In the economic environment, technological information, captured in books, blueprints, scientific journals, databases, and the know-how of millions of individuals, is the ultimate source of all economic life. As mankind's ability to copy and exchange information improved, first with the invention of the printing press and more recently with the creation of the computer, the accumulation of scientific knowledge quickened and then accelerated again. Each organization strives to survive in its niche of the economic ecosystem. Though the pace of economic change is amazingly rapid, its basic mechanics are remarkably similar to those found in nature. In fact, the chief distinction between the biologic and economic forms of evolution is speed.
Technologic change happens roughly one million times as fast as genetic change.
Imagine two copies of the same movie being projected onto the left and right halves of a theater screen. With the image on the left zipping by a million times faster, the audience never realizes it's watching the same story. To make the necessary speed adjustments, the Introduction sketches the landmark events in the twin histories of genes and knowledge. Part I elaborates by tracing the development of our present ideas about organic evolution and economic change. For the last two centuries, from Darwin's predecessors to his current disciples, the idea of evolutionary change has itself undergone tremendous change.