.   

The other reason I am struggling with my writing for is the amount of information I need to process. I am returning to studying my investment strategy, as I do every month, or so. There is a lot going on in the stock markets, and in my own decisions about them. I have hard times to keep up with my writing. Besides, I am really closing on the basic structure of my book on the civilizational role of cities, and I am preparing teaching content for online learning the next academic year. Yes, it looks like we go almost entirely distance learning, at least in the winter semester.

All in all, this update for my blog is a strange one. Usually, writing helps me put some order in my thinking and doing. This time, I have hard times to keep up with what’s going on. Once again, having hard times just means it is difficult. I keep trying and going. By trying and going, I have almost painfully come to the realisation what kind of message I want to convey in this update, when I finally end up by publishing it. Before I develop on that realisation, a short digression as regards the ‘end up by publishing’ part of the preceding sentence. I work in a rhythm of intuitively experienced intellectual exhaustion: I publish when I feel I have unloaded an intelligible, well rounded portion of my thinking into my writing.

What I am experiencing right now is precisely the feeling of having made a closure on a window of uncertainty and hesitation in many different fields. This update is specifically oriented on my strategy for investing in the stock market, and therefore this is the main thread I am sticking to. Still, that feeling of having just surfed a large wave of uncertainty sort of generally in life. I know it sounds suspiciously introspective in a blog post about investment, but here is another thing I have learnt about investment: being introspective pays. It pays financially. When I put effort into studying my own thoughts and my own decision making process, I learn how to make better, more informed decisions.  

My financial check from last month financial check is to find in ‘The moment of reassessment’. As I repeat that self-study of my own financial strategy, I find it both hard and rewarding. It is much harder to study my own decisions and my own behaviour (self-assessment) than to comment on sort of what people generally do (social science).

I feel as if I were one of those old-school inventors, who would experiment on themselves. Anyway, let’s study. Since ‘The moment of reassessment’ I made a few important financial decisions, and those decisions were marked by an unusual injection of cash. Basically, every month, I invest in the stock market an amount of PLN 2500, thus around $630, which corresponds to the rent I collect monthly from an apartment I own in town. I take the proceeds from one asset. i.e. real estate, and I use them to create a collection of financial assets.

As I have been practicing investment as a real thing, since the end of January, 2020 (see Bloody hard to make a strategy), I have learnt a lot in social sciences, too, mostly as regards microeconomics. I teach my students that fundamental concept of opportunity cost: when you invest anything, i.e. capital or your own work, in thing A, you forego the possibility of investing in thing B, and thus you choose the benefits from investment A to the expense of those from investment B. Those benefits B are the opportunity cost of investing in A. This is theory from textbooks. As I invest in the stock market, I suddenly understand all the depth of that simple rule. The stock market is like an ocean: there is always a lot that remains out of sight, or just out of my current attention span, and the way I orient my attention is crucial.

I have acquired a very acute feeling of what is called ‘bound rationale of economic decisions’ in textbooks. I have come to appreciate and respect the difference between well-informed decisions and the poorly informed ones. I have learnt the connection between information and time. Now, I know that not only do I have a limited bandwidth as regards business intel, but also that limited bandwidth spreads over time: the more time I have to decide, the more information I can process, and yet it would be too easy if it was that simple, since information loses value over time, and new information is better than old information.

That whole investment story has also taught me a lot about business strategies. I realized that I can outline a lot of alternative wannabe strategies, but only a few of them are workable as real sequences of decisions and actions of a strategy.

Good. Time to outline the situation: my current portfolio, comparison with that presented a month ago in ‘The moment of reassessment’, a short explanation how the hell have I come there, assessment of efficiency, and decisions for the future. Here is the thing: at the very moment when I started to write this specific update on my blog, thus on June 24th, 2020, things started to go south, investment-wise. I found myself in a strange situation, i.e. so fluid and changing one that describing it verbally is always one step behind actual events.

When I don’t have what I like, I have to do with what I have. In the absence of order and abundance of chaos, I have to do with chaos. Good chaos can be useful, mind you, as long as I can find my way through it. Step one, I am trying to describe chaos to the extent of possible. I am trying to phrase out the change in itself. There is some chaos in markets, and some in myself.

Good. Now I can start putting some order in chaos. I can describe change piece by piece, and I guess the best starting point is myself. After all, the existential chaos I am facing is – at least partly – the outcome of my own choices. After I published in ‘The moment of reassessment’, I began with taking non-routine decisions. That end-May-beginning-June period was a moment of something like a shake-off in my personal strategy. I was changing a lot. For reasons which I am going to explain in a moment, I sharply increased the amount of money in my two investment accounts. Now, as I look at things, I am coping with the delayed effects of those sudden decisions. The provisional lesson is that when I do something sudden in my business activity (I consider investment in the stock market as regular business: I put cash in assets which are supposed to bring me return), it is like a sudden shock, and ripples from that shock spread over time. Lesson number two is that any unusually big transfer of cash between into or from any of my investment accounts is such a shock, and there are ripples afterwards.

I think it is worth reconstructing a timeline of my so-far adventures in stock-market investment. End of January 2020, I start. I start investing shyly, without really knowing clearly what I want. I didn’t know what exact portfolio I wanted to build. I just had a general principle in mind, namely that I want to open investment positions in renewable energies, biotech, and IT.

From February through March 2020, I experiment with putting those principles into a practical frame. I do a lot of buying and selling. From the today’s perspective, I know that I was just experimenting with my own decision-making process. It had cost me money, I made some losses, and I intuitively figured out how I make my decisions.  

Over April and May 2020, I was progressively winding down those haphazard, experimental investments of mine. Step by step, I developed a reliable sub-portfolio in IT, and I rode an ascending market wave in Polish biotech companies.

At the end of May 2020, two things happened in my personal strategy of investment. First of all, I had the impression (and let’s face it, it was just an impression, devoid of truly solid foundation) that growth in stock prices across the almost entire Polish industry of biotech and medical supplies was just a short-term speculative bubble. I sold out part of my investment positions in the Polish stock market – mostly those in biotech and medical supplies, which proves to have been a poor move – and I transferred $1600 from my Polish investment account to the international one. Besides, my employer paid me the annual lump compensation for overtime during the academic year, and I decided to use like ¾ of that sum, thus some $3 125 as investment capital in the stock market, splitting it 50/50 (i.e. 2 times $1562) between my two accounts.

See? That was the first moment of chaos in me. First, I transferred $1600 from one account to another, and then I paid two times $1562 into both accounts, and all that like days apart. As a results, my Polish investment account noted a net cash outflow of – $1600 + $1562 = + $38 (very clever, indeed), and my international account swelled by $1600 + $1562 = $3 162.

Let’s go downstream. When I did all those cash transfers, I settled for a diversified portfolio. In Poland, I decided to keep my IT positions (11 Bit and Asseco Business Solutions), and to create three other branches: energy, retail, and restaurants. I know, I know: energy sounds cool, but retail and restaurants? Well, I decided to open positions in those two: the shoe retailer CCC, and a restauration giant Amrest, essentially because they were unusually cheap, and my own calculations, i.e. the moving average price, and mean-reverted price, indicated they were going to go up in price. As for two Polish energy companies – Tauron and PGE – my reasoning was the same. They were unusually cheap, and my own simulations allowed expecting some nice bounce-up. Out of those four shots on the discount shelf, two proved good business, the two others not really. Tauron and PGE brought me a nice return, when I closed them a few days ago, the former almost 79%, the other 28%. As for CCC and Amrest, they kept being cheap, and I closed those positions with slight losses, respectively – 4,3% and – 11,7%. Lesson for the future: don’t be daft. Fundamentals rule. This is my takeaway from the last 3 months of learning investment in practice. I need to look at the end of the market lane, where the final demand dwells for the given business.         

Question: why did I close on Tauron and PGE, if they were bringing me profit? Because it looked like they had a temporary rise in price, and then it seemed to be over.

I have already learnt that I make real money on accurate prediction of something, which, fault of a better expression, I call ‘market waves’, and by which I understand a period of many weeks when the price of some specific stock grows substantially for largely fundamental reasons. In other words, something important is happening in real business and these events (trends?) provoke a change in investors’ behaviour. As for now, and since January this year, I have successfully ridden three market waves, got washed under by one such wave, and I am sort of in two minds about a fifth one.

The wave that maimed me was the panic provoked in the stock market in the early weeks of pandemic. At the time, I had just invested some money in the U.S. stock market. I had been tempted by its nice growth in the first weeks of 2020, and, when the pandemic started to unfold, and market indexes started to tremble and then slump, I was like: ‘It is just temporary. I can wait it out’. Well, maybe I could have waited it out, only I didn’t. I waited, I waited, and my stock went really down, like to scrambling on the ground, and then I went into solid, tangible panic. I sold it all out, in the U.S. market (see Which table do I want to play my game on?). On the whole, it was a good decision. I transferred to the Polish stock market whatever cash I saved out of that financial plunge in U.S. and I successfully rode the wave of speculative interest in Polish biotech companies.

I noticed that I got out of the Polish biotech market wave too early. As I cast a casual glance at their performance in the stock market, I can see they have all grown like hell over the last month. I decide to get back into Polish biotech, plus one gaming company: CD Projekt. The biotechs and medical I take on are: Mercator Medical, Biomed Lublin, Neuca, Synektik, Cormay, Bioton. I am taking some risk here: those biotechs are so high on price that I am facing a risk of sudden slump. Still, their moving cumulative average prices are climbing irresistibly. There is a trend.

What do I do with my U.S. assets? I think I will hold. I don’t want to yield to panic once again. Besides, they diversify nicely with my assets in Poland. In Poland, I took a risk: I jumped once again on the rising wave of investment in biotech and medical business, only this time I jumped on it at a much more elevated point, as compared to the beginning of April 2020. The risk of sudden downturn is substantially bigger now than in April. In the U.S. market, I am holding assets which are clearly undervalued now, with all that panic about social unrest and about a second spike in COVID-19. Possibly overvalued assets in one market and undervalued assets in another market: sounds familiar? Yes, this is a form of hedging, which, in plain language, means that I spread my assets between several baskets, and I hand each basket to a different little girl in a little red riding hood, in the hope that at least some of those girls will outsmart those big bad wolves. Girls usually do, by the way.

On the whole, so far, I have invested $6 674,76 in cash into my two investment accounts. With the current value of my assets at $7 853,30, I have a total return on cash invested around 17,65%. It has decreased slightly over the last month: by the end of May 2020, it was 23,2%. 

I think I need to explain the distinction between two rates of return which I quote as regards my investment: return on the currently open positions vs return on the total cash invested in my investment accounts. Any given moment, I hold cash and open positions in securities. The cash I hold is the sum total of two components: past cash transfers into my investment accounts from my other financial accounts, on the one hand, and cash proceeds from the closure of particular investment positions. When I compare the total value of financial assets (i.e. cash + securities) which I currently hold, to the amount of cash I had paid into my investment accounts, I get my total return on cash invested. When I split my financial assets into cash and securities, and I calculate the incremental change in the value of the latter, I get the rate of return on currently open investment positions, and this one is swinging wildly, those last days. This might be the reason why it took me so long to hatch this update for my blog. Last Thursday it was 12,9%, and today it is 5,5%. What happened? United States happened to be in social unrest, for one, and they keep doing so, by the way (c’mon, guys, pull your pants up, I have money in your stock market). Germany happens too, like all the time, and I have some open positions in their automotive sector.

One thing that happens more or less as I expected is the incremental change in stock price as regards the logistics sector. My positions in Deutsche Post, UPS, and FedEx are doing well.       

I have already learnt that I make real money on accurate prediction of something, which, fault of a better expression, I call ‘market waves’, and by which I understand a period of many weeks when the price of some specific stock grows substantially for largely fundamental reasons. In other words, something important is happening in real business and these events (trends?) provoke a change in investors’ behaviour. As for now, and since January this year, I have successfully ridden three market waves, got washed under by one such wave, and I am sort of in two minds about a fifth one.

The wave that maimed me was the panic provoked in the stock market in the early weeks of pandemic. At the time, I had just invested some money in the U.S. stock market. I had been tempted by its nice growth in the first weeks of 2020, and, when the pandemic started to unfold, and market indexes started to tremble and then slump, I was like: ‘It is just temporary. I can wait it out’. Well, maybe I could have waited it out, only I didn’t. I waited, I waited, and my stock went really down, like to scrambling on the ground, and then I went into solid, tangible panic. I sold it all out, in the U.S. market (see Which table do I want to play my game on?). On the whole, it was a good decision. I transferred to the Polish stock market whatever cash I saved out of that financial plunge in U.S. and I successfully rode the wave of speculative interest in Polish biotech companies.

I noticed that I got out of the Polish biotech market wave too early. As I cast a casual glance at their performance in the stock market, I can see they have all grown like hell over the last month. I decide to get back into Polish biotech, plus one gaming company: CD Projekt. The biotechs and medical I take on are: Mercator Medical, Biomed Lublin, Neuca, Synektik, Cormay, Bioton. I am taking some risk here: those biotechs are so high on price that I am facing a risk of sudden slump. Still, their moving cumulative average prices are climbing irresistibly. There is a trend.

OK. I need to end it somewhere. I record my video editorial on You Tube, I attach it to this piece of writing, and, que sera sera (or What The Hell!), let’s publish those uncombed thoughts.  

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The balance between intelligence and the way we look in seasoned black leather

MY EDITORIAL ON YOU TUBE

After having devoted some of my personal energy to reviewing other people’s science (see Second-hand observations), I return to my own science, i.e. to my book on the civilizational role of cities. Reviewing that manuscript in the field of energy management gave me some inspiration. I realized that the core message I wanted to convey in the book was that human societies have collective intelligence, that intelligence manifests itself in typical, recurrent patterns, and cities are one of those patterns, where creating a demographic anomaly allows creating new social roles for a growing population, and assuring functional partition between two types of settlements: agricultural land for producing food, on the one hand, and urban land for producing new social roles and new technologies, on the other hand. Moreover, cities are the base of markets, and of the market-based economy. The whole social system based on the development of skills and technologies, so as to produce tradable surpluses, that whole system is precisely based on the role of cities. Maybe there are other social structures to obtain the same result, but we haven’t figured them out yet. With the creation of cities, we developed a pattern of further development, where apparently fundamental markets interweave with the apparently futile ones, and the whole system facilitates technological change and the creation of new social roles. The social system based on cities is like a social vortex, largely powering its own momentum and sucking new people into it.

That overview of my thinking brings me one more time to the issue of collective intelligence and to the big methodological question: to what extent can neural networks be used to simulate collective intelligence in human societies? I know, I know, this is some n-th time I return to that thing. Still, it is important, both methodologically and fundamentally. There is a whole big stream of research, including my own, where neural networks are used as mathematical tool for validating theoretical model. I can see that neural networks tend to replace the classical methods, such as GARCH, ARIMA or the good old Ordinary Least Squares. All that stuff works with the same basic data, i.e. with residual errors which inevitably appear as we try to apply our grand ideas to the brutal reality of life. Still, the way that neural networks process those errors is fundamentally different from stochastic models. The latter just cut through the entire set of data with one line (or curve, for that matter), which minimizes the sum total of residual errors, all in one go. Neural networks are more patient, and they minimize error by error, case by case. Neural networks learn.

The point is that when I use a neural network to validate a theoretical model in social sciences, I should substantiate the claim that the network represents the way of learning in the given society. The best theory of learning which I have found so far is the Interface Theory of Perception (Hoffman et al. 2015[1]; Fields et al. 2018[2]; see also I followed my suspects home). I rephrase it shortly and I try to put it against (or next to) my own methodology.

When an aggregate socio-economic variable, such as e.g. GDP per capita or energy consumption per capita, changes over time, it allows assuming a society doing something differently as time passes. In other words, those aggregate variables are manifestations of collective decisions and collective action. Question: how are those collective decisions being taken and how are they being turned into action? Some sort of a null assumption is that we have no way to guess anything about that process. Still, I think I can make a slightly stronger assumption, namely that we collectively know what we are doing, we just know it imperfectly. Therefore, when I observe a variable such as GDP per capita, or the average number of hours worked per person per year, change over years, I can assume it manifests a collectively intelligent adaptation: we do something together, we contemplate the outcomes, we say ‘Blast! It is not exactly what we meant. Folks! Get ready! We adapt! That rate of secondary education has to change! We are running a civilisation here, aren’t we?’, and we engage into another set of decisions and actions.

Collective decisions and collective action mean that people argue and diverge in what they say they intend to do, in what they really do, and in what they claim they have just done. We diverge from each other and we lie to each other on the top of it, and we lie to ourselves, and yet that whole business of civilisation seems to be working. We have a set N = {se1, se2, …, sen} of n social entities (people, basically, or various agglomerations thereof), and they all cheat, lie, and egoistically get after it, in the presence of a set R = {r1, r2, …, rm} of m external stressors (viruses, presidents, wars, bad crops etc.). Mind you, as long as n > 1, i.e. as long as there are many social entities, probably at least one of them is doing things sufficiently well to survive in the presence of m stressors.

We have those n social entities trying to get by in the presence of m external stressors, and one could wonder how that lot can learn anything? I subtly change the shade of the question ‘how?’ into ‘how can we know that?’. How can we know that a social entity has learnt anything in the presence of external stressors? Learning can be understood from two perspectives: subjective internal impression of having learnt something, on the one hand, and objective, externally observable fact of having acquired new skills. When I prepare the same sauce 30 times, 20 times it is completely spoilt, 9 times it sort of approaches the ideal, and 1 time, the final one, I have the impression I nailed it. I have the impression I have learnt something, however it does not mean other people think the same.  

I need a gauge to assess learning. One possible method, more specifically the one used in artificial neural networks, consists in checking how close my social entities are to a pre-defined desired outcome. In more elaborate artificial neural networks, the pre-defined component might be just the method of setting the desired outcome. That outcome can be simply survival or something more, such as achieving a certain amount of something valuable.

Good, so I have those n social entities, and the stressor they act under is the pressure to achieve a desired outcome, i.e. to obtain a certain payoff. The social entity sei which gets the closest to that outcome, or which, in other words, collects the greatest payoff, can be considered as the most successful. Life is reproduction. People die, and new people are born. Governments change. On the long run our set N = {se1, se2, …, sen} of n social entities is interesting to the extent that it reproduces into another set Nk of n(k) social entities. Social change can be viewed as an (almost) ever-lasting chain of sets, each with social entities inside: N1 transforms into N2, which turns into N3 etc.

I think I have just nailed an important point (involuntarily, to be clear). When I study any kind of social change, I can make one of the two alternative assumptions: continuity of social entities versus their generational reproduction. Social structures can be seen such as I have just described it: as changing sets of social entities. Under that angle, the 38 million people in my native Poland today are a different set of people from the roughly 36 million who were around when I was 10, i.e. in 1978. It does not necessarily mean that each person present in 1978 died and has been replaced by someone else; I am pretty sure I didn’t die. However, some people died, some new people have come to the fore, some people changed significantly etc. On the whole, the set N2020 is different from the set N1978. There is a different angle for looking at the same reality: people in Poland, 2020, are the same big social entity as the one in Poland, 1978, and it is just the internal structure of that entity that has changed. 

