Dilution of expertise in the rise and fall of collective innovation
Diversity drives both biological and artificial evolution. A prevalent assumption in cultural evolution is that the generation of novel features is an inherent property of a subset of the population (e.g., experts). In contrast, diversity—the fraction of objects in the corpus that are unique—exhibits complex collective dynamics such as oscillations that cannot be simply reduced to individual attributes. Here, we explore how a popular cultural domain can rapidly expand to the point where it exceeds the supply of subject-specific experts and the balance favours imitation over invention. At this point, we expect diversity to decrease and information redundancy to increase as ideas are increasingly copied rather than invented. We test our model predictions on three case studies: early personal computers and home consoles, social media posts, and cryptocurrencies. Each example exhibits a relatively abrupt departure from standard diffusion models during the exponential increase in the number of imitators. We attribute this transition to the “dilution of expertise.” Our model recreates observed patterns of diversity, complexity and artifact trait distributions, as well as the collective boom-and-bust dynamics of innovation
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2022-10-12
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Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/10261/295398 |
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dig-ibe-es-10261-2953982023-02-21T08:54:05Z Dilution of expertise in the rise and fall of collective innovation Durán Nebreda, Salva O’Brien, Michael J. Bentley, R. Alexander Valverde, Sergi Generalitat de Catalunya Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (España) Agencia Estatal de Investigación (España) Durán Nebreda, Salva [0000-0002-2539-3539] Bentley, R. Alexander [0000-0001-9086-2197] Valverde, Sergi [0000-0002-2150-9610] Complex networks Science, technology and society Diversity drives both biological and artificial evolution. A prevalent assumption in cultural evolution is that the generation of novel features is an inherent property of a subset of the population (e.g., experts). In contrast, diversity—the fraction of objects in the corpus that are unique—exhibits complex collective dynamics such as oscillations that cannot be simply reduced to individual attributes. Here, we explore how a popular cultural domain can rapidly expand to the point where it exceeds the supply of subject-specific experts and the balance favours imitation over invention. At this point, we expect diversity to decrease and information redundancy to increase as ideas are increasingly copied rather than invented. We test our model predictions on three case studies: early personal computers and home consoles, social media posts, and cryptocurrencies. Each example exhibits a relatively abrupt departure from standard diffusion models during the exponential increase in the number of imitators. We attribute this transition to the “dilution of expertise.” Our model recreates observed patterns of diversity, complexity and artifact trait distributions, as well as the collective boom-and-bust dynamics of innovation SDN is supported by Beatriu de Pinós grant 2019-BP-00206, program of the AGAUR Generalitat de Catalunya. SV is supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation through the State Research Agency (AEI), grant PID2020-117822GB- I00/AEI/10.13039/501100011033. 2023-02-21T08:26:58Z 2023-02-21T08:26:58Z 2022-10-12 2023-02-21T08:26:58Z artículo doi: 10.1057/s41599-022-01380-5 e-issn: 2662-9992 Humanities and Social Sciences Communications 9: 365 (2022) http://hdl.handle.net/10261/295398 #PLACEHOLDER_PARENT_METADATA_VALUE# info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/AEI/Plan Estatal de Investigación Científica y Técnica y de Innovación 2017-2020/PID2020-117822GB-I00/ES/ESTRUCTURA Y EVOLUCION DEL CONECTOMA TECNOLOGICO/ Publisher's version https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-022-01380-5 Sí open application/pdf Springer Nature |
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Complex networks Science, technology and society Complex networks Science, technology and society Durán Nebreda, Salva O’Brien, Michael J. Bentley, R. Alexander Valverde, Sergi Dilution of expertise in the rise and fall of collective innovation |
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Diversity drives both biological and artificial evolution. A prevalent assumption in cultural evolution is that the generation of novel features is an inherent property of a subset of the population (e.g., experts). In contrast, diversity—the fraction of objects in the corpus that are unique—exhibits complex collective dynamics such as oscillations that cannot be simply reduced to individual attributes. Here, we explore how a popular cultural domain can rapidly expand to the point where it exceeds the supply of subject-specific experts and the balance favours imitation over invention. At this point, we expect diversity to decrease and information redundancy to increase as ideas are increasingly copied rather than invented. We test our model predictions on three case studies: early personal computers and home consoles, social media posts, and cryptocurrencies. Each example exhibits a relatively abrupt departure from standard diffusion models during the exponential increase in the number of imitators. We attribute this transition to the “dilution of expertise.” Our model recreates observed patterns of diversity, complexity and artifact trait distributions, as well as the collective boom-and-bust dynamics of innovation |
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Generalitat de Catalunya |
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Generalitat de Catalunya Durán Nebreda, Salva O’Brien, Michael J. Bentley, R. Alexander Valverde, Sergi |
format |
artículo |
topic_facet |
Complex networks Science, technology and society |
author |
Durán Nebreda, Salva O’Brien, Michael J. Bentley, R. Alexander Valverde, Sergi |
author_sort |
Durán Nebreda, Salva |
title |
Dilution of expertise in the rise and fall of collective innovation |
title_short |
Dilution of expertise in the rise and fall of collective innovation |
title_full |
Dilution of expertise in the rise and fall of collective innovation |
title_fullStr |
Dilution of expertise in the rise and fall of collective innovation |
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Dilution of expertise in the rise and fall of collective innovation |
title_sort |
dilution of expertise in the rise and fall of collective innovation |
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Springer Nature |
publishDate |
2022-10-12 |
url |
http://hdl.handle.net/10261/295398 |
work_keys_str_mv |
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1777668829218865152 |