W. Brian Arthur - Bryant McGill

# W. Brian Arthur **W. Brian Arthur** is an economist and complexity theorist known for work on increasing returns, path dependence and the evolution of technology through combinations of existing technologies. ## Technology as a combinatorial system Arthur's account treats technologies as arrangements assembled from prior components. New technologies become building blocks for later technologies, producing a system that can appear self-creating without eliminating human design, institutions, materials or historical contingency. ## Corpus route [[articles/We Cannot Un-Strike the Match|We Cannot Un-Strike the Match]] uses Arthur's combinatorial account alongside [[wiki/Kevin Kelly|Kevin Kelly]] and [[wiki/Ray Kurzweil|Ray Kurzweil]] to challenge a simple opposition between nature and technology. ## See Also [[wiki/Technological Evolution|Technological Evolution]], [[wiki/General-Purpose Technology|General-Purpose Technology]], [[wiki/Evolutionary Biology|Evolutionary Biology]] ## Simple Reminders, Quotations, and Thoughts  > “A technological system produced by an evolved human capacity to build tools does not cease to participate in nature merely because silicon, mathematics and intention have entered the causal chain.” > **— Bryant McGill**, *We Cannot Un-Strike the Match. There Is No Safety. There Is No Retreat, 2026* [[reminders/Evolution/Technology Does Not Leave Nature When Silicon Enters the Causal Chain by Bryant McGill|Technology Does Not Leave Nature When Silicon Enters the Causal Chain by Bryant McGill]] > “The tendency of technologies are the same tendencies we see in evolution because it is, in fact, an extension of evolution, as evolution accelerated.” > **— Kevin Kelly**, *2023, Design Matters* [[reminders/Evolution/Technology Is Evolution Accelerated by Kevin Kelly|Technology Is Evolution Accelerated by Kevin Kelly]] > “The collective of technology evolves much as a coral reef builds itself from activities of small organisms: it creates itself from itself, and all technologies are descended from earlier technologies.” > **— W. Brian Arthur**, *2009, The Nature of Technology* [[reminders/Evolution/Technology Creates Itself From Itself by W. Brian Arthur|Technology Creates Itself From Itself by W. Brian Arthur]]