What is the practical (well, theoretical) difference between those two angles of approach to the same theatre of social change, i.e. consecutive sets of small entities as opposed to consecutive states of one big entity? When I simulate social change as a sequence of sets, where individual components can change their properties, a long sequence of that type is like a journey of discovery. Each consecutive set Nk comes out of learning that occurred in its predecessor Nk-1. The transformation of one set into another certainly follows some constraints, yet a long sequence of such transformations is like a long hike up a hill: we have to take turns around boulders and ravines, we have to choose between paths of different difficulty, and usually an easier path is a less steep one, thus a longer and slower one. This type of change, social or biological, is known as adaptive walk in rugged landscape in Kaufman & Levin 1987[3]. Mathematically, it is a Markov chain, i.e. a chain of states, where the properties of each consecutive state are determined just by the properties of the previous state as well as by the algebra of transformation from one state to another (the so-called σ-αλγεβρα, oops! Excuse me, I wanted to say σ-algebra).

When I take the other approach to a social structure, i.e. when I study it as one big, perennial social entity which undergoes structural change inside, that change is something like different shapes of the same thing. I noticed strong marks of such an approach in that scientific paper entitled ‘Evolutionary Analysis of a Four-dimensional Energy- Economy- Environment Dynamic System’, which I was reviewing recently on the request of  the International Journal of Energy Sector Management (ISSN1750-6220). In that paper, a complex system of relations between economy, energy and society is represented as four gradients of change in, respectively, volume of pollution x, real economic output y, environmental quality z and energy reduction constraints w. I know it is a bit abstract, at this point, yet I want to make an effort and explain it. Imagine an irregular quadrilateral, i.e. a rectangle with broad intellectual horizons. Four angles, four edges, yet the angles do not have to be right and the edges do not have to be parallel in pairs. Just four of each lot. The length of each edge corresponds to the gradient of change in one of those 4 variables: x, y, z, and w. Any substantial change in that system is a change in lengths of those 4 edges, and, as it is a closed polygon, it entails a change in angles between edges.

As I am trying to grasp fundamental differences between those two views upon social change, namely sequence of sets as opposed to an internally changing perennial entity, I think the difference is mostly epistemological. As a matter of fact, I don’t know s**t about reality as it is, and, let’s be honest, neither do you, my dear readers. We just make many possible Matrixes out of the real stuff and settle for the one that offers the greatest rewards. This is the stance adopted in the Interface Theory of Perception (Hoffman et al. 2015[4]; Fields et al. 2018[5]), as well as in classical Western empiricism (see William James’s ‘Essays in Radical Empiricism’, 1912). This holds for social reality as well as for anything else. When I see social change, I see most of all change in itself, and only secondarily, in my spare moments, I can try to figure out what exactly is that thing that changes. This is science, or philosophy, depends on the exact method I adopt, and this is hard, and time-consuming. Most of the times, I just use a ready-made explanation, conveyed in my culture, that what is changing is, for example, the market or the constitutional order, or the set of cultural stereotypes. Still, at the bottom line, those labels are just labels. What I am really experiencing, is change in itself.

When I assume that social change is a Markov chain of sets made of small social entities, I study social change as change in itself, i.e. as the say σ-algebra of that chain. I do not pretend to know exactly what is happening, I just observe and give the account of the passage from one state to another. Conversely, when I assume that social change is structural recombination inside a big, perennial social structure, I pretend to know the limits and the shape of that big structure. This is a strong assumption, probably an overstated one.    

Now, I connect the dots. I am linking my thinking about cities with my thinking about collective intelligence, and all that I serve in a sauce peppered with the possibility to use artificial neural networks for studying the whole business. I can study the civilizational role of cities under those two angles, i.e. as a Markov chain of states which I barely understand, yet which I can observe, on the one hand, or as internal reshuffling inside a finite, big social entity called ‘civilisation’, with nicely outlined contours. I am honest: I am not even going to pretend I can outline the precise contours of the civilisation we live in. With all the s**t going out there, i.e. leftist extremists in Germany erecting an illegal statue of Lenine, in response to #BlackLivesMatter in United States, and neo-Nazi extremists from The Base organization receiving orders from a leader who is an American with an Italian name, currently living in Russia: man, I do not feel up to trace the external contours of that thing.  

I know that I can and want study the phenomenon of cities as change in itself, and I assume that the change I see is an aggregation of local changes in small social entities sei. As those small sei’s change locally, their local transformations translate and manifest as the passage from the aggregate set Nk = {se1, se2, …, sen} into another set Nk+1 = {se1, se2, …, sen}. The next hurdle to jump over is the connection between sets of the type Nk = {se1, se2, …, sen} and aggregate socio-economic variables commonly used as so-called statistics. Those ‘statistics’ tend to have one of the 4 possible, mathematical forms: averages, totals, frequencies, or rates of change. When they are averages, e.g. GDP per capita, they are expected values of something. When the come as aggregate totals, e.g. aggregate headcount of population, they stand for the size of something. As they take the form of frequencies, e.g. the percentage of people with secondary education, they are simple probabilities. Finally, as rates of change, they are local first derivatives over time in some functions, e.g. the function of economic growth.

Each of those mathematical forms can be deemed representative for a heterogenous set of small phenomena, like small social entities sei. I assume that each set Nk = {se1, se2, …, sen} of n social entities manifests its current state in the form of a complex vector of variables: expected mean values, total sizes, simple probabilities of specific phenomena, and first derivatives over time in the underlying functions of change. Any set of socio-economic variables is an imperfect, epistemic representation of current local states in the individual social entities sei included in the set Nk = {se1, se2, …, sen}.  

As I go through my notes and blog updates from the last 2 months, something emerges. The social entities I focus on, thus my sei‘s, are individual people endorsing individual social roles. set Nk = {se1, se2, …, sen} is essentially a set of people, i.e. a population. Each of those people has at least two coordinates: their place of residency (mostly defined as city vs countryside), and their social role. I messed around with a set like that in a neural network (see The perfectly dumb, smart social structure). The current state of the whole set Nk manifests itself as a vector Vse of socio-economic variables.

So far and by far, the most important variable I have identified is the density of population in cities, denominated over (i.e. divided by) the general density of population. I named this variable [DU/DG] and I assume it shows the relative social difference between cities and the countryside (see Demographic anomalies – the puzzle of urban density). The coefficient [DU/DG] enters into interesting correlations with such variables as: consumption of energy per capita, income per capita, surface of agricultural land, cereal yield in kg per hectare of arable land, number of patent applications per 1 million people, and finally the supply of money as % of the GDP. On the other hand, by studying the way that urban land is distinguished from the rural one and from wildlife, I know there is a correlation between density of urban population and the density of man-made structures, as well as the density of night-time lights.

Good. I have a set Nk = {se1, se2, …, sen} of n social entities, which changes all the time, and a vector Vse = {DU/DG; energy per capita; income per capita; surface of agricultural land; cereal yield; patent applications; supply of money} of variables pertinent regarding cities and their role. Between the two I insert my mild obsession, i.e. the set SR = {sr1, sr2, …, srm} of ‘m’ social roles.

Now, I go pictographic. I use pictures to make myself spit out the words I have in mind. I mean, I know I have words in mind, only I don’t know what exact words are these. Pictures help. In Figure 1 I am trying to convey the idea of proportion between the headcount of population and the range of social roles available to endorse. My basic assumption is that we, humans, are fully socialized when we endorse social roles that suit our basic personal traits, such as intelligence, extroversion vs introversion, neuroticism, conscientiousness, the way we look in seasoned black leather etc. The state of society can be explained as a balance between the incremental headcount of humans, on the one hand, and the incremental range of social roles to take. If the headcount of humans is n, and the number of social roles available is m, we are talking about ∆n/∆m.  

When both sets, i.e. Nk and SR change at the same pace, i.e. ∆n/∆m (t0) = ∆n/∆m (t1), the society is in some sort of dynamic equilibrium, like a constant number of humans per one social role available. When the set SR of social roles burgeons faster than the pace of demographic growth, I mean when ∆n/∆m (t0) > ∆n/∆m (t1), logically there is less and less humans per one social role. This is social change by differentiation. New, idiosyncratic skillsets and behavioural patterns emerge. This is like an absorptive state, which can suck new humans in like easy.

On the other hand, when demographic growth in the set Nk races far ahead, and the set SR of social roles lags behind, i.e. ∆n/∆m (t0) < ∆n/∆m (t1), there is consistently more and more humans per one social role. That favours standardization and institutional definition of those roles, in the form of professions, public offices, ritualized social statuses etc. Society settles down into a nice order. Still, each such institutionalized social role grows barriers to entry around itself. You need to pass some exams, you need to be appointed or elected, you need to invest some capital… New humans coming to the world encounter those barriers, and some of them end up by saying: ‘F**k it! I stay outside of everything’.  This is the tipping point, when social change is needed, so as to make social room for new humans.   

Figure 1

Now, I transition into the role of cities in that social pattern. I am trying to picture the idea in Figure 2. If the state of social differentiation, we need some pattern for generating diversity. We need social interaction. Cities can be seen as a social contrivance which facilitates such interaction. Still, it comes to my mind sort of right now, we don’t really know (yet), to what extent digital interaction between humans can replace the real one in that specific respect, i.e. as a mechanism of creating new social roles. My gut feeling is that digital technologies can be at least imperfect substitutes of real social interaction. You Tube or Instagram may replace cities in their civilizational role of creating new social room for new homo sapiens. We might just be evolving from a civilization of city slickers living next to rednecks, into a civilisation of city slickers, rednecks and homo onlinus.  

Figure 2


In the next step, I am wrapping my mind around the math side of the problem, which I try to picture in Figure 3.  I guess that what I have in terms of empirical data to put in a neural network is mostly the vector Vse of social outcomes, which I can enrich with the headcount of population, and that would be the real-life material that a neural network could learn from. What that network could try and optimize could be the gradient ∆n/∆m or some variation thereof, as the exact number of social roles is technically unobservable with the current state of technology. When I think about the practical way of doing it, I can imagine a network pegged on optimizing some sort of hard-nailed output variable, such as the average number of hours worked per person per year (solid stuff, as it comes out of my so-far research). I drop the gradient ∆n/∆m among the input variables, and I try to discover what value thereof the network would yield after a few thousands laborious trials to produce artificial history.

Another angle of approach that comes to my mind is to take all the known empirical variables as input, and the gradient ∆n/∆m as the output. Then I make different clones of the network, with ∆n/∆m going various ways, like gently up, steep up, down a bit etc. I can check which of the clones displays the closest Euclidean distance to the source empirical dataset.    

Figure 3

Now, the final step: I connect the concept of social role with that of conscious agent, as represented in the Interface Theory of Perception (Hoffman et al. 2015[1]; Fields et al. 2018[2]). Figure 4 represents my pictographic thinking about it. Social roles are temporary outcomes of learning and social interaction between Conscious Agents (CA). In other words, social roles form as humans exchange information about their conscious experience, which serves to translate objectively existing states of the world into material possible to process by our brain, so as to decide whether to run away from the tiger or maybe rather kill the tiger and take the antelope. We take action consequently, we contemplate its consequences, and we talk about it, and we show to each other how we can learn new stuff.

Figure 4


Discover Social Sciences is a scientific blog, which I, Krzysztof Wasniewski, individually write and manage. If you enjoy the content I create, you can choose to support my work, with a symbolic $1, or whatever other amount you please, via MY PAYPAL ACCOUNT.  What you will contribute to will be almost exactly what you can read now. I have been blogging since 2017, and I think I have a pretty clearly rounded style.

In the bottom on the sidebar of the main page, you can access the archives of that blog, all the way back to August 2017. You can make yourself an idea how I work, what do I work on and how has my writing evolved. If you like social sciences served in this specific sauce, I will be grateful for your support to my research and writing.

‘Discover Social Sciences’ is a continuous endeavour and is mostly made of my personal energy and work. There are minor expenses, to cover the current costs of maintaining the website, or to collect data, yet I want to be honest: by supporting ‘Discover Social Sciences’, you will be mostly supporting my continuous stream of writing and online publishing. As you read through the stream of my updates on https://discoversocialsciences.com , you can see that I usually write 1 – 3 updates a week, and this is the pace of writing that you can expect from me.

Besides the continuous stream of writing which I provide to my readers, there are some more durable takeaways. One of them is an e-book which I published in 2017, ‘Capitalism And Political Power’. Normally, it is available with the publisher, the Scholar publishing house (https://scholar.com.pl/en/economics/1703-capitalism-and-political-power.html?search_query=Wasniewski&results=2 ). Via https://discoversocialsciences.com , you can download that e-book for free.

Another takeaway you can be interested in is ‘The Business Planning Calculator’, an Excel-based, simple tool for financial calculations needed when building a business plan.

Both the e-book and the calculator are available via links in the top right corner of the main page on https://discoversocialsciences.com .

You might be interested Virtual Summer Camps, as well. These are free, half-day summer camps will be a week-long, with enrichment-based classes in subjects like foreign languages, chess, theater, coding, Minecraft, how to be a detective, photography and more. These live, interactive classes will be taught by expert instructors vetted through Varsity Tutors’ platform. We already have 200 camps scheduled for the summer.   https://www.varsitytutors.com/virtual-summer-camps

[1] Hoffman, D. D., Singh, M., & Prakash, C. (2015). The interface theory of perception. Psychonomic bulletin & review, 22(6), 1480-1506.

[2] Fields, C., Hoffman, D. D., Prakash, C., & Singh, M. (2018). Conscious agent networks: Formal analysis and application to cognition. Cognitive Systems Research, 47, 186-213. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cogsys.2017.10.003

[1] Hoffman, D. D., Singh, M., & Prakash, C. (2015). The interface theory of perception. Psychonomic bulletin & review, 22(6), 1480-1506.

[2] Fields, C., Hoffman, D. D., Prakash, C., & Singh, M. (2018). Conscious agent networks: Formal analysis and application to cognition. Cognitive Systems Research, 47, 186-213. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cogsys.2017.10.003

[3] Kauffman, S., & Levin, S. (1987). Towards a general theory of adaptive walks on rugged landscapes. Journal of theoretical Biology, 128(1), 11-45

[4] Hoffman, D. D., Singh, M., & Prakash, C. (2015). The interface theory of perception. Psychonomic bulletin & review, 22(6), 1480-1506.

[5] Fields, C., Hoffman, D. D., Prakash, C., & Singh, M. (2018). Conscious agent networks: Formal analysis and application to cognition. Cognitive Systems Research, 47, 186-213. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cogsys.2017.10.003

Second-hand observations

MY EDITORIAL ON YOU TUBE

I keep reviewing, upon the request of the International Journal of Energy Sector Management (ISSN1750-6220), a manuscript entitled ‘Evolutionary Analysis of a Four-dimensional Energy- Economy- Environment Dynamic System’. I have already formulated my first observations on that paper in the last update: I followed my suspects home, where I mostly focused on studying the theoretical premises of the model used in the paper under review, or rather of a model used in another article, which the paper under review heavily refers to.

As I go through that initial attempt to review this manuscript, I see I was bitching a lot, and this is not nice. I deeply believe in the power of eristic dialogue, and I think that being artful in verbal dispute is different from being destructive. I want to step into the shoes of those authors, technically anonymous to me (although I can guess who they are by their bibliographical references), who wrote ‘Evolutionary Analysis of a Four-dimensional Energy- Economy- Environment Dynamic System’. When I write a scientific paper, my conclusion is essentially what I wanted to say from the very beginning, I just didn’t know how to phrase that s**t out. All the rest, i.e. introduction, mathematical modelling, empirical research – it all serves as a set of strings (duct tape?), which help me attach my thinking to other people’s thinking.

I assume that people who wrote ‘Evolutionary Analysis of a Four-dimensional Energy- Economy- Environment Dynamic System’ are like me. Risky but sensible, as assumptions come. I start from the conclusion of their paper, and I am going to follow upstream. When I follow upstream, I mean business. It is not just about going upstream the chain of paragraphs: it is going upstream the flow of language itself. I am going to present you a technique I use frequently when I really want to extract meaning and inspiration from a piece of writing. I split that writing into short paragraphs, like no more than 10 lines each. I rewrite each such paragraph in inverted syntax, i.e. I rewrite from the last word back to the first one. It gives something like Master Yoda speaking: bullshit avoid shall you. I discovered by myself, and this is backed by the science of generative grammar, that good writing, when read backwards, uncovers something like a second layer of meaning, and that second layer is just as important as the superficial one.

I remember having applied this method to a piece of writing by Deepak Chopra. It was almost wonderful how completely meaningless that text was when read backwards. There was no second layer. Amazing.

Anyway, now I am going to demonstrate the application of that method to the conclusion of ‘Evolutionary Analysis of a Four-dimensional Energy- Economy- Environment Dynamic System’. I present paragraphs of the original text in Times New Roman Italic. I rewrite the same paragraphs in inverted syntax with Times New Roman Bold. Under each such pair ‘original paragraph + inverted syntax’ I write my second-hand observations inspired by those two layers of meaning, and those observations of mine come in plain Times New Roman.

Let’s dance.

Original text: Although increasing the investment in energy reduction can effectively improve the environmental quality; in a relatively short period of time, the improvement of environmental quality is also very obvious; but in the long run, the the influence of the system (1). In this study, the energy, economic and environmental (3E) four-dimensional system model of energy conservation constraints was first established. The Bayesian estimation method is used to correct the environmental quality variables to obtain the environmental quality data needed for the research.

Inverted syntax: Research the for needed data quality environmental the obtain to variables quality environmental the correct to used is method estimation Bayesian the established first was constraints conservation energy of model system dimensional four 3E environmental and economic energy the study this in system the of influence run long the in but obvious very also is quality environmental of improvement the time of period short relatively a in quality environmental the improve effectively can reduction energy in investment the increasing although.

Second-hand observations: The essential logic of using Bayesian methodology is to reduce uncertainty in an otherwise weakly studied field, and to set essential points for orientation. A Bayesian function essentially divides reality into parts, which correspond to, respectively, success and failure.

It is interesting that traits of reality which we see as important – energy, economy and environmental quality – can be interpreted as dimensions of said reality. It corresponds to the Interface Theory of Perception (ITP): it pays off to build a representation of reality based on what we want rather than on what we perceive as absolute truth.    

Original text: In addition, based on the Chinese statistical yearbook data, the Levenberg-Marquardt BP neural network method optimized by genetic algorithm is used to energy, economy and environment under energy conservation constraints. The parameters in the four-dimensional system model are effectively identified. Finally, the system science analysis theory and environment is still deteriorating with the decline in the discount rate of energy reduction inputs.

Inverted syntax: Inputs reduction energy of rate discount the in decline the with deteriorating still is environment and theory analysis science system the finally identified effectively are model system dimensional four the in parameters the constraints conservation energy under environment and economy energy to used is algorithm genetic by optimized method network neural Levenberg-Marquardt Backpropagation the data yearbook statistical Chinese the on based addition in.

