1/ TIL: The bow tie network is a structure common to complex and self-organizing systems. It is capable of conferring a balance between efficiency and robustness while allowing the system to continue evolving. 
2/ Bow tie networks take in a great diversity of inputs, synthesize these into a lower diversity and less resilient (read: more fragile) but more efficient core from where a large diversity of outputs emerges.
3/ In a biological system, a bow tie manages a large fan in of stimuli (input), forms them into a "compressed" core, and expresses again a large fan out.
4/ Capitalist systems seem to form a bow tie structure with many startups and small businesses forming the IN "wing," a compressed, core "knot" of larger, highly efficienct corporations, and a larger OUT "wing" containing a diverse set of products and services.
5/ The composition of the bow tie structure seems to matter a lot. A bow tie which has a compressed, dense core "knot" is more efficient but at the cost of resilience and a bow tie which has a loose core and larger "wings" may be more resilient but at the cost of efficiency.
6/ I suspect there is some dynamic equilibrium where healthy systems pass from periods of increasing diversity and resilience but less efficiency (Cambrian explosion?) to ones of decreased diversity and resilience but greater efficiency.
7/ I think there's good evidence that many of the systems in our world today have gone too far and have very compressed, dense "knots" which make them more efficient in the short-term, but less resilient in the long-term (read: more black swan prone)
8/ @jnode's paper "The network of global corporate control"(arxiv.org/abs/1107.5728) found that 737 transnational corporations (TNCs) representing 0.123% of the total number of TNCs have the potential to control 80% of the TNCs value. 
9/ It gets more extreme. 146 transanational coporations (TNCs) representing 0.024% of the total number of TNCs have the potential to control 40% of the TNCs value. 
10/ This small group is mostly composed of financial institutions in the U.S. and U.K. (See the attached image for the top 20. Here's the full list - docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d…)
11/ There's also evidence this is happening on the internet. In an analysis of web data crawled in 1999, researchers found that the internet exhibited this bow tie structure. - cis.upenn.edu/~mkearns/teach….
12/ In an updated analysis based on 2012 data, researchers found that the core of the bowtie had almost doubled in size while the input and output edges had grown smaller. - quantware.ups-tlse.fr/FETNADINE/pape…
13/ The sites that compose this core in 2012 are pretty much the ones you'd expect - Youtube, Wordpress, Google, Wikipedia, Twitter, Facebook and Apple. 
14/ This suggests to me that both the internet and the global financial system have "traded" a meaningful amount of diversity resilience in exchange for efficiency and fragility.
15/ This makes me very nervous. The fact that very few other people seem worried about it makes me even more nervous. There are solutions to these problems, but ignoring them is not one.
16/ Note: I am not an expert on bow tie networks so if I'm interpreting the data or model incorrectly, please let me know.
17/ As always, all other feedback/criticism/thoughts are welcomed
