{"id":36073,"date":"2021-05-27T11:24:33","date_gmt":"2021-05-27T15:24:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=36073"},"modified":"2021-06-06T21:18:18","modified_gmt":"2021-06-07T01:18:18","slug":"antifragile-examples","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/antifragile-examples\/","title":{"rendered":"Antifragile Examples: Bacteria and Stress Responses"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

What are high-level Antifragile <\/em>examples? How do frequency and intensity of stress affect antifragility?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the most interesting Antifragile<\/em> examples is that of antibiotics. While antibiotics should, in theory, wipe out a bacteria population entirely, what actually happens is that some survive and get stronger. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read more about this Antifragile <\/em>example below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Frequency and Intensity of Stress<\/strong> Impacts Antifragility<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In spite of its great potential, antifragility naturally has limits. Something that takes damage too quickly, or too frequently, won\u2019t be able to repair itself.<\/strong> For example, a boxer who takes some hits will toughen up to withstand those kinds of hits in the future\u2014however, someone who gets shot through the heart will die almost immediately, with no chance to heal or grow from the damage. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Similarly, for evolution\u2014that is, higher-level antifragility\u2014to function, some of the species must survive the damage. For that to happen, there must be diversity within the species. If a single stressor wipes out the entire population (of organisms, businesses, or whatever), then there\u2019s no way for that population to evolve; some members of that population have to be resistant to that stressor in order for the population to strengthen itself. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here’s one of the most interesting Antifragile <\/em>examples. Consider the phenomenon of antibiotic resistance: A complete round of antibiotics should wipe out the bacteria population totally (or close enough that the immune system can clean up what\u2019s left). However, an incomplete round of treatment can actually make the infection harder to cure, as the bacteria with some degree of antibiotic resistance would be the ones to survive and reproduce. This is the ideal situation\u2014for the bacteria, not for the diseased organism, of course.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ideal form of stress is short-lived and followed by plenty of time to recover.<\/strong> This allows the system to respond to the new information and compensate, or overcompensate, for the stress. If the organism has no chance to recover, or the population is wiped out entirely, then antifragility fails. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course, even if an entire population does disappear, there is yet another level of antifragility that we could consider: the world as a whole. If a species goes extinct, or a certain type of business is no longer needed (for example, now that we have alarm clocks there\u2019s no need for someone to go around tapping people\u2019s windows in the morning), the world benefits from the loss of this unfit \u201cspecies.\u201d In the case of the window-tappers, the benefit is that people no longer need to pay for that service.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What are high-level Antifragile examples? How do frequency and intensity of stress affect antifragility? One of the most interesting Antifragile examples is that of antibiotics. While antibiotics should, in theory, wipe out a bacteria population entirely, what actually happens is that some survive and get stronger. Read more about this Antifragile example below.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":10655,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[160],"tags":[295],"class_list":["post-36073","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-science","tag-antifragile","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"\nAntifragile Examples: Bacteria and Stress Responses - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The frequency and intensity of stress can lead to many variations in antifragile examples. 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