Second-hand observations: The strictly empirical part of the article is relatively the least meaningful. The Levenberg-Marquardt BP neural network is made for quick optimization. It is essentially the method of Ordinary Least Squares transformed into a heuristic algorithm, and it can optimize very nearly anything. When using the Levenberg-Marquardt BP neural network we risk overfitting (i.e. hasty conclusions based on a sequence of successes) rather than the inability to optimize. It is almost obvious that – when trained and optimized with a genetic algorithm – the network can set such values in the model which allow stability. It simply means that the model has a set of values that virtually eliminate the need for adjustment between particular arguments, i.e. that the model is mathematically sound. On the other hand, it would be intellectually risky to attach too much importance to the specific values generated by the network. Remark: under the concept of ‘argument’ in the model I mean mathematical expressions of the type: [coefficient]*[parameter]*[local value in variable].

The article conveys an important thesis, namely that the rate of return on investment in environmental improvement is important for sustaining long-term commitment to such improvement.  

Original text: It can be better explained that effective control of the peak arrival time of pollution emissions can be used as an important decision for pollution emission control and energy intensity reduction; Therefore, how to effectively and reasonably control the peak of pollution emissions is of great significance for controlling the stability of Energy, Economy and Environment system under the constraint of energy reduction, regulating energy intensity, improving environmental quality and sustainable development.

Inverted syntax: Development sustainable and quality environmental improving intensity energy regulating reduction energy of constraint the under system environment and economy energy of stability the controlling for significance great of is emissions pollution of peak the control reasonably and effectively to how therefore reduction intensity energy and control emission pollution for decision important an as used be can emissions pollution of time arrival peak the of control effective that explained better be can.

Second-hand observations: This is an interesting logic: we can control the stability of a system by controlling the occurrence of peak states. Incidentally, it is the same logic as that used during the COVID-19 pandemic. If we can control the way that s**t unfolds up to its climax, and if we can make that climax somewhat less steep, we have an overall better control over the whole system.

Original text: As the environmental capacity decreases, over time, the evolution of environmental quality shows an upward trend of fluctuations and fluctuations around a certain central value; when the capacity of the ecosystem falls to the limit, the system collapses. In order to improve the quality of the ecological environment and promote the rapid development of the economy, we need more measures to use more means and technologies to promote stable economic growth and management of the ecological environment.

Inverted syntax: Environment ecological the of management and growth economic stable promote to technologies and means more use to measures more need we economy the of development rapid the promote and environment ecological the of quality the improve to order in collapse system the limit the to falls ecosystem the of capacity the when value central a around fluctuations and fluctuations of trend upward an shows quality environmental of evolution the time over decreases capacity environmental the as.    

Second-hand observations: We can see more of the same logic: controlling a system means avoiding extreme states and staying in a zone of proximal development. As the system reaches the frontier of its capacity, fluctuations amplify and start drawing an upward drift. We don’t want such a drift. The system is the most steerable when it stays in a somewhat mean-reverted state.  

I am summing up that little exercise of style. The authors of ‘Evolutionary Analysis of a Four-dimensional Energy-Economy-Environment Dynamic System’ claim that relations between economy, energy and environment are a complex, self-regulating system, yet the capacity of that system to self-regulate is relatively the most pronounced in some sort of central expected states thereof, and fades as the system moves towards peak states. According to this logic, our relations with ecosystems are always somewhere between homeostasis and critical disaster, and those relations are the most manageable when closer to homeostasis. A predictable, and economically attractive rate of return in investments that contribute to energy savings seems to be an important component of that homeostasis.

The claim in itself is interesting and very largely common-sense, although it goes against some views, that e.g. in order to take care of the ecosystem we should forego economics. Rephrased in business terms, the main thesis of ‘Evolutionary Analysis of a Four-dimensional Energy-Economy-Environment Dynamic System’ is that we can manage that dynamic system as long as it involves project management much more than crisis-management. When the latter prevails, things get out of hand. The real intellectual rabbit hole starts when one considers the method of proving the veracity of that general thesis.  The authors build a model of non-linear connections between volume of pollution, real economic output, environmental quality, and constraint on energy reduction. Non-linear connections mean that output variables of the model –  on the left side of each equation – are rates of change over time in each of the four variables. Output variables in the model are strongly linked, via attractor-like mathematical arguments on the input side, i.e. arguments which combine coefficients strictly speaking with standardized distance from pre-defined peak values in pollution, real economic output, environmental quality, and constraint on energy reduction. In simpler words, the theoretical model built by the authors of ‘Evolutionary Analysis of a Four-dimensional Energy-Economy-Environment Dynamic System’ resembles a spiderweb. It has distant points of attachment, i.e. the peak values, and oscillates between them.

It is interesting how this model demonstrates the cognitive limitations of mathematics. If we are interested in controlling relations between energy, economy, and environment, our first, intuitive approach is to consider these desired outcomes as dimensions of our reality. Yet, those dimensions could be different. If I want to become a top-level basketball player, I does not necessarily mean that social reality is truly pegged on a vector of becoming-a-top-level-basketball-player. Social mechanics might be structured around completely different variables. Still, with strong commitment, this particular strategy might work. Truth is not the same as payoffs from our actions. A model of relations energy-economy-environment pegged on desired outcomes in these fields might be essentially false in ontological terms, yet workable as a tool for policy-making. This approach is validated by the Interface Theory of Perception (see, e.g. Hoffman et al. 2015[1] and Fields et al. 2018[2]).

From the formal-mathematical point of view, the model is construed as a square matrix of complex arguments, i.e. the number of arguments on the left, input side of each equation is the same as the number of equations, whence the possibility to make a Jacobian matrix thereof, and to calculate its eigenvalues. The authors preset the coefficients of the model, and the peak-values so as to test for stability. Testing the model with those preset values demonstrates an essential lack of stability in the such-represented system. Stability is further tested by studying the evolution trajectory of the system. The method of evolution trajectory, in this context, seems referring to life sciences and the concept of phenotypic trajectory (see e.g. Michael & Dean 2013[3]), and shows that the system, such as modelled, is unstable. Its evolution trajectory can change in an irregular and chaotic way.

In a next step, the authors test their model with empirical data regarding China between 2000 and 2017. They use a Levenberg–Marquardt Backpropagation Network in order to find the parameters of the system. With thus-computed parameters, and the initial state of the system set on data from 1980, evolution trajectory of the system proves stable, in a multi cycle mode.

Now, as I have passed in review the logic of ‘Evolutionary Analysis of a Four-dimensional Energy-Economy-Environment Dynamic System’, I start bitching again, i.e. I point at what I perceive as, respectively, strengths and weaknesses of the manuscript. After reading and rereading the paper, I come to the conclusion that the most valuable part thereof is precisely the use of evolution trajectory as theoretical vessel. The value added I can see here consists in representing something complex that we want – we want our ecosystem not to kill us (immediately) and we want our smartphones and our power plants working as well – in a mathematical form, which can be further processed along the lines of evolution trajectory.

That inventive, intellectually far-reaching approach is accompanied, however, by several weaknesses. Firstly, it is an elaborate path leading to common-sense conclusions, namely that managing our relations with the ecosystem is functional as long as it takes the form of economically sound project management, rather than crisis management. The manuscript seems to be more of a spectacular demonstration of method rather than discovery in substance.

Secondly, the model, such as is presented in the manuscript, is practically impossible to decipher without referring to the article Zhao, L., & Otoo, C. O. A. (2019). Stability and Complexity of a Novel Three-Dimensional Environmental Quality Dynamic Evolution System. Complexity, 2019, https://doi.org/10.1155/2019/3941920 . When I say ‘impossible’, it means that the four equations of the model under review are completely cryptic, as the authors do not explain their mathematical notation at all, and one has to look into this Zhao, L., & Otoo, C. O. A. (2019) paper in order to make any sense of it.

After cross-referencing those two papers and the two models, I obtain quite a blurry picture. In this Zhao, L., & Otoo, C. O. A. (2019) we have  a complex, self-regulating system made of 3 variables: volume of pollution x(t), real economic output y(t), and environmental quality z(t). The system goes through an economic cycle of k periods, and inside the cycle those three variables reach their respective local maxima and combine into complex apex states. These states are: F = maxk[x(t)], E = maxk[y(t)], H = maxk(∆z/∆y) – or the peak value of the impact of economic growth 𝑦(𝑡) on environmental quality 𝑧(𝑡) –  and P stands for absolute maximum of pollution possible to absorb by the ecosystem, thus something like P = max(F). With those assumptions in mind, the original model by Zhao, L., & Otoo, C. O. A. (2019), which, for the sake of presentational convenience I will further designate as Model #1, goes like:  

d(x)/d(t) = a1*x*[1 – (x/F)] + a2*y*[1 – (y/E)] – a3*z

d(y)/d(t) = -b1*x – b2*y – b3*z

d(z)/d(t) = -c1*x + c2*y*[1 – (y/H)] + c3*z*[(x/P) – 1]

The authors of ‘Evolutionary Analysis of a Four-dimensional Energy- Economy- Environment Dynamic System’ present a different model, which they introduce as an extension of that by Zhao, L., & Otoo, C. O. A. (2019). They introduce a 4th variable, namely energy reduction constraints designated as w(t). There is no single word as for what does it exactly mean. The first moments over time of, respectively, x(t), y(t), z(t), and w(t) play out as in Model #2:

d(x)/d(t)= a1*x*[(y/M) – 1] – a2*y + a3*z + a4w

d(y)/d(t) = -b1*x + b2*y*[1 – (y/F)] + b3*z*[1 – (z/E)] – b4*w

d(z)/d(t) = c1*x*[(x/N) – 1] – c2*y – c3*z – c4*w

d(w)/d(t) = d1*x – d2*y + d3*z*[1 – (z/H)] + d4*w*[(y/P) – 1]

No, I have a problem. When the authors of ‘Evolutionary Analysis of a Four-dimensional Energy- Economy- Environment Dynamic System’ present their Model #2 as a simple extension of Model #1, this is simply not true. First of all, Model #2 contains two additional parameters, namely M and N, which are not explained at all in the paper. They are supposed to be normal numbers and that’s it. If I follow bona fide the logic of Model #1, M and N should be some kind of maxima, simple or compound. It is getting interesting. I have a model with two unknown maxima and 4 known ones, and I am supposed to understand the theory behind. Cool. I like puzzles.

The parameter N is used in the expression [(x/N) – 1]. We divide the local volume of pollution x by N, thus we do x/N, and this is supposed to mean something. If we keep any logic at all, N should be a maximum of pollution, yet we already have two maxima of pollution, namely F and P. As for M, it is used in the expression [(y/M) – 1] and therefore I assume M is a maximum state of real economic output ‘y’. Once again, we already have one maximum in that category, namely ‘E’. Apparently, the authors of Model #2 assume that the volume of pollution x(t) can have three different, meaningful maxima, whilst real economic output y(t) has two of them. I will go back to those maxima further below, when I discuss the so-called ‘attractor expressions’ contained in Model #2.

Second of all, Model #2 presents a very different logic than Model #1. Arbitrary signs of coefficients ai, bi, ci and di are different, i.e. minuses replace pluses and vice versa. Attractor expressions of the type [(a/b) – 1] or [1 – (a/b)] are different, too. I am going to stop by these ones a bit longer, as it is important regarding the methodology of science in general. When I dress a hypothesis like y = a*x1 + b*x2, coefficients ‘a’ and ‘b’ are neutral in the sense that if x1 > 0, then a*x1 > 0 as well etc. In other words, positive coefficients ‘a’ and ‘b’ do not imply anything about the relation between y, x1, and x2.

On the other hand, when I say y = -a*x1 + b*x2, it is different. Instead of having a coefficient ‘a’, I have a coefficient ‘-a’, thus opposite to ‘y’. If x1 > 0, then a*x1 < 0 and vice versa. By assigning a negative coefficient to phenomenon x, I assume it works as a contrary force to phenomenon y. A negative coefficient is already a strong assumption. As I go through all the arbitrarily negative coefficients in Model #2, I can see the following strong claims:

>>> Assumption 1: the rate of change in the volume of pollution d(x)/d(t) is inversely proportional to the real economic output y.

>>> Assumption 2: the rate of change in real economic output d(y)/d(t) is inversely proportional to the volume of pollution x

>>> Assumption 3: the rate of change in real economic output d(y)/d(t) is inversely proportional to energy reduction constraints w.

>>> Assumption 4: the rate of change in environmental quality d(z)/d(t) is inversely proportional to environmental quality z.

>>> Assumption 5: the rate of change in environmental quality d(z)/d(t) is inversely proportional to real economic output y.

>>> Assumption 6: the rate of change in environmental quality d(z)/d(t) is inversely proportional to the volume of pollution x.

>>> Assumption 7: the rate of change in energy reduction constraints d(w)/d(t) is inversely proportional to real economic output y.

These assumptions would greatly benefit from theoretical discussion, as some of them, e.g. Assumption 1 and 2, seem counterintuitive.

Empirical data presented in ‘Evolutionary Analysis of a Four-dimensional Energy- Economy- Environment Dynamic System’ is probably the true soft belly of the whole logical structure unfolding in the manuscript. Authors present that data in the standardized form, as constant-base indexes, where values from 1999 are equal to 1. In Table 1 below, I present those standardized values:

Table 1

YearX – volume of pollutionY – real economic outputZ – environmental qualityW – energy reduction constraints
20001,96261,04551,10850,9837
20013,67861,10661,22280,9595
20022,27911,20641,34820,9347
20031,26991,4021,52830,8747
20042,30331,63821,80620,7741
20051,93521,85942,08130,7242
20062,07782,0382,45090,6403
20073,94372,21563,03070,5455
20086,55832,28083,59760,4752
20093,2832,39123,89970,4061
20103,33072,56564,6020,3693
20113,68712,75345,42430,3565
20124,0132,86086,03260,321
20133,92742,96596,60680,2817
20144,21673,02927,21510,2575
20154,28933,05837,68130,2322
20164,59253,10048,28720,2159
20174,61213,19429,22970,2147

I found several problems with that data, and they sum up to one conclusion: it is practically impossible to check its veracity. The time series of real economic output seem to correspond to some kind of constant-price measurement of aggregate GDP of China, yet it does not fit the corresponding time series published by the World Bank (https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.MKTP.KD ). Metrics such as ‘environmental quality’ (x) or energy reduction constraints (w) are completely cryptic. Probably, they are some sort of compound indices, and their structure in itself requires explanation.

There seems to be a logical loop between the theoretical model presented in the beginning of the manuscript, and the way that data is presented. The model presents an important weakness as regards functional relations inside arguments based on peak values, such as ‘y/M’ or ‘y/P’. The authors very freely put metric tons of pollution in fractional relation with units of real output etc. This is theoretical freestyle, which might be justified, yet requires thorough explanation and references to literature. Given the form that data is presented under, a suspicion arises, namely that standardization, i.e. having driven all data to the same denomination, opened the door to those strange, cross-functional arguments. It is to remember that even standardized through common denomination, distinct phenomena remain distinct. A mathematical trick is not the same as ontological identity.

Validation of the model with a Levenberg–Marquardt Backpropagation Network raises doubts, as well. This specific network, prone to overfitting, is essentially a tool for quick optimization in a system which we otherwise thoroughly understand. This is the good old method of Ordinary Least Squares translated into a sequence of heuristic steps. The LM-BN network does not discover anything about the system at hand, it just optimizes it as quickly as possible.

In a larger perspective, using a neural network to validate a model implies an important assumption, namely that consecutive states of the system form a Markov chain, i.e. each consecutive state is exclusively the outcome of the preceding state. It is to remember that neural networks in general are artificial intelligence, and intelligence, in short, means that we figure out what to do when we have no clue as for what to do, and we do it without any providential, external guidelines. The model presented by the authors clearly pegs the system on hypothetical peak values. These are exogenous to all but one possible state of the system, whence a logical contradiction between the model and the method of its validation.

Good. After some praising and some bitching, I can assess the manuscript by answering standard questions asked by the editor of the International Journal of Energy Sector Management (ISSN1750-6220).

  1. Originality: Does the paper contain new and significant information adequate to justify publication?

The paper presents a methodological novelty, i.e. the use of evolution trajectory as a method to study complex social-environmental systems, and this novelty deserves being put in the spotlight even more than it is in the present version of the paper. Still, substantive conclusions of the paper do not seem original at all.  

  • Relationship to Literature: Does the paper demonstrate an adequate understanding of the relevant literature in the field and cite an appropriate range of literature sources? Is any significant work ignored?

The paper presents important weaknesses as for bibliographical referencing. First of all, there are clear theoretical gaps as regards the macroeconomic aspect of the model presented, and as regards the nature and proper interpretation of the empirical data used for validating the model. More abundant references in these two fields would be welcome, if not necessary.

Second of all, the model presented by the authors is practically impossible to understand formally without reading another paper, referenced is a case of exaggerate referencing. The paper should present its theory in a complete way.   

  • Methodology: Is the paper’s argument built on an appropriate base of theory, concepts, or other ideas? Has the research or equivalent intellectual work on which the paper is based been well designed? Are the methods employed appropriate?

The paper combines a very interesting methodological approach, i.e. the formulation of complex systems in a way that makes them treatable with the method of evolution trajectory, with clear methodological weaknesses. As for the latter, three main questions emerge. Firstly, it seems to be methodologically incorrect to construe the cross-functional attractor arguments, where distinct phenomena are denominated one over the other. Secondly, the use of LM-BN network as a tool for validating the model is highly dubious. This specific network is made for quick optimization of something we understand and not for discovery inside something we barely understand.

Thirdly, the use of a neural network of any kind implies assuming that consecutive states of the system form a Markov chain, which is logically impossible with exogenous peak-values preset in the model.

  • Results: Are results presented clearly and analysed appropriately? Do the conclusions adequately tie together the other elements of the paper?

The results are clear, yet their meaning seems not to be fully understood. Coefficients calculated via a neural network represent a plausibly possible state of the system. When the authors conclude that the results so-obtained, combined with the state of the system from the year 1980, it seems really stretched in terms of empirical inference.

  • Implications for research, practice and/or society: Does the paper identify clearly any implications for research, practice and/or society? Does the paper bridge the gap between theory and practice? How can the research be used in practice (economic and commercial impact), in teaching, to influence public policy, in research (contributing to the body of knowledge)? What is the impact upon society (influencing public attitudes, affecting quality of life)? Are these implications consistent with the findings and conclusions of the paper?

The paper presents more implications for research than for society. As stated before, substantive conclusions of the paper boil down to common-sense claims, i.e. that it is better to keep the system stable rather than unstable. On the other hand, some aspects of the method used, i.e. the application of evolutionary trajectory, seem being very promising for the future. The paper seems to create abundant, interesting openings for future research rather than practical applications for now.

  • Quality of Communication: Does the paper clearly express its case, measured against the technical language of the field and the expected knowledge of the journal’s readership? Has attention been paid to the clarity of expression and readability, such as sentence structure, jargon use, acronyms, etc.

