❝ One key element to debate is randomness.
Why Startup Hubs Work: I’m not so sure randomness is the key. Randomness can be also be thought of as ‟absence of pattern”. For me the key question to ask is to ask what role chance plays in formation of startups? Is it really chance or something process we can’t yet fathom?
The last paper written by Alan Turing, ‟The Chemical Basis of Morphogenesis,” [0] attempted to answer the theoretical explanation of the biological process that defines the shape of an embryonic organism from creation. This process is called ‟Morphogenesis”. This is an important problem because complex organisms appear to be created by some ‟random” process that organises what appear to be self similar cells.
A lot of recent work has been done experiments using Turings ideas. One such idea is ‟reaction-diffusion” processes which describes morphogenesis in biology and other natural systems. The experiments were done to see if a) they can be reproduced in the lab and b) mathematically model them. [1] This begs the question, ‟what is the Morphogenesis of startups?” Can the same maths Turing used to describe the process be applied to startup formation?
There is a pretty good broad outline of Turing and Morphogenesis in a BBC documentary, ‟The Secret Life of Chaos” by Professor Jim Al-Khalili on Youtube. [2],[3]
References
[0] Alan Turing, ‟THE CHEMICAL BASIS OF MORPHOGENESIS”, [Last Accessed: Friday 17th April, 2015],
- http://www.dna.caltech.edu/courses/cs191/paperscs191/turing.pdf
[1] Brandon Keim, Wired, ‟Alan Turing’s Patterns in Nature, and Beyond”, [Last Accessed: Friday 17th April, 2015]
[2] Jim Al-Khalili, ‟The Secret Life of Chaos”, [Last Accessed: Friday 17th April, 2015]
- http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00pv1c3
[3] Jim Al-Khalili, ‟The Secret Life of Chaos”, [Last Accessed: Friday 17th April, 2015]
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uF7gdlTrCQY
