Patterns of Innovation

Researchers from Sapienza University of Rome have developed a mathematical model that reveals the patterns of innovation. This model, inspired by Stuart Kauffman's concept of the "adjacent possible," uses an adapted version of Polya’s Urn to account for both expected and unexpected outcomes of new discoveries. It successfully replicates empirical laws like Heaps' law and Zipf’s law, explaining how innovations follow predictable patterns. This model helps understand the emergence of novelties and innovations in various domains, such as language, Wikipedia edits, and online music discovery.

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