The quality of communication is a serious weakness in this case. The above-mentioned exaggerate reference to Zhao, L., & Otoo, C. O. A. (2019). Stability and Complexity of a Novel Three-Dimensional Environmental Quality Dynamic Evolution System. Complexity, 2019, https://doi.org/10.1155/2019/3941920 is one point. The flow of logic is another. When, for example, the authors suddenly claim (page 8, top): ‘In this study we set …’, there is no explanation why and on what theoretical grounds they do so.

Clarity and correct phrasing clearly lack as regards all the macroeconomic aspect of the paper. It is truly hard to understand what the authors mean by ‘economic growth’.

Finally, some sentences are clearly ungrammatical, e.g. (page 6, bottom): ‘By the system (1) can be launched energy intensity […].   

Good. Now, you can see what a scientific review looks like. I hope it was useful. Discover Social Sciences is a scientific blog, which I, Krzysztof Wasniewski, individually write and manage. If you enjoy the content I create, you can choose to support my work, with a symbolic $1, or whatever other amount you please, via MY PAYPAL ACCOUNT.  What you will contribute to will be almost exactly what you can read now. I have been blogging since 2017, and I think I have a pretty clearly rounded style.

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[1] Hoffman, D. D., Singh, M., & Prakash, C. (2015). The interface theory of perception. Psychonomic bulletin & review, 22(6), 1480-1506.

[2] Fields, C., Hoffman, D. D., Prakash, C., & Singh, M. (2018). Conscious agent networks: Formal analysis and application to cognition. Cognitive Systems Research, 47, 186-213. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cogsys.2017.10.003

[3] Michael, L. C., & Dean, C. A. (2013). Phenotypic trajectory analysis: comparison of shape change patterns in evolution and ecology. https://doi.org/10.4404/hystrix-24.1-6298

I followed my suspects home

MY EDITORIAL ON YOU TUBE

I am putting together the different threads of thinking which I have developed over the last weeks. I am trying to make sense of the concept of collective intelligence, and to make my science keep up with the surrounding reality. If you have followed my latest updates, you know I yielded to the temptation of taking a stance regarding current events (see Dear Fanatics and We suck our knowledge about happening into some kind of patterned structure ). I have been struggling, and I keep struggling with balancing science with current observation. Someone could say: ‘But, prof, isn’t science based on observation?’. Yes, indeed it is, but science is like a big lorry: it has a wide turning radius, because it needs to make sure to incorporate current observation into a conceptual network which takes a step back from current observation. I am committed to science, and, in the same time, I am trying to take as tight a turning around the current events as possible. Tires screech on the tarmac, synapses flare… It is exciting and almost painful, all in the same time. I think we need it, too: that combination of involvement and distance.

Once again, I restate my reasons for being concerned about the current events. First of all, I am a human being, and when I see and feel the social structure rattling around me, I become a bit jumpy. Second of all, as the Black Lives Matter protests spill from the United States to Europe, I can see the worst European demons awakening. Fanatic leftist anarchists, firmly believing they will change the world for the better by destroying it, pave the way for right-wing fanatics, who, in turn, firmly believe that order is all we need and order tastes the best when served with a pinchful of concentration camps. When I saw some videos published by activists from the so-called Chaz, or Capitol-Hill-Autonomous-Zone, in Seattle, Washingtion, U.S., I had a déjà vu. ‘F**k!’ I thought ‘This is exactly what I remember about life in a communist country’. A bunch of thugs with guns control the borders and decide who can get in and out. Behind them, a handful of grandstanding, useful idiots with big signs: ‘Make big business pay’, ‘We want restorative justice’ etc. In the background, thousands of residents – people who simply want to live their lives the best they can – are trapped in that s**t. This is what I remember from the communist Poland: thugs with deadly force using enthusiastic idiots to control local resources.

Let me be clear: I know people in Poland who use the expression ‘black apes’ to designate black people. I am sorry when I hear things like that. That one hurts too. Still, people who say stupid s**t can be talked into changing their mind. On the other hand, people who set fire to other people’s property and handle weapons are much harder to engage into a creative exchange of viewpoints. I think it is a good thing to pump our brakes before we come to the edge of the cliff. If we go over that edge, it will dramatically slow down positive social change instead of speeding it up.   

Thirdly, events go the way I was slightly afraid they would when the pandemic started, and lockdowns were being instated. The sense of danger combined with the inevitable economic downturn make a perfect tinderbox for random explosions. This is social change experienced from the uncomfortable side. When I develop my research about cities and their role in our civilisation, I frequently refer to the concept of collective intelligence. I refer to cities as a social contrivance, supposed to work as creators of new social roles, moderators of territorial conflicts, and markets for agricultural goods. If they are supposed to work, you might ask, why don’t they? Why are they overcrowded, polluted, infested with crime and whatnot?

You probably know that you can hurt yourself with a screwdriver. It certainly not the screwdriver’s fault, and it is not even always your fault. S**t happens, quite simply. When a lot of people do a lot of happening, s**t happens recurrently. It is called risk. At the aggregate scale risk is a tangible quantity of damage, not just a likelihood of damage taking place. This is why we store food for later and buy insurance policies. Dense human settlements mean lots of humans doing things very frequently in space and time, and that means more risk. We create social structures, and those structures work. This is how we survived. Those structures always have some flaws, and when we see it, we try to make some change.

My point is that collective intelligence means collective capacity to figure stuff out when we are at a loss as for what to do next. It does not mean coming up with perfect solutions. It means advancing one more step on a path that we have no idea where exactly it leads to. Scientifically, the concept is called adaptive walk in rugged landscape. There is a specific theoretical shade to it, namely that of conscious representation.

Accidents happen, and another one has just happened. I stumbled upon a video on You Tube, entitled ‘This Scientist Proves Why Our Reality Is False | Donald Hoffman on Conversations with Tom’( https://youtu.be/UJukJiNEl4o ), and I went after the man, i.e. after prof. Hoffman. Yes, guys, this is what I like doing. When I find someone with interesting ideas, I tend to sort of follow them home. One of my friends calls it ‘the bulldog state of mind’. Anyway, I went down this specific rabbit hole, and I found two articles: Hoffman et al. 2015[1] and Fields et al. 2018[2]. I owe professor Hoffman for giving me hope that I am not mad, when I use neural networks to represent collective intelligence. I owe him and his collaborators for giving some theoretic polish to my own work. I am like Moliere’s bourgeois turning into a gentleman: I suddenly realize what kind of prose I have been speaking about that topic. That prose is built around the concept of Markov chains, i.e. sequential states of reality where each consecutive state is the result of just the previous state, without exogenous corrections. The neural network I use is a Markovian kernel, i.e. a matrix (= a big table with numbers in it, to be simple) that transforms one Markov space into another.

As we talk about spaces, I feel like calling two other mathematical concepts, important for understanding the concept of Conscious Agents Networks (yes, the acronym is CAN), as developed by professor Hoffman. These concepts are: measurable space and σ-algebra. If I take a set of any phenomenal occurrences – chicken, airplanes, people, diamonds, numbers and whatnot – I can recombine that set by moving its elements around, and I can define subsets inside of it by cherry-picking some elements. All those possible transformations of the set X, together with the way of doing them and the rules of delimiting the set X out of its environment, all that makes the σ-algebra of the set X. The set X together with its σ-algebra is a measurable space.

Fields et al. 2018 represent conscious existence in the world as relation between three essential, measurable spaces: states of the world or W, conscious experiences thereof or X, and actions, designated as G. Each of these is a measurable space because it is a set of phenomena accompanied by all the possible transformations thereof. States of the world are a set, and this set can be recombined through its specific σ-algebra. The same holds for experiences and actions. Conscious existence consists in consciously experiencing states of the world and taking actions on the grounds of that experience.

That brings up an interesting consequence: conscious existence can be represented as a mathematical manifold of 7 dimensions. Why 7? It is simple. States of the world W, for one. Experiences X, two. Actions G, three. Perception is a combination of experiences with states of the world, right? Therefore, perception P is a Markovian kernel (i.e. a set of strings) attaching those two together and can be represented as P: W*X → X. That makes four dimensions. We go further. Decisions are a transformation of experiences into actions, or D: X*G → G. Yes, this is another Markovian kernel, and it is the 5-th dimension of conscious existence. The sixth one is the one that some people don’t like, i.e. the consequences of actions, thus a Markovian kernel that transforms actions into further states of the world, and spells A: G*W →W. All that happy family of phenomenological dimensions, i.e. W, X, G, P, D, A, needs another, seventh dimension to have any existence at all: they need time t. In the theory presented by Fields et al. 2018 , a Conscious Agent (CA) is precisely a 7-dimensional combination of W, X, G, P, D, A, and t.

That paper by Fields et al. 2018 made me understand that representing collective intelligence with neural networks involves deep theoretical assumptions about perception and consciousness. Neural networks are mathematical structures. In simpler words, they are combinations of symmetrical equations, asymmetrical inequalities and logical propositions linking them (such as ‘if… then…’). Those mathematical structures are divided into output variables and input variables. A combination of inputs should stay in a given relation, i.e. equality, superiority or inferiority to a pre-defined output. The output variable is precisely the tricky thing. The theoretical stream represented by Fields et al. 2018 , as well as by: He et al. 2015[3], Hoffman et al. 2015[4], Hoffman 2016[5] calls itself ‘Interface Theory of Perception’ (ITP) and assumes that the output of perception and consciousness consists in payoffs from environment. In other words, perception and consciousness are fitness functions, and organisms responsive only to fitness systematically outcompete those responsive to a veridical representation of reality, i.e. to truth about reality. In still other words, ITP stipulates that we live in a Matrix that we make by ourselves: we peg our attention on phenomena that give us payoffs and don’t give a s**t about all the rest.

Apparently, there is an important body of science which vigorously oppose the Interface Theory of Perception (see e.g. Trivers 2011[6]; Pizlo et al. 2014[7]), by claiming that human perception is fundamentally veridical, i.e. oriented on discovering the truth about reality.

In the middle of that theoretical clash, my question is: can I represent intelligent structures as Markov chains without endorsing the assumptions of ITP? In other words, can I assume that collective intelligence is a sequence of states, observable as sets of quantitative variables, and each such state is solely the outcome of the preceding state? I think it is possible, and, as I explore this particular question, I decided to connect with a review I am preparing right now, for a manuscript entitled ‘Evolutionary Analysis of a Four-dimensional Energy- Economy- Environment Dynamic System’, submitted for publication in the International Journal of Energy Sector Management (ISSN1750-6220). As I am just a reviewer of this paper, I think I should disseminate its contents on my blog, and therefore I will break with the basic habit I have to provide a linked access to the sources I quote on my blog. I will be just discussing the paper in this update, with the hope of adding, by the means of review, as much scientific value to the initial manuscript as possible.

I refer to that paper because it uses a neural network, namely a Levenberg–Marquardt Backpropagation Network, for validating a model of interactions between economy, energy, and environment. I want to start my review from this point, namely from the essential logic of that neural network and its application to the problem studied in the paper I am reviewing. The usage of neural networks in social sciences is becoming a fashion, and I like going through the basic assumptions of this method once again, as it comes handy in connection with the Interface Theory of Perception which I have just passed cursorily through.

The manuscript ‘Evolutionary Analysis of a Four-dimensional Energy-Economy- Environment Dynamic System’ explores the general hypothesis that relations between energy, economy and the ecosystem are a self-regulating, complex ecosystem. In other words, this paper somehow assumes that human populations can somehow self-regulate themselves, although not necessarily in a perfect manner, as regards the balance between economic activity, consumption of energy, and environmental interactions.   

Neural networks can be used in social sciences in two essential ways. First of all, we can assume that ‘IT IS INTELLIGENT’, whatever ‘IT’ is or means. A neural network is supposed to represent the way IT IS INTELLIGENT. Second of all, we can use neural networks instead of classical stochastic models so as to find the best fitting values in the parameters ascribed to some variables. The difference between a stochastic method and a neural network, as regards nailing those parameters down, is in the way of reading and utilizing residual errors. We have ideas, right? As long as we keep them nicely inside our heads, those ideas look just great. Still, when we externalize those ideas, i.e. when we try and see how that stuff works in real life, then it usually hurts, at least a little. It hurts because reality is a bitch and does not want to curb down to our expectations. When it hurts, the local interaction of our grand ideas with reality generates a gap. Mathematically, that gap ‘Ideal expectations – reality’ is a local residual error.

Essentially, mathematical sciences consist in finding such logical, recurrent patterns in our thinking, which generate as little residual error as possible when confronted with reality. The Pythagorean theorem c2 = a2 + b2, the π number (yes, we read it ‘the pie number’) etc. – all that stuff consists of formalized ideas which hold in confrontation with reality, i.e. they generate very little error or no error at all. The classical way of nailing down those logical structures, i.e. the classical way of doing mathematics, consists in making a provisional estimation of what real life should look like according to our provisional math, then assessing all the local residual errors which inevitably appear as soon as we confront said real life, and, in a long sequence of consecutive steps, in progressively modifying our initial math so as it fits well to reality. We take all the errors we can find at once, and we calibrate our mathematical structure so as to minimize all those errors in the same time.

That was the classical approach. Mathematicians whom we read about in history books were dudes who would spend a lifetime at nailing down one single equation. With the emergence of simple digital tools for statistics, it has become a lot easier. With software like SPSS or Stata, you can essentially create your own equations, and, provided that you have relevant empirical data, you can quickly check their accuracy. The problem with that approach, which is already being labelled as classical stochastic, is that if an equation you come up with proves statistically inaccurate, i.e. it generates a lot of error, you sort of have to guess what other equation could fit better. That classic statistical software speeds up the testing, but not really the formulation of equations as such.

With the advent of artificial intelligence, things have changed even further. Each time you fire up a neural network, that thing essentially nails down new math. A neural network learns: it does the same thing that great mathematical minds used to do. Each time a neural network makes an error, it learns on that single error, and improves, producing a slightly different equation and so forth, until error becomes negligible. I noticed there is a recent fashion to use neural networks as tools for validating mathematical models, just as classical stochastic methods would be used, e.g. Ordinary Least Squares. Generally, that approach has some kind of bad methodological smell for me. A neural network can process the same empirical data that an Ordinary Least Squares processes, and the neural network can yield the same type of parameters as the OLS test, and yet the way those values are obtained is completely different. A neural network is intelligent, whilst an Ordinary Least Squares test (or any other statistical test) is not. What a neural network yields comes out of a process very similar to thinking. The result of a test is just a number.  

If someone says: ‘this neural network has validated my model’, I am always like: ‘Weeelll, I guess what this network has just done was to invent its own model, which you don’t really understand, on the basis of your model’. My point is that a neural network can optimize very nearly anything, yet the better a network optimizes, the more prone it is to overfitting, i.e. to being overly efficient at justifying a set of numbers which does not correspond to the true structure of the problem.

Validation of the model, and the use of neural network to that purpose leads me to the model itself, such as it is presented in the manuscript. This is a complex logical structure and, as this blog is supposed to serve the popularization of science, I am going to stop and study at length both the model and its connection with the neural network. First of all, the authors of that ‘Evolutionary Analysis of a Four-dimensional Energy- Economy- Environment Dynamic System’ manuscript are non-descript to me. This is called blind review. Just in case I had some connection to them. Still, man, like really: if you want to conspire, do it well. Those authors technically remain anonymous, but right at the beginning of their paper they introduce a model, which, in order to be fully understood, requires referring to another paper, which the same authors quote: Zhao, L., & Otoo, C. O. A. (2019). Stability and Complexity of a Novel Three-Dimensional Environmental Quality Dynamic Evolution System. Complexity, 2019, https://doi.org/10.1155/2019/3941920 .

As I go through that referenced paper, I discover largely the same line of logic. Guys, if you want to remain anonymous, don’t send around your Instagram profile. I am pretty sure that ‘Evolutionary Analysis of a Four-dimensional Energy- Economy- Environment Dynamic System’ is very largely a build-up the paper they quote, i.e. ‘Stability and Complexity of a Novel Three-Dimensional Environmental Quality Dynamic Evolution System’. It is the same method of validation, i.e. a Levenberg-Marquardt Backpropagation Network, with virtually the same empirical data, and almost identical a model.

Good. I followed my suspects home, I know who do they hang out with (i.e. with themselves), and now I can go back to their statement. Both papers, i.e. the one I am reviewing, and the one which serves as baseline, follow the same line of logic. The authors build a linear model of relations between economy, energy, and environment, with three main dependent variables: the volume x(t) of pollution emitted, the value of Gross Domestic Product y(t), and environmental quality z(t).

By the way, I can see that the authors need to get a bit more at home with macroeconomics. In their original writing, they use the expression ‘level of economic growth (GDP)’. As regards the Gross Domestic Product, you have either level or growth. Level means aggregate GDP, and growth means percentage change over time, like [GDP(t1) – GDP(t0)] / GDP(t0). As I try to figure out what exactly do those authors mean by ‘level of economic growth (GDP)’, I go through the empirical data they introduce as regards China and its economy. Under the heading y(t), i.e. the one I’m after, they present standardized values which start at y(2000) = 1,1085 in the year 2000, and reach y(2017) = 9,2297 in 2017. Whatever the authors have in mind, aggregate GDP or its rate of growth, that thing had changed by 9,2297/1,1085 = 8,32 times between 2000 and 2017.

I go and check with the World Bank. The aggregate GDP of Cina, measured in constant 2010 US$, made $2 232 billion in 2000, and  $10 131,9 billion in 2017. This is a change by 4,54 times, thus much less than the standardized change in y(t) that the authors present. I check with the rate of real growth in GDP. In 2000, the Chinese economic growth was 8,5%, and in 2017 it yields 6,8%, which gives a change by (6,8/8,5) = 0,8 times and is, once again, far from the standardized 3,06 times provided by the authors. I checked with 2 other possible measures of GDP: in current US$, and in current international $ PPP. The latter indicator provides values for gross domestic product (GDP) expressed in current international dollars, converted by purchasing power parity (PPP) conversion factor. The first of the two yielded a 10,02 times growth in GDP, in China, from 2000 to 2017. The latter gives 5,31 times growth.

Good. I conclude that the authors used some kind of nominal GDP in their data, calculated with internal inflation in the Chinese economy. That could be a serious drawback, as regards the model they develop. This is supposed to be research on the mutual balance between economy, ecosystems, and energy. In this context, economy should be measured in terms of real output, thus after having shaven off inflation. Using nominal GDP is a methodological mistake.

What the hell, I go further into the model. This is a model based on differentials, thus on local gradients of change. The (allegedly) anonymous authors of the ‘Evolutionary Analysis of a Four-dimensional Energy- Economy- Environment Dynamic System’ manuscript refer their model, without giving much of an explanation, to that presented in: Zhao, L., & Otoo, C. O. A. (2019). Stability and Complexity of a Novel Three-Dimensional Environmental Quality Dynamic Evolution System. Complexity, 2019. I need to cross reference those two models in order to make sense of it.

