This is a great essay. If the topic interests you, D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson's classic work On Growth And Form is also a worthwhile read: https://archive.org/details/ongrowthform00thom
> An angel whose muscles developed no more power weight for weight than those of an eagle or a pigeon would require a breast projecting for about four feet to house the muscles engaged in working its wings, while to economize in weight, its legs would have to be reduced to mere stilts.
The article's closing point about socialism is strange. It is likely conflating "socialism" with "command economy".
As we have learned in the past Century, democracy has trouble scaling to 300million people as well. The problem is the single leader for a large population. Confederated/Federalized systems may do better, and those can be "socialist".
Socialism: a political and economic theory of social organization that advocates that the means of production, distribution, and exchange should be owned or regulated by the community as a whole.
I think you're confused. Socialism competes with capitalism as an economic system, not democracy as a political system.
After reading the article I did some research into the background of the author. I was surprised to learn that he was a diehard socialist and later Communist, describing Stalin as "a very great man who did a very good job" as late as 1962.
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[ 3.4 ms ] story [ 28.5 ms ] threadhttp://www.zyvex.com/nanotech/feynman.html
Sadly, at the time it didn’t get the attention it deserved.
Here's an idea for a surreal illustrated Bible.
As we have learned in the past Century, democracy has trouble scaling to 300million people as well. The problem is the single leader for a large population. Confederated/Federalized systems may do better, and those can be "socialist".
I think you're confused. Socialism competes with capitalism as an economic system, not democracy as a political system.
It explains why shoestring fries are so tasty. More fried surface, less potato