like growth (of individual organisms)
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get out of my head banana
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Would you still call it a "ratchet" if it's growth slowed from exponential to linear?
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I thought about that quite a bit actually. It's a functionalist concern: ratchets are mechanisms. If they hit diminishing returns regimes, they cease to function so you need a new one. It has to be a "clock" in some sense, an unbounded positive definite f(time) on average.
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Umm. Not quite. Flywheels are not feedback mechanisms, and neither are ratchets. Flywheels are inertial loads. Integrators that can be wound/unwound if you like systems theory. Ratchets are feedback-driven state constraints. Amazon basically thinks with this lingo.
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Hmm, thanks for the distinction.
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I wonder to what extent ratchets could be avoided/reversed if they were more readily recognized I.e. "Wait a second, we're only doing this because we feel a need to stay self-consistent / recover sunk costs / fight a pointless arms race"
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Ex: - politicians competing to be the "toughest" on crime - expecting ever-longer lists of paper credentials for employment Struggling to think of more where awareness would help

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Zip ties are ratchets designed to be destroyed! This has to be a good metaphor for you
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Yes! Thank you
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