The chronologically earlier model in: Zhao, L., & Otoo, C. O. A. (2019). Stability and Complexity of a Novel Three-Dimensional Environmental Quality Dynamic Evolution System. Complexity, 2019 operates within something that the authors call ‘economic cycle’ (to be dug in seriously, ‘cause, man, the theory of economic cycles is like a separate planet in the galaxy of social sciences), and introduces 4 essential, independent variables computed as peak values inside the economic cycle. They are:

>>> F stands for peak value in the volume of pollution,

>>> E represents the peak of GDP (once again, the authors write about ‘economic growth’, yet there is no way it could possibly be economic growth, it has to be aggregate GDP),

>>> H stands for ‘peak value of the impact of economic growth 𝑦(𝑡) on environmental quality 𝑧(𝑡)’, and, finally,

>>> P is the maximum volume of pollution possible to absorb by the ecosystem.

With those independent peak values in the system, that baseline model focuses on computing first-order derivatives of, respectively x(t), y(t) and z(t) over time. In other words, what the authors are after is change over time, noted as, respectively d[x(t)]/ d(t), d[y(t)]/d(t), and d[z(t)]/d(t).

The formal notation of the model is given in a triad of equations:  

d[x(t)]/d(t) = a1*x*[1 – (x/F)] + a2*y*[1 – (y/E)] – a3*z

d[y(t)]/d(t) = -b1*x – b2*y – b3*z

d[z(t)]/d(t) = -c1*x + c2*y*[1 – (y/H)] + c3*z*[(x/P) – 1]

Good. This is the baseline model presented in: Zhao, L., & Otoo, C. O. A. (2019). Stability and Complexity of a Novel Three-Dimensional Environmental Quality Dynamic Evolution System. Complexity, 2019. I am going to comment on it, and then I present the extension to that model, which the paper under review, i.e. ‘Evolutionary Analysis of a Four-dimensional Energy- Economy- Environment Dynamic System’ introduces as theoretical value added.

Thus, I comment. The model generally assumes two things. Firstly, gradients of change in pollution x(t), real output y(t), and environmental quality z(t) are sums of fractions taken out of stationary states. It is like saying: the pace at which this child will grow will be a fraction of its bodyweight plus a fraction of the difference between their current height and their tallest relative’s physical height etc. This is a computational trick more than solid theory. In statistics, when we study empirical data pertinent to economics or finance, we frequently have things like non-stationarity (i.e. a trend of change or a cycle of change) in some variables, very different scales of measurement etc. One way out of that is to do regression on the natural logarithms of that data (logarithms flatten out whatever needs to be flattened), or first derivatives over time (i.e. growth rates). It usually works, i.e. logarithms or first moments of original data yield better accuracy in linear regression than original data itself. Still, it is a computational trick, which can help validate a theory, not a theory as such. To my knowledge, there is no theory to postulate that the gradient of change in the volume of pollution d[x(t)]/d(t) is a sum of fractions resulting from the current economic output or the peak possible pollution in the economic cycle. Even if we assume that relations between energy, economy and environment in a human society are a complex, self-organizing system, that system is supposed to work through interaction, not through the addition of growth rates.

I need to wrap my mind a bit more around those equations, and here comes another assumption I can see in that model. It assumes that the pace of change in output, pollution and environmental quality depends on intra-cyclical peaks in those variables. You know, those F, E, H and P peaks, which I mentioned earlier. Somehow, I don’t follow this logic. The peak of any process depends on the cumulative rates of change rather that the other way around. Besides, if I assume any kind of attractor in a stochastic process, it would be rather the mean-reverted value, and not really the local maximum.

I can see that reviewing that manuscript will be tons of fun, intellectually. I like it. For the time being, I am posting those uncombed thoughts of mine on my blog, and I keep thinking.

Discover Social Sciences is a scientific blog, which I, Krzysztof Wasniewski, individually write and manage. If you enjoy the content I create, you can choose to support my work, with a symbolic $1, or whatever other amount you please, via MY PAYPAL ACCOUNT.  What you will contribute to will be almost exactly what you can read now. I have been blogging since 2017, and I think I have a pretty clearly rounded style.

In the bottom on the sidebar of the main page, you can access the archives of that blog, all the way back to August 2017. You can make yourself an idea how I work, what do I work on and how has my writing evolved. If you like social sciences served in this specific sauce, I will be grateful for your support to my research and writing.

‘Discover Social Sciences’ is a continuous endeavour and is mostly made of my personal energy and work. There are minor expenses, to cover the current costs of maintaining the website, or to collect data, yet I want to be honest: by supporting ‘Discover Social Sciences’, you will be mostly supporting my continuous stream of writing and online publishing. As you read through the stream of my updates on https://discoversocialsciences.com , you can see that I usually write 1 – 3 updates a week, and this is the pace of writing that you can expect from me.

Besides the continuous stream of writing which I provide to my readers, there are some more durable takeaways. One of them is an e-book which I published in 2017, ‘Capitalism And Political Power’. Normally, it is available with the publisher, the Scholar publishing house (https://scholar.com.pl/en/economics/1703-capitalism-and-political-power.html?search_query=Wasniewski&results=2 ). Via https://discoversocialsciences.com , you can download that e-book for free.

Another takeaway you can be interested in is ‘The Business Planning Calculator’, an Excel-based, simple tool for financial calculations needed when building a business plan.

Both the e-book and the calculator are available via links in the top right corner of the main page on https://discoversocialsciences.com .

You might be interested Virtual Summer Camps, as well. These are free, half-day summer camps will be a week-long, with enrichment-based classes in subjects like foreign languages, chess, theater, coding, Minecraft, how to be a detective, photography and more. These live, interactive classes will be taught by expert instructors vetted through Varsity Tutors’ platform. We already have 200 camps scheduled for the summer.   https://www.varsitytutors.com/virtual-summer-camps .


[1] Hoffman, D. D., Singh, M., & Prakash, C. (2015). The interface theory of perception. Psychonomic bulletin & review, 22(6), 1480-1506.

[2] Fields, C., Hoffman, D. D., Prakash, C., & Singh, M. (2018). Conscious agent networks: Formal analysis and application to cognition. Cognitive Systems Research, 47, 186-213. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cogsys.2017.10.003

[3] He, X., Feldman, J., & Singh, M. (2015). Structure from motion without projective consistency. Journal of Vision, 15, 725.

[4] Hoffman, D. D., Singh, M., & Prakash, C. (2015). The interface theory of perception. Psychonomic bulletin & review, 22(6), 1480-1506.

[5] Hoffman, D. D. (2016). The interface theory of perception. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 25, 157–161

[6] Trivers, R. L. (2011). The folly of fools. New York: Basic Books

[7] Pizlo, Z., Li, Y., Sawada, T., & Steinman, R. M. (2014). Making a machine that sees like us. New York: Oxford University Press.

Dear Fanatics

Dear Fanatics,

I have tried hard to stay away from commenting on current events. Still, it starts being scary. Where I am writing from, i.e. from Central Europe, we know that song by heart: leftist anarchists start ‘remodelling the society’, then far-right anarchists start doing the same, only in the reverse direction. The next thing you know, we have concentration camps.

Dear Fanatics. You are concerned about slavery. Fantastic. Go to Libya or to Mauritania and try to convince one of the local slave traders, who are thriving, not to do what they do. You will be lucky if they kill you quickly and on the spot. They might be tempted to have some fun before you expire. Stop using your phone and, as a matter of fact, stop using most of your electronics. By using them, you exploit the proceeds of child slave labour in cobalt mines in Africa. Stop wearing clothes made by child slaves in Bangladesh.

Slavery still exists in the world, and even thrives. Slavery had existed since the beginnings of human history. The Western culture of white people is the first culture in known history, which has officially, institutionally banned slavery. The United States of America are the first country ever to have done it. Other horrible, white-dominated countries followed. The heritage of Western culture is that of successfully abolishing slavery, not of slavery as such. The fate of black slaves in America was horrible, yes, and yet, in the same time, those black slaves were the first known population of slaves ever, since human civilization started, who had been massively liberated.

Dear Fanatics. Please, remember that human history is more than 300 years back. The culture that we have now is the first human culture ever to openly, institutionally guarantee human rights, including personal freedom. When you destroy statues, you destroy artefacts that document the path we followed up to that point. You want to destroy the souvenirs of slavery, like really? Go to Egypt and destroy pyramids: they were built by slaves. Destroy the Roman Colosseum: made by slaves, as well.

Read more, Tik Tok less.     

We suck our knowledge about happening into some kind of patterned structure

MY EDITORIAL ON YOU TUBE

It’s done. I am caught in the here and now with my writing. As I am writing these words, on June 10th 2020, George Floyd’s funeral in Minneapolis, U.S., is just over. I am Polish, I live in Poland, and I am essentially a bystander as regards the events taking place in United States. Yet, those events resonate in my country, and I think I can express an opinion.

I have a few words to say about the idea of defunding the police force. We had the same idea in Poland, when we were transitioning from communism to democracy, from 1989 on. As communism collapsed, we would intuitively associate police force in general with an oppressive regime. It was a pattern inherited from the communist system: the police force was a tool of oppression in the hands of a totalitarian state. In parallel, the new democratic Poland had to rebuild its fiscal base almost from scratch, and for quite a few years, the government went very largely bankrupt. Defunding the police force came as sort of handy, both economically and politically, and so we did.

We expected more freedom with less cops in the streets. Still, instead of freedom, gangs crept in. Gangsters took control of entire cities, within months. One year after the fall of communism, in summer 1990, it was already impossible to run any substantial business without being racketed, pardon, without paying for “protection services”, and you were lucky if just one gang claimed that tribute from you. Sometimes, you would find yourself in disputed terrain between rivalling gangs, and then you were really f**ked. In 1995, a friend of mine died of a horrible death, in a cartel-style execution, because he was unlucky enough to be a bouncer in a club which two rivalling gangs tried to take over and control. It took us like a decade to re-establish a relatively normal social order, around 2001 – 2002.

Thus, guys, a message to those of you who think that the police force is your worst enemy. With all the due respect, you’re wrong. The police force is like a shield between us, normal folks, and a social fringe of truly evil sociopaths. Once again, believe me, you have no idea what true evil is until you look it straight in the face. You remove the shield, and you get exposed to real monsters, and those monsters are surprisingly well organized. I am tempted to quote Jean – Jacques Rousseau, the French thinker commonly associated with the theory of social contract. Rousseau stated very clearly that what we see as civil rights and freedoms really works only to the extent that we have a government strong enough to guarantee them.

The world is changing. I am doing my best to wrap my mind around those changes. As social media swell with contrary tides of ideas, I try to keep my mind open to all kinds of opinions. A strange memory floats up to the surface of my consciousness. I think I was like 10 years old, so it must have been 1978, communist Poland, of course. We already had in place a system of food rationing, especially as regards meat and fruit. My father was in the communist party and was a fervent acolyte thereof. I remember seeing in the official news, on TV, a reportage on how fantastically buoyant our agriculture and the food sector were. Mountains of delicious fresh food loomed on the TV screen. I asked my father: ‘Dad, how come we have such amounts of food on TV, but in day to day life we have so little meat and fresh fruit, and what we can buy in food stores is mostly industrial sugar and industrial pasta?’. My dad answered: ‘This is because our entire society, in line with the doctrine of the Party, we are committed to support the emancipation of black Americans in the United States’. ‘Oh, so we send them our pork meat, to the United States?’ – I would reply – ‘Cool. I didn’t know. But, dad, couldn’t we help those black Americans a little less and eat a little better? I think it is called a compromise…’. ‘Don’t you dare questioning the policy of the Party! There are no compromises in promoting international social justice’. Yes, it was the usual closure to such conversations, at the time. You never knew who was listening.

Of course, it was bullshit. We were not helping black Americans, we simply had a f**ked up economic system, based on ideology instead of entrepreneurship, and black Americans were just an excuse. I wonder how much of handy excuse are black Americans now, serving to cover various mistakes in people who would lose a lot, should they have to endorse those mistakes, and serving ambitions in other people (or maybe in the same people). As I read business news, I can see, here and there, some top corporate executives, all white, being suddenly fired by other top corporate executives, white as well, because of ‘racial hate speech’ etc.    

I can see society slightly shaking around me, and I realize how strongly I am attached, in my psyche, to relative stability in the social space. I realize how easy it is to fall for either path: ‘Let’s do revolution!’ is just as tempting as ‘Western civilization is dying!’. Both offer easy space for unloading stress, which accumulates as I see social rituals changing all of a sudden. Good. This thread of thinking, i.e. thinking about social stability versus social change, is a good avenue to lead me back towards my research on the role of cities in our civilisation. I build up intellectual distance by referring once again to Arnold Toynbee’s ‘Study of History’ (abridged version: Somervell &Toynbee 1946[1]). In the introduction, Arnold Toynbee writes: ‘If the argument of this chapter is accepted it will be agreed that the intelligible unit of historical study is neither a nation state nor (at the other end of the scale) mankind as a whole but a certain grouping of humanity which we have called a society’.

That excursion into Arnold Toynbee’s theory serves me as a pretext to open up on a more current topic: cities in Asia, and more specifically in China. I had the opportunity to visit some of the Chinese cities and I was baffled with how different they are from the European ones. Under a superficial layer of similarity, a completely different social order dwells. When I wrote that cities are made of movement and human connection, I should take it to square power in the Chinese case. In Chinese cities, even buildings go faster than European ones. Hardly anyone conserves buildings in China the way we do it in Europe. In Europe, we are used to maintaining constructed architectural substance as a sort of skeleton, and to organizing our social activity around it. In China, buildings are like cars: when used up, no one bothers to renovate them, they are just being replaced with new ones. Chinese cities are all movement.      

Cities have grown, across the globe, in strict economic connection to the surrounding countryside. The city creates social roles, and therefore a market for agricultural products, and the countryside provides a stable food base. That connection by partition is fascinatingly different between China and Europe. European agriculture developed as pretty much a closed loop between people, livestock, and vegetal farming. Livestock eats, livestock shits, and thus livestock fertilizes. In China, historically, there has been much less livestock in agriculture, and much more cereals, mostly rice. There is a historical detail about the connection between rice and cities in China. This is one of those details we just don’t talk about, as it sounds awkward: Chinese cities had been fertilizing their neighbouring rice fields with human excrements from cities, with comparatively little amount of animal manure (see for example Braudel 1992[2]). The kind of loop that European humans made with their livestock and their cereal fields, Chinese humans made directly with their rice fields, without inviting cattle to the party.

As you can easily guess, looping our food base on our own excrements gives clear incentives to increase the amount of the latter. Cities can grow much bigger than in Europe. Bigger cities, and faster growth in their population mean more new social roles being created per unit of time, whence new social space for greater a population. Greater a population defecates more, and the loop spirals up.

Chinese cities, including their ancient, peculiar relation to the rice they buy from the countryside, seem to favour hyper-growth in size. Au & Henderson (2006[3]) claim that Chinese cities, such as they emerged as the Chinese economy after its progressive transition towards market economy, are still too small regarding the economic incentives for growth they offer (or rather used to offer 15 years ago). Au & Henderson claimed that Chinese cities create exceptional economic incentives for demographic growth. On the other hand, as we observe the way that Chinese cities function today, they have an outstanding ability to attract new investment. The bottom line under this specific thread of my writing is that social difference between cities and the countryside is strongly idiosyncratic. Why?

The ‘why?’ question is usually an abyssal one. You have logical coherence and functional correlation entangled around the assumption that things which happen later are the outcome of things that happened earlier. I prefer tricking myself by asking ‘How?’ instead of ‘Why?’. How does the idiosyncratic social difference between cities and the countryside develop? How does it start? What are the distinctive steps in the process? Is there any threshold of saturation?

How does a city start? The basic answer is: slowly and with a lot of struggle, when a local population needs to organize itself. A demographic anomaly forms: a collection of man-made structures, apparently pointless from the point of view of warfare and agriculture, and yet functional for trade, business and politics. Some folks discover that it pays off to construct a few buildings close to each other instead of spreading them across the countryside. Those folks deliberately shrink their respective physical territories, from farm-wide to store-wide, in order to have additional benefits from exchange.

I jump back to the present and the current, and to the #BlackLivesMatter protests. In Seattle, U.S., protesters created (well, they didn’t create anything, they occupy somebody else’s property, but ‘created’ sounds better) an autonomous zone. They created a town. Similar episodes are happening across Western Europe as well. People who, objectively speaking, are anarchists and therefore postulate to destroy the incumbent social order, put in place their own social structure as soon as they are satisfied with apparently having destroyed the old one. This is amazingly coherent with what I discovered in my experiments with a neural network, which was supposed to simulate a system of social roles. When social cohesion, i.e. social distance between distinct social roles, gets a bit of loose in the shoulders, the incumbent social roles disappear at first. Yet, after an initial phase of entropy, that very simple set of equations learns how to bring social roles back (see The perfectly dumb, smart social structure).

Maybe this is how cities formed in the past, i.e. they formed in momentary windows of social entropy, when nobody new s**t, and some people said: ‘OK, guys, as no one really knows what to do, we are going to do urban life. This is how intelligence works: knowing what to do when we have no clue what to do’.  

Now, a few more words of explanation as regards my stance on #BlackLivesMatter. By reading what I have just written, you can guess I am a moderate conservatist. Yes, indeed I am, and, on the top, of that, I like asking embarrassing questions and cutting bullshit out of the answers. When people gather in large numbers, what they want most of all is gathering in itself. They want to experience community. Defining a common enemy – those ugly privileged whites and ugly cops – helps reinforcing the oxytocin loops that gathered people trigger with each other. The pandemic and the lockdown have shaken a bit the sense of social cohesion – people stopped going to work, children stopped going to school, habits got shaken – and slogans like ‘Society must change!’, shouted and yelled, actually reflect a post factum acknowledgment of facts (‘F****k! Society changes! Heeeeelp!’).

Sometimes, I have the impression that anarchist movements like this one are a necessary pain in the ass when we want to absorb important exogenous stressors. Maybe we train for the BIG adaptation to climate change?

Cities are distinctive from the countryside by their abnormally high density of population, which is a proportion between population and the territory it occupies. There are two distinct methods of measuring both: administrative and GPW (Gridded Population of the World). I am sharpening my understanding of these two approaches so as to understand the dynamics of urban structures as such. My approach is empiricist. I hope to understand better the boundary between cities and the countryside through understanding the fine distinctions as regards the way we perceive that boundary. Here, one more excursion into current events. Have you noticed that CHaz (Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone) in Seattle is precisely in Seattle and not in the countryside? Logically, if you want to cut ties with the ugly incumbent social order, forming a commune out there, in the fields and woods, could be a tempting idea. Yet, these specific protesters decided to constitute Chaz in the city. They claimed it because they need it.   

