“Where we observe the predominance of one technology or one economic outcome over its competitors we should thus be cautious of any exercise that seeks the means by which the winner's innate 'superiority' came to be translated into adoption.”

Source: Competing Technologies, Increasing Returns and Lock-in by Historical Events, (1989), p. 127, as cited in: John Gowdy (1994) Coevolutionary Economics: The Economy, Society and the Environment. p. 148

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W. Brian Arthur 16
American economist 1946

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“I am unalterably opposed to any species of vigilantes or to any other extra-legal means of a majority exercising its will over a minority”

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Context: I am unalterably opposed to any species of vigilantes or to any other extra-legal means of a majority exercising its will over a minority … I believe that if majorities are entitled to have their civil rights protected they should be willing to fight for the same rights to minorities no matter how violently they disagree with their views. Further, I am convinced that this is the only way they can be preserved.
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