Path Dependency
Definition of 'Path
Dependency'
An idea that tries to
explain the continued use of a product or practice based on historical
preference or use. This holds true even if newer, more efficient products or
practices are available due to the previous commitment made. Path dependency
occurs because it is often easier or more cost effective to simply continue
along an already set path than to create an entirely new one.
Investopedia explains
'Path Dependency'
An example of path
dependency would be a town that is built around a factory. It makes more sense
for a factory to be located a distance away from residential areas for various
reasons. However, it is often the case that the factory was built first, and
the workers needed homes and ammenities built close by for them. It would be
far too costly to move the factory once it has already been established, even
though it would better serve the community from the outskirts of town.
The above explains how the world's systems formed (originated
from the legacy of previous common mindset). This also means it is very easy to
predict what will happen in the future. Ecological damage becomes inevitable if
we look at how the legacy of the industrial revolution era mindset forming the
current political and social conditions and world economy, especially if it refers
to the idea that human being is homo
economicus (see the definition of Homo
Oeconomicus http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homo_economicus ).
Exploitation of nature has long existed but before the
industrial revolution, the production process still relies on human labor
(manual) so it is human’s power limitations that restrict the exploitation of
nature. Nowadays with the advancement of technology, the acceleration of
exploitation is beyond the nature’s ability to balance itself and has changed
the patterns of production and consumption.
Any crisis especially concerning ecological damage is a
vicious circle and difficult to control let alone be eliminated, all people and
their aspects involved in the current path dependency, all people contributed
in various scales of ecological damage. Even the simplest industrial or economic
activity cannot be separated from exploitative acts and destruction of nature,
the difference is on the level of impact of the economic action and how it can
be restored and balanced by nature with or without human assistance (with or without human existence, nature will find its balance despite of the ecological damage caused by human activities, human has become a threat for other being).
For example banana fritter seller mostly using palm oil since
the price is much more affordable when compared with the use of homemade
coconut oil. However, the current palm oil industry is closely related to
massive rain forest destruction and cause to sociological and humanitarian
crisis. Indirectly, unwittingly, banana fritter seller can be viewed as a
destroyer of nature and advocates human rights violation. As I write this, I
was picturing a banana fritter seller who choked reading this explanation.
Further on you can imagine how big is the impact of the automotive and gadget
industries that relies heavily on mineral, petroleum and coal mining on a large
scale since the users of the products include the world's population.
There are things that I think is almost comical. With the growing of one's understanding of
path dependency and one’s position in the path, one will wonder how would environmental
activists feel when they realize that they are inevitably still part of the
destruction of nature, how ridiculous an environmental activist is seen with his various efforts to conserve nature, if he fails to see the big picture.
How would you react
on this explanation? What can we do?
For a pessimist, this facts leads to frustration and become
apathetic because all things sounds too complicated and fail to see the solutions
for many situations so that the only thing to do is living the life in a quiet
desperation. To an optimist, the dark cave image on the wall will be seen as an
adventure that will lead him to a way out. For an opportunist, any crisis is an
opportunity that will give personal gain regardless of the moral burden. The
rest are the ones who are confused like dead fishes carried away by the flow
(how ridiculous are those who consider themselves sophisticated but are in this
category and feel there is nothing wrong in their life) and the people who are full
of joy because with or without understanding complicated matters, they still do
goodly things and live in a simple way of life (e.g. ethnic minority groups
living in the deep forest or close to nature).
“Thanks to scientific
and technical advances over the last hundred years, most people today are
materially wealthier than their forefathers. Yet, by their own accounts, the
improvement in the quality of their lives has not matched their material gains.