Underneath the cognitively acknowledged social rituals, maths dwell. Before we started to remember what we had forgotten about life in the presence of epidemic risk, our set SR = {sr1, sr2, …, srm} of ‘m’ social roles was congruent with and logically equivalent to such other sets as, for example, the set IN = {in1, in2,…, inz} of ‘z’ typical levels observable in annual income, or the set R = {r1, r2, …, ro} of ‘o’ places of residence. Social contacts had been kind of going along and coming with the social role at hand. Now, our set of social roles has suddenly become significantly congruent with and logically equivalent to a set ßC = {ßc1, ßc2, …, ßcn} of ‘n’ observable levels in epidemic risk derived from social contacts.

Before, the daily mathematical life of our culture consisted in feeding into itself a set of individual experiences regarding income, housing, cars owned etc., and pitching the resulting mix against the benchmark of what we consider as collectively desired outcomes. Life is made of chaos and order, and we mix it. We have things we know we do, i.e. our relative preference for different social roles SR = {sr1, sr2, …, srm}, and that preference manifests itself as the probability p(sri) that a randomly selected human endorses the social role sri. We acknowledge chaos as random, local occurrences ε(t) of something barely conceptualized. Our social roles happen as temporary instances of a general cultural frame, i.e. as SR(t) = {ε(t)*p(sr1), ε(t)*p(sr2), …, ε(t)*p(sri)}. Each ε(t) in that temporary occurrence SR(t) is different. Remember: that ε(t) is just a civilized mask we put on the pretty scary face of barely acknowledged chaos.

We, humans, we are obstinately ordered. Things happen to us in a hurricane of phenomenal chaos, and we take great care to react in an orderly, patterned way. We don’t have enough money? Good, there are patterns to follow: save, invest, get a better job… The catalogue is actually definite, at least for most of us. We feel a bit down on our physical condition? Good. Exercise, sleep more, pay attention to what you eat. Once again, the repertoire of reactions is finite. We need someone else in charge? Well, let’s see… Elections? No? Then maybe a corporate structure and appointment by the strongest players? No? Doesn’t fit the bill either? Well, then we stay with limited options… Structurally unstable dictatorship disguised as democracy where we buy people’s votes with the money they haven’t earned from other people ‘cause we were the first to snatch that money? Good? We go on with this one? Good…

There is another trait of orderliness in our civilization: we are strongly coherent and cohesive in our social ways. Have you ever noticed how frequently those people, who present themselves as outsiders and non-conformists, take great care of fitting into a precise mould of ready-made ideas and behaviours? I remember going to a wedding, in 2018, where the bride and the groom were much younger than I, just as most of their friends. As the wedding party was starting, the young couple announced that ‘this party is a celebration of freedom and independent thinking, without any false moral limitations; do whatever pleases you to do’. The actual consummation of that principle looked stiffer than a reception at the Buckingham Palace. Everybody was eyeing everybody else, how free and independent they appear, and tried to fit exactly into the same model of freedom and independence. This is what we humans do, socially: we eye each other, and we conform. Even when we claim we don’t conform, we actually conform to some other pattern. This is not some innate stupidity: this is how being a social species manifests itself. We hold parties in the same basic way our distant ancestors would hunt the woolly mammoth. We coordinate, and much of this coordination is tacit, i.e. not expressed explicitly.        

The provisional bottom line of this little intellectual excursion into the realm of weddings is that, on the top of distinctive traits observable in particular social roles, our collective intelligence feeds into itself information about mutual coherence between those social roles.

We have those patterns. Whatever happens, we suck our knowledge about happening into some kind of patterned structure. Patterning starts with aggregation of idiosyncrasies. We collectively make some kind of simple metric about reality. Let’s call it h. The simple h can suck reality into itself in many mathematical ways. The h can emerge as h = ε(t)*p(sr1) +  ε(t)*p(sr2) +  … + ε(t)*p(srm), or it can go into the fancy realms of matrix maths, like h = [ε(t)*p(sr1)/ ε(t)*p(sr2)] + [ε(t)*p(sr1)/ ε(t)*p(sr3)] + … + [ε(t)*p(sr1)/ ε(t)*p(srm)]. Whatever. It boils down to taking a lot of largely chaotic reality and squeezing it into the magic hat of culture, so as to pull a nicely structured rabbit afterwards.

Have you noticed that the rabbit always comes up from the magic hat, and never falls down from it? As a collective intelligence, we have patterned ways of drawing conclusions from aggregate existential chaos. There is something at the base – the hat – and something – the rabbit – comes up from that base. As you browse through neural activation functions, which we use in artificial neural networks to represent what we think intelligence is, at the bottom line you most frequently fall either on the mathematical constant e = 2,71828 elevated to the power h of aggregate chaos, with some kind of additional parameters, or on the square root of 1+ h elevated to some arbitrary power. The idea is that our way of being intelligent contains some kind of constant root, such as e = 2,71828 or √(1 + h2). By the way, the constant root e = 2,71828 is a collection of steps towards reverted infinity of dimensions, i.e. e = (1/1) * (1/1) *( ½) * … * 1/(n → ∞).    

Thus, when we think about the way that intelligence works, thus when we project our own thinking about our own intelligence, we assume there is a constant root in that intelligent cognition. At the very base of what we think, we sort of always think the same, and aggregate chaos of daily existence comes as a modifier to that constant root. We think almost the same we used to think before, just with a small drift.

I feel like partly summing it up. We go through that chaos called life by being smartly social. We endorse SR = {sr1, sr2, …, srm} social roles and we discriminate among them by experimenting with their local probabilities p(sri), whilst acknowledging random disturbances ε(t) and producing local instances SR(t) = {ε(t)*p(sr1), ε(t)*p(sr2), …, ε(t)*p(sri)} of our framework social structure. We aggregate our experience with those local variations into simple metrics, like h = [ε(t)*p(sr1)/ ε(t)*p(sr2)] + [ε(t)*p(sr1)/ ε(t)*p(sr3)] + … + [ε(t)*p(sr1)/ ε(t)*p(srm)], digestible to our big, patterned institutions, which maintain a baseline continuity and allow some drift as circumstances happen.

The inevitable failure to achieve what we collectively want, largely resulting from the apparently intrinsic inability to define what we really, collectively want, generates learning about the margin of error as regards perfect happiness. We feed that error forward in time, into the next episode of existence, and we backpropagate that error along the logical structure of our civilisation, and it all plays out over and over again. Now, we enrich our collectively subconscious, mathematical life with data about epidemic risk attached to individual social roles, and by that means, to general categories of social roles. We feed into our culture our observation of that risk, we make it a functional part of the social order, and we keep pushing.

OK, change of tangent. I think I have pretty much circled the ideas I want to develop in my book on cities and their civilizational role. Here comes the list:

>>> Idea 1: Cities are demographic anomalies, which we, humans, have devised in order to accommodate a growing population.

>>> Idea 2: Seen as social contrivances, cities have three essential functions. Firstly, they allow rapid multiplication of social roles, which facilitates social structuring of a growing population. Secondly, that creation of new social roles allows the existence of many parallel, social hierarchies, which, in turn, facilitates the moderation of social conflicts. Thirdly, the development of cities allows, as strange as it could seem at the first sight, systematic development of agriculture.

>>> Idea 3: Cities enhance the collective intelligence of human societies, i.e. they enhance our collective ability to experiment with many local, alternative instances of our fundamental social structures. Cities allow systematic development of correlated behavioural coupling, which, in turn, largely eliminates randomness and excessive rigidity in the process of collective learning.    

>>> Idea 4: Technological change as such is a manifestation of collective intelligence rather than the individual one. Our technologies change at the pace allowed by the intensity of social interaction. Artificial intelligence is a good example of a technology that reflects collective intelligence.

>>> Idea 5: Cultures built around and on the basis of urban life display a characteristic pattern, centred on demonstrable social activity, correlated behavioural coupling supported by financial markets, and complex institutional systems.

>>> Idea 6: Cities form, as demographic anomalies, when a factor of disturbance temporarily distorts social cohesion, and then a new process of defining social roles emerges, with a cohesion of its own.  

Those 6 ideas coincide with some basic empirical regularities which I have noticed. Here they come:

*** Fact 1: Since 2008, the global human society has become prevalently urban and the process of urbanisation continues.

*** Fact 2: There is an interesting discrepancy between the administratively defined extent of urban land, on the one hand, and measurements based on satellite imagery, on the other hand. Whilst some cities in the world officially grow in space (i.e. their officially defined territories spread), the total surface of urban land in the world seems to be constant – at least for now – and cities grow into that de facto urban space rather than out of it.

*** Fact 3: The density of urban population, measured on the basis satellite-assessed extent of urban land, demonstrates intriguing properties as socio-economic variables. Those properties become even more interesting when the density of urban population is being denominated in units of general density in population. That compound variable, i.e. urban social density divided by general social density, which essentially measures the social difference between cities and the countryside, grows in an unusually monotonous, linear manner, and demonstrates intriguing correlations with such variables as income per capita, energy consumption per capita or agricultural productivity. When compared cross-sectionally, i.e. between countries, that variable seems to be hitting some kind of sweet spot around the value of 20 ÷ 22, i.e. when urban populations are approximately between twenty and twenty-two times denser than the general population. Anything significantly below or beyond that value seems to be less functional.      

Discover Social Sciences is a scientific blog, which I, Krzysztof Wasniewski, individually write and manage. If you enjoy the content I create, you can choose to support my work, with a symbolic $1, or whatever other amount you please, via MY PAYPAL ACCOUNT.  What you will contribute to will be almost exactly what you can read now. I have been blogging since 2017, and I think I have a pretty clearly rounded style.

In the bottom on the sidebar of the main page, you can access the archives of that blog, all the way back to August 2017. You can make yourself an idea how I work, what do I work on and how has my writing evolved. If you like social sciences served in this specific sauce, I will be grateful for your support to my research and writing.

‘Discover Social Sciences’ is a continuous endeavour and is mostly made of my personal energy and work. There are minor expenses, to cover the current costs of maintaining the website, or to collect data, yet I want to be honest: by supporting ‘Discover Social Sciences’, you will be mostly supporting my continuous stream of writing and online publishing. As you read through the stream of my updates on https://discoversocialsciences.com , you can see that I usually write 1 – 3 updates a week, and this is the pace of writing that you can expect from me.

Besides the continuous stream of writing which I provide to my readers, there are some more durable takeaways. One of them is an e-book which I published in 2017, ‘Capitalism And Political Power’. Normally, it is available with the publisher, the Scholar publishing house (https://scholar.com.pl/en/economics/1703-capitalism-and-political-power.html?search_query=Wasniewski&results=2 ). Via https://discoversocialsciences.com , you can download that e-book for free.

Another takeaway you can be interested in is ‘The Business Planning Calculator’, an Excel-based, simple tool for financial calculations needed when building a business plan.

Both the e-book and the calculator are available via links in the top right corner of the main page on https://discoversocialsciences.com .

You might be interested Virtual Summer Camps, as well. These are free, half-day summer camps will be a week-long, with enrichment-based classes in subjects like foreign languages, chess, theater, coding, Minecraft, how to be a detective, photography and more. These live, interactive classes will be taught by expert instructors vetted through Varsity Tutors’ platform. We already have 200 camps scheduled for the summer.   https://www.varsitytutors.com/virtual-summer-camps .


[1] Royal Institute of International Affairs, Somervell, D. C., & Toynbee, A. (1946). A Study of History. By Arnold J. Toynbee… Abridgement of Volumes I-VI (VII-X.) by DC Somervell. Oxford University Press.,

[2] Braudel, F. (1992). Civilization and capitalism, 15th-18th Century, Vol. I: The structure of everyday life (Vol. 1). Univ of California Press., pp. 145 – 158.

[3] Au, C. C., & Henderson, J. V. (2006). Are Chinese cities too small?. The Review of Economic Studies, 73(3), 549-576. http://www.jstor.org/stable/20185020?origin=JSTOR-pdf

How much of a collective intelligence we are? The case of cities and agricultural land

MY EDITORIAL ON YOU TUBE

I continue to work on the role of cities in our civilisation and on the changes that the current COVID-19 pandemic can possibly bring to our ways of living in cities. Initially, when I started writing this update, on June 6th, I intended to explore the connection between technological change and the civilizational role of cities. Further in this update, I do go down that avenue, yet for now, in those initial paragraphs, I want to share another strand of my thinking, which I already signalled last time, namely my impressions from reading Daniel Defoe’s ‘Journal of The Plague Year’, published in 1665. That book was published in 1665 and gives the account of events which took place in London, in 1664, during the epidemic outbreak of plague. It was 356 years ago, and yet, when I read it, especially the initial chapters, I have the impression of going through news feeds from the last 4 months, like from February until now, of course in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic. The sequence of events described by Daniel Defoe, the patterns of human reactions to the epidemic disease – all that is so incredibly similar to what we experience today that I have hard times to realize that what Daniel Defoe described took place 18 generations ago (if we count 25 years for one generational shift, by sociological standards).

That striking similarity gives tons of hope. Eighteen generations ago, people had just a small fraction of science and technology that we have today, and yet they pushed themselves through that deep shit, and there was another sunrise. It was plague, not COVID-19. It was a monster. Yet, there was another sunrise. What impressed me the most, I think, is the very end of that book, and I allow myself to quote it: “It was a common thing to meet people in the street that were strangers, and that we knew nothing at all of, expressing their surprise. Going one day through Aldgate, and a pretty many people being passing and repassing, there comes a man out of the end of the Minories, and looking a little up the street and down, he throws his hands abroad, ‘Lord, what an alteration is here! Why, last week I came along here, and hardly anybody was to be seen.’ Another man—I heard him—adds to his words, ‘’Tis all wonderful; ’tis all a dream.’ ‘Blessed be God,’ says a third man, and and let us give thanks to Him, for ’tis all His own doing, human help and human skill was at an end.’ These were all strangers to one another. But such salutations as these were frequent in the street every day; and in spite of a loose behaviour, the very common people went along the streets giving God thanks for their deliverance. It was now, as I said before, the people had cast off all apprehensions, and that too fast; indeed we were no more afraid now to pass by a man with a white cap upon his head, or with a cloth wrapt round his neck, or with his leg limping, occasioned by the sores in his groin, all which were frightful to the last degree, but the week before. But now the street was full of them, and these poor recovering creatures, give them their due, appeared very sensible of their unexpected deliverance; and I should wrong them very much if I should not acknowledge that I believe many of them were really thankful”.  (Excerpt From: Daniel Defoe. “A Journal of the Plague Year / Written by a Citizen Who Continued All the While in London”. Apple Books.”)

As I am rereading that book by Daniel Defoe, and as I meditate over it, I realize how bloody tough we, humans, are. The city of London (where the events described by Daniel Defoe take place) is still there. It is thriving. We moan, we bicker, we take grand moral stances over events we don’t even have full knowledge about, and yet, at the bottom line, when the shit hits the fan, we just clench our teeth, dig our heels into the sand, and survive. Wonderful.

I am going into a slightly different path of thinking, as compared to my recent updates. The initial hypothesis of that entire thread of research is that technological change that has been going on in our civilisation at least since 1960 is oriented on increasing urbanization of humanity, and more specifically on effective, rigid partition between urban areas and rural ones. I focus on the connection between cities and the countryside, at the aggregate level. In Figure 1, below, you can see indexed trends in three aggregate variables: a) density of urban population denominated in units of general density in population (which I will further designate, for the sake of presentational convenience, as [DU/DG]) b) cereal yield in kg per hectare, and c) total surface of agricultural land. In order to assure comparability, I represented all those three metrics as constant-base indexes, where values from the year 2000 make 1.

As you can see, I provided direct links (to the database of the World Bank) as regards two variables out of the three. I did it because the first variable is a compound construct of my own, made out of primary data supplied by the World Bank. I took the numbers regarding aggregate urban population, and I divided it by the aggregate surface of urban land, which yields the coefficient of density in urban population. In the next step, I want to use that coefficient so as to measure the relative social difference between cities and the countryside. In order to do so, I divide the coefficient of density in urban population by the coefficient of general density in population. In other words, I check how many general densities of population we need in order to have one unit of density in urban population.

Since 1961 through 2016, the relative social distance between cities and the countryside, measured at the planetary level, has been growing steadily, almost in a straight line. As a matter of fact, that line is so straight that it is hardly believable. When you find a straight line of trend, which sort of cuts across waves and bumps in other variables, you are either completely wrong or deeply right. Linear change over time is a rare beast in the realm of measurable phenomena. However, as I measure local growth rates in that [DU/DG] metric, they keep sticking to 1% a year. Yes, since 1961, the average social distance between cities and the countryside has been growing at a nearly constant rate of 1% a year.

Against that almost suspiciously consistent change in the density of urban populations across the planet, agriculture has been changing at two different speeds. Cereal yield per hectare has grown, at the end of the day, yet its growth has been happening at a much more familiar, bumpy rate, sort of two steps forward, one step back. The aggregate surface of agricultural land presents a stairway type of change: two plateaus separated by a sudden jump in the beginning of the 1990ies.

Summing up, as social density in cities has been hyper-consistently drifting away and above general social density, agriculture kept adapting, mostly by consistent growth in agricultural productivity. Interestingly, all three trends, although different in shape, are strongly correlated, which is shown in Table 1, below Figure 1. Those correlations are so strong that it all looks like one compound phenomenon, with just a little entropy inside.  

As local expansions of agricultural land have kept happening, yet they also kept being compensated, at the global scale, by decreases in other parts of the world. On the long run, between 1961 and 2016, the total surface of agricultural land in the world has grown by 11,4 millions of square kilometres. Apparently, more than 55% of that aggregate growth happened in the short window between 1989 and 1992 seems to be only moment since 1961 when the total global surface of agricultural land unequivocally went up. That big leap in agricultural land, by about 6,3 millions of additional square kilometres, happened mostly in countries classified as ‘Middle Income’, and was prevalently concentrated in two of them: Kazakhstan and Russian Federation. The long-term geography of change in agricultural land, between 1961 and 2016, is shown in the form of a map in Figure 2. Kazakhstan, Russian Federation and China keep the podium. A freakish idea comes to my mind. Between 1989 and 1992, a dramatic increase happened in the surface of agricultural land on the planet. It happened mostly in the former Soviet Union, which, precisely then, was dissolving. Are the two phenomena connected? Is it possible that the dissolution of the biggest country in the world was a collectively intelligent response of our planetary human species to the necessity of having more land to grow food?  

Figure 1

Table 1 – Pearson correlation between density of urban population, agricultural land, and cereal yield per hectare

 Density of urban population, denominated in units of general density in population: World
Surface of agricultural land, km2 : World0,927149105
Cereal yield, kg per hectare of arable land: World0,984881004

Figure 2

Now, I focus on the ‘technological change’ part and I formulate two other hypotheses. Firstly, I claim that technological change manifests collective intelligence in human societies. Secondly, Artificial Intelligence, the development of which marks technological change of the last two decades, emulates collective intelligence much more than individual one.

Why do I claim at all that technological change manifests collective human intelligence? Isn’t it rather individual intelligence saying, at some point in time, something like ‘Enough! Enough of those stupid sleighs. We need wheels!’? It is true to some extent, more specifically to the extent that individually expressed ideas really push technology forward. Still, those ideas work similarly to the way that a ball is being played in a team game. When we play basketball, most individual actions with the ball are effective and efficient only to the extent of cooperation from the part of other players in the team. An innovative idea is like that ball: its needs to be passed around and collectively played.

