Society · Dynamics
DensityRatchet
A practice that lets a territory feed more people becomes impossible to abandon once the population has grown to depend on it
Definition
Mechanism
A new practice, such as farming, irrigation or synthetic fertilizer, raises the number of people a territory can feed. While the practice continues, the population grows toward the new capacity, and the larger it grows, the fewer of its people the earlier practice could feed: abandoning the practice would mean losing the people it alone supports. So the practice persists and spreads even where it brings longer work, poorer health or greater risk per person than the one it replaced. A change that can be reversed without a loss of population, and continued use that rests only on preference, are not instances.
Invariants
- The practice raises the number of people a territory can feed above what the earlier practice could.
- The population grows beyond the earlier practice's capacity while the practice continues.
- The capacity to abandon the practice without losing population declines as the population grows to depend on it.
Risks
Failure modes
Persistence read as merit
the practice's persistence is taken to show that it gives better lives per person.
Choice imputed
the population is said to have chosen the exchange, when each step was small and no one could compare the end states.
Ratchet assumed universal
populations that shrank and abandoned the practice are overlooked.
Relationships
Builds on
Extends
Physics
An activity continues while the practical ability to slow, stop or reverse it diminishes
Nothing in this library builds on this pattern yet.
Reference