ABSTRACT

History is important, partly because every complex organism, every human being and every society carries the baggage of its past. Evolution builds on past survivals that encumber actions in the present. Choices made by our ancestors can be difficult to undo. For example, the standard railway gauge used by modern high-speed trains has its origins in the axle dimensions of horse-drawn carts of over two thousand years ago. We travel on railways that were designed with some dimensions inherited from an ancient and inappropriate means of transport. Other examples of lock-in and path dependence in the evolution of technology and conventions are well known in the social sciences.1