Collective intelligence can be described as the ability to collectively figure out what to do when we collectively have no clue what to do. This is a very synthetic description of mechanisms which require a deeper insight. We collectively experience problems when we share collective beliefs, acceptably grounded in empirical facts, that something happens the way most of us doesn’t want it to happen. This is the gap between expectations and reality. Collective experience is that something doesn’t work as we would like it to work.

Now, let’s introduce the distinction between simple discomfort with reality, on the one hand, and the experience of inefficiency in our behaviour, on the other hand. Life is brutal, in general. Yes, it is beautiful as well, and yet we experience beauty largely by opposition to ugliness. We perceive the brutal beauty of existence mostly as gradients of change, and not really as absolute states of things (see, for example: We really don’t see small change). We are uncomfortable with some changes in reality, and sometimes that discomfort triggers collectively coordinated action. That’s the first moment of assessment as regards us being collectively smart: can we coordinate to take action, or cannot we? The next level is being efficient in that action. Have we achieved the results we expected to achieve?

We have two levels of collective ambition, whence two possible levels of collective frustration, namely with the failure to coordinate, or with the insufficient outcomes of coordination. Both failures incite to do something about that imperfect social coordination of ours. When we dig a bit into the depth of the problem, we usually discover at least one of the two things: we are either too rigid or too random in coupling individual behaviours into the beautiful dance of well-rounded teamwork. Too rigid means that person A always does what person B expects them to do, whence nearly perfect a stationarity of their common action. Too much randomness manifests as the person A hardly ever doing what person B expects them to do, whence a well-understandable frustration in the person B and a lack of trust in coordination.

Good coordination relies on a behavioural pattern called correlated coupling, which manifests as the person A responding flexibly and yet predictably to signals sent by person B, and vice versa. Being both flexible and predictable in my response to other people’s signals means that my own action takes a recurrent form – which sends other people the reassuring signal ‘I get it, guys, carry on’ – and yet that form is somehow scalable. When I am an engineer and my boss asks me ‘to give that engine a bit of nerve’, he or she can trust – if my behaviour is correlatedly coupled with theirs – that I will come up with a range of possible solutions for said nerve, and I will select the most appropriate.

We are collectively intelligent when, as a collective, we have the ability to spot recurrent cases of too rigid behavioural coupling, or too much randomness in collective coordination, and transform those situations into correlated coupling. Let’s take the example of a simple, old technology: the use of windmills to power querns, instead of grinding cereal grain by hand. I think it was some 20 years ago: I messed around a bit with a reconstructed, man-powered quern (you now, two flat stones on a common rotating axis), just to see how it felt, centuries ago. When I gave it a try, I understood why the baking of bread became really widespread across Europe only with the diffusion of windmills and watermills. Grinding grain into flour by the sheer force of human muscle is, at the end of the day, a zero-sum activity, energy-wise. You burn approximately as much energy when grinding as you can have from the flour you obtain.    

Technologies give us flexibility and predictability. The wind-powered quern, back in the day, as compared to the man-powered one, assured smooth grinding of grain and scalability: faster or slower, greater quantity per day or a smaller one etc. Technologies allow replacing fixed coupling in behaviour, or a random one, with the functional elegance of correlated coupling.

Now, let’s get into the process of implementing new technologies. When I do it individually, it is a sequence of trials and errors. I try something, and it works smoothly, it works just sort of, or it doesn’t work at all. Depending on the exact outcome, either I say ‘Hooray! Nailed it!’, or I go ‘Well, it needs some improvement’, or, finally, I say things I could be ashamed, later on, of having said at all. When I need improvement, it slows me down, obviously. Still, when my new contrivance seems to be working just perfectly, it can slow me down even more. I am satisfied with immediate outcomes, and a prolonged chain of satisfactory results can prevent me from seeing an entirely different, alternative way of doing things.

When lots of ‘I’ do the same thing – after all, each human is an ‘I’ – it is different. Each ‘I’ comes up with somehow different results, and these can be instantaneously compared. The ‘I’s which do the best job stick out of the crowd. Their ways are likely to be reproduced by other people, whilst the clearly suboptimal methods fall into oblivion. Many humans experimenting with solutions to the same problem are like as many living organisms attempting to mutate in the presence of an exogenous stressor. The more organisms experiment with themselves, the greater the likelihood of successful mutations. In biology, this mechanism is called ‘adaptive walk in rugged landscape’ and can be applied in social sciences. When many social entities experiment with themselves in order to cope with an exogenous pressure, such as the pressure to survive or to climb the ladder of social hierarchy, some of those entities (e.g. persons, businesses, political parties) are more successful than others. Best practices are retained and reproduced in the future. This is collective intelligence in solving collective problems.

Cities facilitate technological change because they reinforce that sort of next-to-my-neighbour innovation. In cities, due to high density of population, it is simply easier to observe others, to emulate their successes or steer clear of the way they failed. It is easier to navigate through the muddy waters between conformism and individuation. Cities are instances of enhanced collective intelligence.

I use simple neural networks to emulate the way that our human collective intelligence works. I used it in this specific thread of research (see The perfectly dumb, smart social structure), you can find it in a published article on energy efficiency, and in another, unpublished paper. As I keep meddling with neural networks, I am more and more convinced that artificial intelligence emulates the collective intelligence of human societies much more than individual intelligence of one human being. Why do I make such a claim? Because neural networks work well when they can experiment with quasi-random combinations of weights assigned to many input variables, i.e. many different phenomena. With just one input variable, a neural network usually goes completely bananas. No learning whatsoever. The necessity of multiple input makes me think about many social entities trying to do something, rather than just one human.     

Discover Social Sciences is a scientific blog, which I, Krzysztof Wasniewski, individually write and manage. If you enjoy the content I create, you can choose to support my work, with a symbolic $1, or whatever other amount you please, via MY PAYPAL ACCOUNT.  What you will contribute to will be almost exactly what you can read now. I have been blogging since 2017, and I think I have a pretty clearly rounded style.

In the bottom on the sidebar of the main page, you can access the archives of that blog, all the way back to August 2017. You can make yourself an idea how I work, what do I work on and how has my writing evolved. If you like social sciences served in this specific sauce, I will be grateful for your support to my research and writing.

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Besides the continuous stream of writing which I provide to my readers, there are some more durable takeaways. One of them is an e-book which I published in 2017, ‘Capitalism And Political Power’. Normally, it is available with the publisher, the Scholar publishing house (https://scholar.com.pl/en/economics/1703-capitalism-and-political-power.html?search_query=Wasniewski&results=2 ). Via https://discoversocialsciences.com , you can download that e-book for free.

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Both the e-book and the calculator are available via links in the top right corner of the main page on https://discoversocialsciences.com .

You might be interested Virtual Summer Camps, as well. These are free, half-day summer camps will be a week-long, with enrichment-based classes in subjects like foreign languages, chess, theater, coding, Minecraft, how to be a detective, photography and more. These live, interactive classes will be taught by expert instructors vetted through Varsity Tutors’ platform. We already have 200 camps scheduled for the summer.   https://www.varsitytutors.com/virtual-summer-camps .

Fringes and layers: how do cities develop resilience

MY EDITORIAL ON YOU TUBE

There is a collective intelligence, I mean a lot of us, humans, indulge in thinking how smart we are, and this collective intelligence strives to sustain long-term access to cappuccino, which, in turn, most frequently, requires the presence of cities, conveniently disposed across the landscape. The access to cappuccino is put in jeopardy by secondary outcomes of a new pathogen making itself comfortable in the social space made of human interactions. Some human interactions become riskier than others. At first, we think all human interactions are dangerous, we entrench and yield to fear. Then, both science and individual capacity to learn step in and allow defining those reasonably safe social contacts, conveying low risk of infection, and we start distinguishing them, more and more finely every month, from the risky human interactions. As a matter of fact, we had been doing it for millennia, and stopped just recently, around 1970, when widespread vaccination made us progressively forget the terror of typhoid, polio, tuberculosis etc. Before we started forgetting, we used to follow some simple principles. Hang out with people whom you know and can observe for the time sufficient for an infection to manifest itself. Come close to those who are manifestly healthy. Shake hands, hug, kiss, share kitchenware and have sex only with those whom you can expect to be like really healthy. When you need to make acquaintance with complete strangers, select those whom you can be introduced to (or who can be introduced to you, depends on the arrow on the vector) by a person from the former category of knowingly healthy persons in your social circle. When hanging out with strangers, use all kinds of Ninja tricks: veils, hats with large brims, scarves nonchalantly put around the lower part of the face, fancy silken or leather gloves etc. Arrange the space indoors so as to separate rooms with doors and curtains, whilst putting many windows in external walls. That allows partly independent circulation of air in separate spaces. If you happen to become someone important, like a prince or a wealthy merchant, a lot of people will have some business to talk to you about, and then be smart enough to receive their visit in a space with significant social distance, like you sitting on an ornate, elevated stool and them a few yards in front, lower than you and breathing into the floor, not in front of them. It is fascinating and bemusing, how similar is our present experience with COVID-19 to historically documented episodes of plague in European cities. Reading Daniel Defoe’s ‘Journal of The Plague Year’, published in 1665, offers a lot of interesting insights in that respect, including the problem of asymptomatic carriers (!).  

All those small smart details of daily life sum up to paying particular attention to epidemic risk. Each of us, average hominids knowing what a cappuccino is, become more and more likely to endorse social roles involving recurrent, predictable interactions with knowingly healthy people, and just a fringe of society, those lords Byron-like types, or the really-f**ked types, as a matter of fact, remain likely to step into shoes that require abundant, haphazard interactions   with people of unknown exposure to the pathogen currently in fashion. At the easily conceptualizable level, we strive to sustain systemic access to cappuccino – i.e. to sustain the market-based, open economy which we know just works – whilst progressively modifying our social roles so as to operate in closed social circles, with precisely defined points of contact with other circles, and barriers to contact with non-circled people.

Cities are demographic anomalies, and inside those anomalies the density of population is abnormally high. According to my research, the wealthier the country, and the greater the consumption of energy per capita in that country, the smaller the difference between urban density of population and the non-urban one. That difference shrinks down to a point, which looks like a threshold: developed social structures hardly descend below urban density of population twice as high as the general density of population (see Demographic anomalies – the puzzle of urban density). Cities define themselves, and this is one side of the coin. Throughout history, cities have been emerging in specific places because some people, dwelling in those places, wanted a city to be around. The other side of the coin is visible from space, i.e. from satellites: urban land displays a specific agglomeration of man-made structures visible during the day, and a high concentration of night-time lights. Once again, there is a threshold in that agglomeration of structures and lights, beyond which your average alien, observing Earth from a distance, could informingly say to another alien: ‘Look, Jkitths, they have a city over there! I wonder how much is a four-star hotel night’.    

Interestingly, the two sides of this coin usually don’t match. The stretch of land qualifiable as urban satellite-wise is usually larger than the officially proclaimed expanse of urban territory in that place. Cities usually define themselves inside a de facto urban territory, and ‘inside’ means there is a margin between the physical boundaries of that typically urban agglomeration of structures and night-time lights, on the one hand, and the legally defined boundaries of the city. Normally, cities define themselves by acknowledging the urban nature of a place, not by arbitrarily declaring a place urban. There are exceptions, such as the programme of new cities in Egypt (Attia et al. 2019[1]) or the founding of the city of Gdynia, in my native Poland, in 1926.

An interesting question emerges: to what extent does new epidemic risk, such as that generated by COVID-19, modify the objectively observable agglomeration of structures and night-time lights? On the other hand, how does epidemic risk affect the way that cities define themselves? Intuitively, I would say that acknowledged epidemic risk leads to spreading ourselves over a larger territory, i.e. to temporary slowdown in the speed of growth in the density of urban population, or even to a temporary reversal towards lower density.   

Life in the presence of epidemic risk had been city slickers’ daily bread for centuries, and yet cities have grown up from existing as demographic anomalies to being demographically dominant in our today’s civilisation (55,27% of mankind lived in cities in 2018).

In 2016, I visited Colchester , reputedly the oldest city in Britain. I was bemused to observe the contrast between something which, fault of a better expression, I can describe as multiple layers of being a city. There is that old castle, dating back to Middle Ages, surrounded by the Old Town. It all looks like a really old car with new covers on the seats. Really strange. In a wider radius around the old core, various types of peripheral structures stretch. There is the not-as-old-yet-quite-old a part, which I tentatively date at like the 18th century. There is a district which looks like a model industrial city from the 1970ies, i.e. an expanse of virtually identical, small terraced houses without apparent centre of gravity. There are patches of more modern buildings, like shopping malls or apparently recent residential blocks. There is the academic campus, displaying layers of its own: old concrete architecture from the 1970ies, combined with the most recent forms of wood and concrete structures (those latter ones look like Hobbiton, I swear). Colchester makes me think about people who have been resolute to be a city, in this specific place, and over centuries they were inventing and superimposing different ways and technologies to serve that purpose.

As I think about it, all the cities I know which have some solid history in them are like that. They are layered patchworks of physical structures. It is interesting. People who will come after us, centuries from now, are most likely to superimpose their urban structures over our contemporary ones, rather than put them somewhere else. Cities seem to be like cores of coagulation in civilization. Why? Why does it work this way? How does it apply to the possible adaptations of our urban space to the newly emergent epidemic risk?

As I read Adam Smith’s ‘Lectures on Justice’ (1766, published in 1896[2]), I realize that historically, cities have been allowed to make their own laws, and that legislative power has been so prominent over centuries that some classics of legal sciences, such as, for example, Herbert Hart, use the expression ‘municipal law’ to designate national legal systems, as opposed to international law. For centuries, cities have been largely defining themselves as demographic anomalies endowed with idiosyncratic, local institutions and jurisdictions. As a matter of fact, the last two centuries have seen a progressive transfer of those legislative powers from cities to national governments.

The impression that cities make is not necessarily identical with their real size and importance. In Richard Cantillon’s ‘Essay on Commerce’ , dating from 1755, we can find the following claim: ‘It is generally supposed that half the inhabitants of a State subsist and have their homes in the town, the other half in the countryside’. Yet, in Fernand Braudel’s ‘Civilisation and Capitalism’, we can find a completely different estimation, namely some 16% of the French population being urban in mid-18th century. What we think is urban, around us, is not necessarily as urban as we think.

Sometimes, cities define their own existence in strange, apparently counterintuitive places, such as the city of Mulhouse AKA Mulhausen, in Alsace, France.  According to Albert Metzger (Metzger 1883[3]), the city of Mulhouse was just in the middle of a territorial conflict since its very beginnings, around the year 1150. Founding a city there was economically logical, with the proximity of the river Rhine, and yet, politically, it was like asking for trouble. On some occasions, such risky locations turn into permanent failures. If one day you visit the city of Frombork, in Northern Poland, where Nicolaus Copernicus wrote his book ‘De revolutionibus orbium coelestium’, you will immediately understand why he was so much into writing this book. Besides the big cathedral, whose estate Nicolaus Copernicus was in charge of, there is hardly anything else there. Yes, there is a commercial port, and quite an old one, by the way, still the city founders were obstinate to locate that port, and make it prosper, between two other big ports: Gdansk and Elblag. As soon as Frombork had established any kind of presence in the trade across the Bay of Gdansk, one of those two big neighbours (sometimes both) would send an armed expedition in order to explain the delicate nuances of trade in a small market. It was like trying to start a small electronic business in a market, where you have just Tesla and General Electric. Doomed to fail. Never been much of a city, Frombork. Ambitions are not enough. The final ‘and yet’ of the story, though, is that despite all the false starts and adversities, Frombork has kept being a city, and it technically still is a city, although it looks like a village with a big church in the middle.

When cities grow and give birth to new social roles, some of those social roles are ugly. This is the dark side of urbanisation: the growth of crime. Here comes an interesting book, written by William Howe and Abraham Hummel, and equipped with arguably one of the longest titles in the history of literature: ‘Danger! A True History of a Great City’s Wiles and Temptations. The Veil Lifted, and Light Thrown on Crime and its Causes, and Criminals and their Haunts. Facts and Disclosures’ (Howe & Hummel 1886). The book focuses on the city of New York – which can be safely deemed as the Incredible Hulk of urban expansion – and shows, in a casual and completely non-scientific way, how cities allow the burgeoning of social pathologies in many ways. Cities provide good shelter against weather, and thus allow the phenomenon of slumming: people living technically indoors, but not quite, some of them just sometimes, some of them homeless and yet not as much exposed to the dangers of sleeping outdoors as they would be in the countryside. You need to be tough like boot to be homeless in Siberia, but all you need in order to be homeless in Paris is a bad divorce or depression.

Cities give shelter to people who could hardly survive, and certainly not thrive in the countryside. Cities give opportunities to sociopaths and psychopaths, too, and this is another thread explored by Howe and Hummel. The abnormally high density of population in cities offers unusual opportunities to people with deranged personalities, prone to violence and manipulation. They can grow as kingpins, or seconds thereto. In the countryside they would much more likely expect the local community to put an end to their vile life through a completely accidental fire in their house.      

An interesting, recent article by Kostas Mouratidis (Mouratidis 2019[4]) suggests that cities develop and change through a cyclical sinewave in the density of urban population. As density grows, in the presence of relatively constant technological base, subjective well-being of city dwellers decreases, and they sprawl around. As they radiate towards comfortable suburbs, said suburbs lose much of their charm, and, with time, living in those suburbs boils down to spending more time in traffic jams. The phenomenon, known as urban sprawl, creates potential energy for a reverse movement, from peripheries back to the city centre, and that movement comes along with significant technological change, mostly in technologies accessible to the average city slicker in the form of urban infrastructure.   

I found at least one author who develops a path of research similar to mine: I am talking about Sir Peter Hall (Hall 2000[5]; Hall 2003[6]). He argues that cities give peculiar incentives to the emergence of cultural industries, i.e. industries marked by quick race for dominant position, based on creativity and innovation. Emergence is different from continuous development: Peter Hall observes, with the example of selected British cities, that creative industries tend to be an economic fringe in cities, rather than the mainstream of business. There seems to exist a threshold of 5% share in the city’s GDP, which creative industries can grow within. Anything over and above those 5% is apparently doomed to disappear shortly. Interestingly, that creative fringe of economic life in cities tends to specialize. Peter Hall names three big, typical vectors thereof: art (e.g. Paris, Florence), industry (e.g. Silicon Valley or Manchester), and finally urban creativity in itself (once again, Paris comes as an example, although places like Vienna or Prague seem to fit the same mould).

