TB: Complex Systems: Features from Path, Not Design

The features of complex systems — biological, social, institutional — are often not the result of deliberate design but of their developmental history. Evolution and path dependence shape what exists; the present arrangement reflects accumulated contingency, not optimization toward a goal.

This is the core lesson of evolutionary psychology: a need shaped in the wild continues to be felt even when it is no longer adaptive. Institutional features persist past their usefulness for the same reason. The practical implication is caution about "rationalist redesign" — understanding why something is the way it is (Chesterton's Fence) before changing it.

• Sapiens (Harari): The basic lesson of evolutionary psychology — a need shaped in the wild continues to be felt subjectively even if it is no longer necessary for survival and reproduction.
• Who We Are: When dealing with people we are not dealing with creatures of logic but creatures of emotion, bristling with prejudices and motivated by pride and vanity.

• The Map is Not the Territory
• Feelings Are Shortcuts to Effective Thinking
• The Bentham Horizon