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Comment by travisgriggs | Hacker News Reader

Can this be generalized as what happens when a feedback loop finds a local maxima? We see these all over, in software and society.

What makes this particular phenomena fascinating to me, is that it can be right under our nose, going on around us (because the circles can be big), and we don't realize it. Our regularly observed behavior and model of ants isn't this, and when we see one wandering, we don't realize there might be a bigger thing going on. And then we zoom out and there's this "aha" reveal moment, where we discover a model other than what we thought was going on.

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I'm not usually a grammar guy but this one bugs me: the singular of maxima is maximum. "A local maximum," "twelve local maxima."

Thanks for coming to my TED talk.

Also one phenomenon, multiple phenomena.

I know this but every time I try to speak the words I say the wrong one.

Criterion, criteria... Greek and Latin will get ya.

It's like a stock-market bubble/crash, where prices can keep going up/down because [investors are acting following one-anothers' lead](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trend_following ).

In both cases, the social-animals are following their peers, inferring direction from them, ultimately forming a big loop that doesn't actually progress to a desired social-outcome because everyone's following everyone-else.

The capitalist dream! "Growth" can be infinite along a circular path

Is it a local maxima, or is it a metastable solution? Or are those the same thing, at their root?

(this is a legitimate question; I have a very limited math background, and would love to understand the distinctions better, or what variable is being locally maximized, if that's what this is)

Metastability and local maximums are the same.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metastability

In physical/chemical systems metastability and local _minima_ (of an energy function) are the same. But for cases where the thing being optimized is not energy, and where the universe isn't driven to the optimal state, do they need to be the same?

One example: the current US healthcare system with providers, insurers (e.g. middlemen), and end users?

It shouldn't be considered a local maximum if slight deviations can improve the situation. In that case, it's just lack of ability to optimize.

"sclerotic"

Yeah, after seeing a video, it reminds me of something out of r/politics.

Circular dependency?

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