New social roles emerge in cities due to the phenomenon of emergent fringes. Cities allow significant growth at the tails of statistical distribution. Fringe patterns of behaviour can thrive, both as creative industries, and as social pathologies. This is how cities adapt and stay resilient to exogenous disturbances, epidemic risk included. I intuitively feel that cities of today will be adapting to the pandemic of COVID-19 in a similar way: fringe behaviours will emerge, both at the desirable creative end of the spectrum spread over the scale of ethical values, and at the undesirable end of social pathologies. The latter seem to be attached to the former, like the price of progress. Probably, we will temporarily spread in space: urban sprawl will advance for a certain time. We will be seeking more space around us, so as to reduce epidemic risk, and a new generation of technologies, such as vaccines, testing and decontamination, is likely to counter that sprawling propensity, bringing city dwellers a bit more densely together, one more time. 

Discover Social Sciences is a scientific blog, which I, Krzysztof Wasniewski, individually write and manage. If you enjoy the content I create, you can choose to support my work, with a symbolic $1, or whatever other amount you please, via MY PAYPAL ACCOUNT.  What you will contribute to will be almost exactly what you can read now. I have been blogging since 2017, and I think I have a pretty clearly rounded style.

In the bottom on the sidebar of the main page, you can access the archives of that blog, all the way back to August 2017. You can make yourself an idea how I work, what do I work on and how has my writing evolved. If you like social sciences served in this specific sauce, I will be grateful for your support to my research and writing.

‘Discover Social Sciences’ is a continuous endeavour and is mostly made of my personal energy and work. There are minor expenses, to cover the current costs of maintaining the website, or to collect data, yet I want to be honest: by supporting ‘Discover Social Sciences’, you will be mostly supporting my continuous stream of writing and online publishing. As you read through the stream of my updates on https://discoversocialsciences.com , you can see that I usually write 1 – 3 updates a week, and this is the pace of writing that you can expect from me.

Besides the continuous stream of writing which I provide to my readers, there are some more durable takeaways. One of them is an e-book which I published in 2017, ‘Capitalism And Political Power’. Normally, it is available with the publisher, the Scholar publishing house (https://scholar.com.pl/en/economics/1703-capitalism-and-political-power.html?search_query=Wasniewski&results=2 ). Via https://discoversocialsciences.com , you can download that e-book for free.

Another takeaway you can be interested in is ‘The Business Planning Calculator’, an Excel-based, simple tool for financial calculations needed when building a business plan.

Both the e-book and the calculator are available via links in the top right corner of the main page on https://discoversocialsciences.com .

You might be interested Virtual Summer Camps, as well. These are free, half-day summer camps will be a week-long, with enrichment-based classes in subjects like foreign languages, chess, theater, coding, Minecraft, how to be a detective, photography and more. These live, interactive classes will be taught by expert instructors vetted through Varsity Tutors’ platform. We already have 200 camps scheduled for the summer.   https://www.varsitytutors.com/virtual-summer-camps .


[1] Attia, S., Shafik, Z., & Ibrahim, A. (2019). New Cities and Community Extensions in Egypt and the Middle East. Springer Berlin Heidelberg,.

[2] Smith, A. (1896). Lectures on justice, police, revenue and arms: Delivered in the University of Glasgow. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

[3] Metzger, A. (1883). La république de Mulhouse, son histoire, ses anciennes familles bourgeoises et admises à résidence, depuis les origines jusqu’à 1798. Henri Georg.

[4] Mouratidis, K. (2019). Compact city, urban sprawl, and subjective well-being. Cities, 92, 261-272, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2019.04.013

[5] Hall, P. (2000). Creative cities and economic development. Urban studies, 37(4), 639-649.

[6] Hall, P. (2003). Cities in civilization: culture, innovation and urban order. Journal of Irish Urban Studies, 2, 1-14.

The knowingly healthy people

MY EDITORIAL ON YOU TUBE

I am returning to the thread of research devoted to cities and their role in the human society. My goal is to outline an informed prediction as regards the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on our civilisation, and the prediction is based on a stylized fact I can observe: the most severe outbreaks of COVID-19 take place in densely populated areas, cities or conurbations.

As I connect two threads of my writing and blogging, namely research on cities and collective intelligence, on the one hand, and my investment strategy, on the other hand, one big coin dropped, with ‘logistics’ stamped in that place where traditional coins would display the profile of some king or queen. If my intuition is correct, i.e. if COVID-19 is really forcing us and is going to force us even more into a spatial rearrangement of our settlements, logistics will be a pivotal industry. Here comes that funny coincidence. In Poland, we have that express delivery company, Integer Capital Group, which has pretty much revolutionized the landscape of parcel deliveries. In United States, there is another Integer, namely Integer Holdings Corporation, specializing in portable medical devices, such as neuro- and cardio- modulators. Unfortunately, only the second Integer has its stock publicly listed and available to small investors. Still, there are stocks such as Deutsche Post (the mothership of DHL), UPS or Fedex, which are all booming, stock-price-wise, and them booming seems to have strong foundations in the economic environment. Cool. Looks like I have just found another wave to ride (see The moment of reassessment for the underlying logic of the concept). The strategy I am forming in my mind consists in selling out my positions in Airway Medix and Bioton, whose fundamentals seem a tiny bit wobbly, then take the next rent I collect from that apartment in town, and invest it all in a basket of stock made of four companies, all of them doing logistics: Deutsche Post, UPS, Wisetech, and XPO Logistics. This time, under those hyperlinked names of companies, instead of the habitual ‘investors relations’ websites, my readers can find Excel workbooks with the technical analysis I did, i.e. moving average price (the ‘Mov’), mean reverted price and volumes traded (under the ‘MR’ label), and extrapolated return on the last closing price (‘Return’), whilst in the spreadsheet labelled ‘Sheet1’ you can find the source data with equations that I use to transform it. 

Right, I went off track. I was supposed to focus on cities, COVID-19 and stuff. Still, what do you want: things just connect in surprising ways. The entire topography of those surprising ways is called life. Now, as my internal curious ape is back on track of the serious science to do, I am formalizing my scientific take on two issues: the measurement of urban space, and geographic patterns of the COVID-19 pandemic. Here comes an interesting paper, still at the stage of preprint: ‘Time, Space and Social Interactions: Exit Mechanisms for the Covid-19 Epidemics’ by Scala et al. 2020[1]. The authors attempt to trace the possible scenarios of SARS-Cov-2’s epidemic spread in Italy after the lockdowns are lifted. They use a simple compartmental epidemic model, and I use their model as base for my own thinking about the long-term impact of COVID-19 on our society, mostly on the way that cities live their life. What? Cities are not alive? They don’t live any life, they just function? Well, just go, one day, and observe a city at dawn, as people inside it start going about their business. Just look how those streaks of light, at sunrise, move through that giant urban body, akin to a bloodstream. Those things (i.e. cities) are alive, and we are alive in them.

Scala et al. 2020 stroll down the same cognitive avenue which I am taking: they assume that our exposure to COVID-19 is a combination of three types of factors: biological (our biology vs that of the virus), technological (the really available science we have), and social, i.e. the way we interact and hand the virus over to each other. This distinction is useful to remember. The way most countries go through the epidemic curve is mostly social. We observe a mounting wave of contagion, at first, then a peak comes, which we pass over, and the curve starts to flatten. All that plays out over something like 8 ÷ 11 weeks. Technology did not change during those 11 weeks. I mean, even in Star Trek it wouldn’t. Biology stays more or less the same, both on our part and on the part of the virus. What makes that specific shape of the epidemic curve is our behaviour.

This pandemic paved the way to fame for a previously shy coefficient, the R0. Hello everybody, I am R0. I am the average number of people that can be infected by one already infected and infectious person. I am the proportion between the coefficient β of transmission, and the coefficient γ of removal. The latter means either recovery or death. Whichever happens, the given person is removed from the ranks of those susceptible to infection. Thus, I, R0, spell: R0 = β/γ. The γ is essentially made of biology and technology. It is all about the way our body responds to the pathogen, and the way that doctors can have a few words to say about it. On the other hand, the coefficient β of transmission is a mixture of biology and social behaviour. It is about the way we can infect each other by coughing, and about the odds that we have any opportunity to cough at each other. The β can spell β = , where C is the rate of social contact between people, and λ is the likelihood of infection once such contact happens.

Lockdowns have driven the C factor down, in response to an alarmingly rapid increase number O of clinically observed patients with acute symptoms of COVID-19. It is important to understand: as societies, we do not react to the number of people infected and we do not even react to the number of people with acute symptoms. When was it the last time we closed all the roads and cancelled all traffic thereon because of the number of people injured in traffic-related accidents? Have we ever been tempted to do so in the view of people getting serious cardio-vascular problems as a result of them spending hours a day in their cars and being, most of those hours, viscerally pissed about the way they are? No, we just make more comfortable cars and roads, because all those bad things in traffic happen at pretty a constant rate. We, humans, are programmed to notice gradients of change rather than absolute states (see e.g. We really don’t see small change and The kind of puzzle that Karl Friedrich was after). The pandemic introduced a new gradient of disquieting change into our social system, and we reacted by taking cover. 

Social response to the pandemic can be represented very simply as elasticity of social contacts to change in the occurrence of acute COVID-19 cases, or ∆C/[∆(O/N)] (once again, O stands for the aggregate number of acute, clinically observed cases). In the presence of epidemic danger – and this specific danger is going to stay with us for a while – we react by inducing a sinusoid pattern into our ∆C: we lock down, then we release etc. As I said before, I deeply believe that lockdowns as such manifest panic behaviour at the collective level rather than a rational response. They are not sustainable economically, and even psychologically. Whatever we reward, we reinforce, and whatever we reinforce grows. If we reward fear of social contact, that fear is going to grow and our European history tells us very explicitly what happens next: isolated colonies of (allegedly) sick people, erosion of socially cohesive behaviour, lynching etc. Question: how can we develop a collectively rational reaction to the pandemic, whilst staying functional as a society? Answer: by modifying our set of social roles so as to be flexible in the ∆C department, and so as to get healthier and more resilient to infections, thus to drive down the λ likelihood of serious infection due to social contact.

Question: are there any historical precedents of societies purposefully changing their repertoires of social roles so as to achieve those two outcomes? Well, yes, and we keep doing it all the time. A good person is clean, right? We don’t like interacting with smelly people, and we socialize easily with folks who are visibly clean in their personal hygiene and wear clean clothes. We like the company of manifestly healthy people much more than the company of someone obviously sick. We shake hands only when we have reasonable chances to shake a clean hand. We sustain an elaborate game of social rivalry where a higher position in hierarchy means a bigger personal space indoors, both at work and at home.

We have a set SR = {sr1, sr2, …, srm} of ‘m’ social roles. Each social role sri is characterized by a frequency of direct, potentially infectious social interactions – the coefficient C(sri) – and by a probability p(sri) that any given individual endorses that specific role. The overall intensity C of such interactions in the given society is a weighted average of individual intensities and comes as C = ∑ [p(sri)*C(sri)]. At this point, I return to the assumption I phrased out in ‘City slickers, or the illusion of standardized social roles’: social roles are essentially individual and idiosyncratic. Categorial social roles, such as ‘a doctor’, ‘a housewife’ etc. are cognitive simplifications that we build in order to save bandwidth in our brain. Therefore, the C(sri) coefficient is really local and individual, and the summation sign ∑ in the C = ∑ [p(sri)*C(sri)] expression has a lot of summing work to do.  

When we want to cut down our overall C, and do it more sensibly than by closing all hairdressers for 2 years, we need to reshape our C = ∑ [p(sri)*C(sri)], i.e. we need to increase the prevalence p(sri) of social roles with relatively low C(sri), and reduce the occurrence of those who go the opposite, contact-abundant way in their C(sri). Yes, ‘who go’, and not ‘which go’. They are idiosyncratic phenomena in individual people, remember? 

In my update entitled ‘The perfectly dumb, smart social structure’, I sketched a piece of artificial intelligence supposed to simulate the interplay of social roles, and I ran a few experiments with it. Those experiments indicate that it is not really possible to kick selected social roles out of the system. Even if we attempt to, they end up by coming back, through one hole or another. On the other hand, the emergence of new social roles can naturally push the incumbent ones out of the system, as long as the society tries to keep all its marbles together and assures coherence between those newcomers and the incumbent ones.

The way out of the shitty spot which we are currently in, some place between the epidemic spread running amok, with reins dangling loosely on its neck, on the one hand, and the how-much-longer-can-we-stay-in-lockdown absence of sensible strategy, on the other hand, consists in triggering the creation of new social roles, endowed with relatively low incidence C(sri) of infectious social contacts, whilst maintaining as much social cohesion as possible.

We are facing a functional paradox. Cities are the only social contrivance that we have invented, so far, in order to speed up the creation of new social roles, and cities are demographic anomalies, displaying abnormally high density of population, thus by abundant social contacts. Now, with the pandemic around, we need to create new social roles with lower typical occurrence C(sri) of potentially infectious social contacts. Can we induce lower intensity of social interactions and maintain social cohesion in an environment which is naturally made for rich social interactions?

A thread of observation has come to my mind. We have had cities for quite a long time, right? Quite a long time means centuries and even millennia. We have also had epidemics in the past, and, as a matter of fact, we tend to forget how many of them we had, and how brutal they used to be. We tend to be anti-vaccine because we have been spoilt by the prevalence of vaccines and by the absence of serious epidemic outbreaks. Anyway, cities have been there for a long time, and epidemics had been there for a long time, sort of hand in hand, and cities have been and still are the most privileged spot of infection. Does it make sense? Somehow it does, and I want to understand how exactly.

Potentially infectious social contacts fall in two categories: contacts with people whom we don’t know or haven’t checked on for a long time, for one, and contacts with people heavily exposed to other infectious contacts in their environment. Thus, I need to introduce a scale of infectious risk in social interactions associated with any social role sri in the set SR = {sr1, sr2, …, srm}. I obtain something like the Itô calculus: an integral of social interactions inside the integral of a social role. It looks complicated, but we can simplify it by assuming that any set SR = {sr1, sr2, …, srm} of ‘m’ social roles is coupled with a set SC = {sc1, sc2, …, scn} of ‘n’ social interactions. The set SC is structured over an axis (dimension) of infectious risk. I can approach risk in a classical way, called the VaR method AKA Value-at-Risk: risk is a quantity, which, in turn, results from associating a given magnitude of damage with a probability of happening. In the case of an epidemic disease, the magnitude of damage ranges along a scale of severity in symptoms combined with their durability.

The so-far collective behaviour during the COVID-19 pandemic indicates that societies tend to minimize aggregate epidemic risk, defined as the arithmetical product: ‘likelihood of infection * severity of symptoms’. In the case of each infected person, the real danger are the most acute symptoms, and thus, in our practical perception of epidemic risk, severity of symptoms can be considered as a subjective constant: we are afraid of the worst that can possibly happen to us. When we reduce the epidemic risk by lockdowns and social distancing, we control the likelihood of infection.

In the presence of prolonged pandemic, and COVID-19 is likely to play out precisely this way, we are likely to minimize epidemic risk by remodelling our social roles. We can maximize the occurrence of predictable social interactions with knowingly healthy people, and minimize haphazard interactions with people of unknown exposure to infection. With a bit of science, we can reasonably narrow down the category of ‘knowingly healthy people’ to those whom we can categorize as non-symptomatic of COVID-10 for a sufficiently long time to assume they are non-symptomatic because they are either non-infected or they have successfully battled the infection, and not because they are asymptomatic. In plain terms, we discreetly observe someone for 3 weeks and we can make and educated guess as for what likelihood of infection that person conveys. Of course, this is just partly scientific, as we never quite know, and yet I think this is the way that people in the past – when epidemic diseases were daily bread, so to say – used to identify those whom they can reasonably hang out with.   

At this point, I am going back to the very definition of urban structures, and to the strange and interesting discrepancy in the assessment of what actual, present-time cities are (see Demographic anomalies – the puzzle of urban density). Cities are distinctive from the countryside by their abnormally high density of population, which is a proportion between population and the territory it occupies. There are two distinct methods of measuring both: administrative and GPW (Gridded Population of the World). I am sharpening my understanding of these two approaches so as to understand the dynamics of urban structures as such. My approach is empiricist. I hope to understand better the boundary between cities and the countryside through understanding the fine distinctions as regards the way we perceive that boundary.

Administratively, towns and cities are being defined by the law. In Antiquity and in the feudal society, legal definition of a town was that of a general privilege. City dwellers were allowed to do things, which people living in the countryside couldn’t do. It was frequently about holding a regular marketplace, and some sort of local government, incorporated as city council and/or the office of mayor. That privilege-based approach to the legal definition of a city seems to have vanished during the 19th century, when cities became nests of large-scale industry, and, interestingly, the number of officially defined cities seems to have frozen approximately at the same time. At some point in time – in Europe it could be around 1900 – the process of legal-administrative identification of urban settlements came to a virtual standstill. Further changes consisted in spatial extension of the already defined towns and cities. Interestingly, that pivotal moment coincided with the progressive elimination of epidemic diseases, through sanitation, healthcare, vaccination etc.

Discover Social Sciences is a scientific blog, which I, Krzysztof Wasniewski, individually write and manage. If you enjoy the content I create, you can choose to support my work, with a symbolic $1, or whatever other amount you please, via MY PAYPAL ACCOUNT.  What you will contribute to will be almost exactly what you can read now. I have been blogging since 2017, and I think I have a pretty clearly rounded style.

In the bottom on the sidebar of the main page, you can access the archives of that blog, all the way back to August 2017. You can make yourself an idea how I work, what do I work on and how has my writing evolved. If you like social sciences served in this specific sauce, I will be grateful for your support to my research and writing.

‘Discover Social Sciences’ is a continuous endeavour and is mostly made of my personal energy and work. There are minor expenses, to cover the current costs of maintaining the website, or to collect data, yet I want to be honest: by supporting ‘Discover Social Sciences’, you will be mostly supporting my continuous stream of writing and online publishing. As you read through the stream of my updates on https://discoversocialsciences.com , you can see that I usually write 1 – 3 updates a week, and this is the pace of writing that you can expect from me.

Besides the continuous stream of writing which I provide to my readers, there are some more durable takeaways. One of them is an e-book which I published in 2017, ‘Capitalism And Political Power’. Normally, it is available with the publisher, the Scholar publishing house (https://scholar.com.pl/en/economics/1703-capitalism-and-political-power.html?search_query=Wasniewski&results=2 ). Via https://discoversocialsciences.com , you can download that e-book for free.

Another takeaway you can be interested in is ‘The Business Planning Calculator’, an Excel-based, simple tool for financial calculations needed when building a business plan.

Both the e-book and the calculator are available via links in the top right corner of the main page on https://discoversocialsciences.com .

You might be interested Virtual Summer Camps, as well. These are free, half-day summer camps will be a week-long, with enrichment-based classes in subjects like foreign languages, chess, theater, coding, Minecraft, how to be a detective, photography and more. These live, interactive classes will be taught by expert instructors vetted through Varsity Tutors’ platform. We already have 200 camps scheduled for the summer.   https://www.varsitytutors.com/virtual-summer-camps .


[1] Scala, A., Flori, A., Spelta, A., Brugnoli, E., Cinelli, M., Quattrociocchi, W., & Pammolli, F. (2020). Time, Space and Social Interactions: Exit Mechanisms for the Covid-19 Epidemics. arXiv: Physics and Society.