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Equation 3 · Part 1 · Who Builds 2100? The Demographic Engine of Technological Evolution

Symbol phi

ϕ\phi
ϕ\phi

What this part means

phi is a part of this expression. Its role is fixed by the surrounding article and by the operations shown in the formula.

Its job in the formula

phi is a part of this expression. Its role is fixed by the surrounding article and by the operations shown in the formula.

The passage around this formula

where n is the growth rate of the population of researchers, ϕ\phi measures how much easier or harder each new idea makes the next one to find (values below 1 are required for the model’s growth path to be stable at all — the discipline’s own name for this is diminishing returns to knowledge accumulation), and λ\lambda measures how much duplicated research…

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Learn the underlying idea

A variable is a named place for a value. Its letter is a local label: x can mean position in one formula and a data point in another.

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Sources cited in the article section

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