Raw LLM Responses

Short answer - an economy / polity (the conjoined twins) is best viewed as grossly similar to a type of neural network, an ecosystem, or any living system - in other words a [Complex Adaptive System](https://integratedspaceanalytics.com/cms/plan/integrated-space-plan-2015). Some argue that CAS is either a euphemism for, or actually the definition of, life. So while TL;DR, from what I did read I think you are on the right track. An economy of any type will evolve always toward the most efficiently and dynamically adaptive state, which is most like a rain forest (or desert depending on resource availability. All of the machinations of leaders whether in government or industry are twiddling on the margins. The fundamental rule, in various forms, comes down to the Inverse Power Law. See Pareto, Lorentz, Gini, Zipf. Dictatorship or monopoly are two aspects of the same thing, which requires ever-increasing efforts (I.e energy and power) to maintain against the drift toward an inverse power distribution. Similarly, a monoculture like a wheat field or pure socialist utopia can only be maintained by weeding, fertilizing, seed management, suppression of dissent, etc. or it will go back to the jungle. (Yes I am mixing metaphors, to illustrate the commonality of life and economies+polities.) A classic characteristic of all socialist or central control economies is that the lack of effective feedback inside the system via prices etc. results in the feedback traveling through the political system via bribes, rent-seeking, and other ways of manipulation of the power structure. The extent to which economic entities - people, companies, etc. - succeed by political influence is a direct indicator. (This is not necessarily all bad though.) In the end, just as neural networks are a special case of differential equations and fluid dynamics, so also economies are, in the final analysis, subject to the same physics. See also a fun book, "The Edge of Chaos" - controversial but well w