Tons of new species are created when a disruptive thing happens.
- Tons of new species are created when a disruptive thing happens.
- Disruptive in the world of biology might be a new land mass opens up.
- In the world of technology it might mean a new disruptive technology, like electricity, jet engines, or LLMs.
- The new disruptive technology reconfigures the "fitness landscape" of viable ideas, by radically changing a key dimension of cost.
- With all of the new territory available, there is massive expansion as species diffuse out to find and colonize the newly available niches.
- This is called "adaptive radiation".
- Later, once all of the niches are colonized, competition heats up within those niches.
- Competition over scarce territory leads to more efficiency at the cost of variety.
- This riff is inspired by this video: Why do Animals Look so Strange After Mass Extinctions