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Fig. 6.6 Dynamics of the
change in the number of
lynx and hares in the limited
areal
Similar to the logistics problem but more complex is the “predator-prey”
problem. It describes the change in the level of two populations when, in addition
to the conditions of the logistic problem, one of the populations (the prey) is being
consumed by the other one (predators). This problem is also described by periodic
solutions. As a practical example of the evolution of such a system, Fig.
6.6
shows
the change in the number of lynx and hares determined based on the pelt-trading
records of the Hudson's Bay Company over 90 years.
7. In social sciences, self-organization as the phenomenon that defines the
processes taking place in society attracted attention more than 150 years ago.
Already the founder of the classical political economy, Adam Smith in his
An
Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations
came to the conclusion
that the spontaneous order on the market is the result of the interaction of different,
often contradictory aspirations, goals, and interests of its participants. Such inter-
action leads to the establishment of the unplanned order, which is expressed in the
balance of supply and demand.
By contrast, high-quality products that are in high demand and are produced in
large quantities (positive feedback) increase the order, i.e., reduce the entropy,
because the processes of production and exchange are accelerated. These, in turn,
increase employment, better meet the needs of society, and lead to a higher living
standard for people. After some time, as more goods are produced, the market gets
saturated, leading to an equilibrium between supply and demand, but by that time,
competing companies have already developed new products of even higher quality.
Commodity-money relations become active again. And when the number of pro-
ducers is sufficiently high, new offerings appear continuously. In this way the
nonequilibrium of the market and the effective functioning of the economic system
are maintained.
Similar ideas were expressed at that time regarding self-organization of the
norms of morality in the society. In this case, the ideas of self-organization of
social systems were associated with evolutionary processes. And in the late twen-
tieth century the answer to many questions came from the natural sciences, when a
striking similarity of self-organization at various structural levels of matter was
discovered.
