The Power Law of Information; Life in A Connected World

by Srinath Srinivasa

• ISBN13: 9780761935124
• ISBN10: 0761935126
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2006-11-14
• Publisher: SAGE Publications Pvt. Ltd

Summary

The Power Law of Information investigates properties of frictionless, non-linear systems, and the unconventional thought processes needed to comprehend them. It also shows how information affects us in a variety of ways: be it human rationality, the spread of ideas in society, or global monetary systems. Drawing upon current research, author Srinath Srinivasa offers directions on how to model the new world taking shape and possibly to also steer it in the right direction.

Table of Contents

List of Figures	p. 9
Preface	p. 13
Information and the Power Law	p. 19
The Information Age	p. 20
Properties of Information	p. 26
Non-linear "Frictionless" Systems	p. 31
Non-linear Frictionless Systems	p. 40
Thinking in Circles	p. 41
Sensitivity to Initial Conditions	p. 44
Bifurcations	p. 47
Self-similarity	p. 59
Information and Rationality	p. 68
Rational Choice and Ignorance	p. 70
Information-related Fallacies	p. 72
Prisoner's Dilemma and Stable Strategies	p. 78
Evolutionary Models of Ideas	p. 85
Satisficing Behaviour	p. 90
Conformance and Cartels	p. 92
Information Commons and the Attention Economy	p. 99
Information Networks and Cascades	p. 107
Random Graphs and Connectivity	p. 108
Small-world Phenomena	p. 114
Clustered Graphs and the Degree of Separation	p. 119
Kleinberg Connectivity	p. 128
Information Cascades in Social Networks	p. 131
Information and Money	p. 140
A Brief History of Money	p. 141
Money as Commodity and the Money Marketplace	p. 150
Purchasing Power Dynamics in a Wired World	p. 154
Greed is Bad for the Strong, Worse for the Weak	p. 164
Regulate What: Material or Money?	p. 169
Concluding Remarks	p. 174
Bibliography and Selected Reading	p. 178
Index	p. 183
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