In fact, it may be argued that people once were happier and more fulfilled. For
some, material affluence breeds anxiety, a gnawing fear that if someone doesn’t
take away their hard-earned acquisitions, the end of their days will
prematurely arrive to finish the job. Others find death easier to face than a
lifetime of assembly-line slavery, while most, in a less dramatic fashion,
simply buckle down to lives of quiet desperation”. (Scientology)
“The real hopeless
victims of mental illness are to be found among those who appear to be most
normal. Many of them are normal because they are so well adjusted to our mode
of existence, because their human voice has been silenced so early in their
lives that they do not even struggle or suffer or develop symptoms as the
neurotic does. They are normal not in what may be called the absolute sense of
the word; they are normal only in relation to a profoundly abnormal society.
Their perfect adjustment to that abnormal society is a measure of their mental
sickness. These millions of abnormally normal people, living without fuss in a
society to which, if they were fully human beings, they ought not to be
adjusted.” ― Aldous Huxley, Brave New World Revisited -
How optimists
anticipate the vicious circle of path dependency?
Path dependency also occurs in the relationship between
flowers and bees. There is somehow some kind of invisible ‘treaty’ on how
relationships between all species, system and existence formed and intertwined.
The attractive color of the flower is formed through a
series of genetic 'conspiracy' to attract bees (The Beauty of Flower-presented
by physicist Richard Feynman). Flower with attractive colors will ensure the
sustainability of itself and automatically everything related directly or
indirectly to it. The absence of one or more components within the series of
'conspiracy' will lead to destruction of all the components involved (food
chain, the balance of the ecosystem).
In biology there is the term selfish DNA that is considered as the ultimate parasite (L.E. Orgel & F.H.C Crick) and not to be
confused with selfish gene introduced
by Dawkins (but biologist William D. Hamilton is the one who spread the idea
for the first time in 1963). DNA inherited traits or certain
characters, which will functioned as nothing but to benefit its own duplication.
Humans or other species are medium for DNA replication and this explains the formation
of certain behaviors.
The above explanation gives the impression that DNA is
capable to hijacks any order that is beneficial for its continuity. Most media
are subject to DNA’s 'command' and the ‘nature selection’ is formed accordingly
(this also explains the misinterpretation of the theory of Darwinian evolution.
"The human brain is almost as if specifically designed to misunderstand
Darwinism, and finding it is hard to believe it"-Richard Dawkins).
The theory of natural selection, in its more general formulation, deals with the competition between replicating entities. It shows that, in such a competition, the more efficient replicators increase in number at the expense of their less efficient competitors. After a sufficient time, only the most efficient replicators survive. — L.E. Orgel & F.H.C. Crick, Selfish DNA: the ultimate parasite.
DNA only requires 'obedient' media, it does not require 'critical nature' characteristic which will inevitably degrade the quality of life of multiplier media. Within human's world, the degradation in quality of life may be more pronounced (since human is the only creature endowed with certain intelligent which also serves as the guardian of the balance of nature).
Human beings with decreasing intelligence capacity will be
born, and the number is increasing each time. This phenomenon triggered because
our brains become more reliable to serve what’s according to zoologist as four
F; fighting, fleeing, feeding, finding a mate. It is ironic that this would at
the same time lead to the destruction of order formed by the DNA itself.
"From the point
of view of the gene, the human race is merely means to create as many genes as
possible" (Virus of the Mind, Richard Brodie).
Perhaps this could explain the ever more declining quality
of life, the reason why human being suffering from intellectual degradation and
keep on losing their mind, the collapse of civilization and the ‘cycle of recovery’
or balance of nature. Selfish DNA must die.
According to the memetics human being can prevent things
that leads to certain behavior resulted from ‘being controlled’ by DNA. There is a way
to reverse or cut the path dependency despite of its density for the betterment of human race. The
antidote for the seemingly complicated and unbreakable path dependency lies in
the understanding on how meme works. A successful revolution within human’s
life must include deep understanding on how to breakdown the system and how the
system works within and outside the human itself.
*Meme: an information pattern held in an individual’s memory, which is capable of being copied by other individuals/ is an idea, behavior, or style that spreads from person to person within a culture. Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meme
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