An Economic Approach to the Evolution of an Ecology

Abstract

We construct a simple economic model for a biological system using Markov chains with variable coefficients, in order to investigate how a biological system organizes itself and whether any measure of progress can be defined. We show that if exchange of resources between creatures is based on relative scarcity, we get a similar outcome to a market economy even though such exchanges are not reciprocal. The biological economy promotes the development of specialization and interdependence - an ecology. Within the framework of this simple model, the number of creatures increases over time which may be construed as a large scale trend.