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The Superorganism.

NPR.org : Science Friday :: The Superorganism (broadcast Friday, December 5th, 2008).

Perhaps insect societies, the so-called superorganisms, have perfected (that is, evolutionarily optimized) the ‘economics of organization’.

What, I wonder, do theories of “evolutionary economics” and “transaction cost economics” have to say about the existence of ‘superorganisms’ among the insects (the ants, bees, and termites)?

Insect societies seem to have gained the advantages of “the increment of association” (as crackpot economist and poet Ezra Pound would phrase it) without being able to use a free market among individuals to coordinate their actions and without benefit of management overhead.

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