Back
Economics Source Concept

The Tragedy of the Commons

An economic concept describing how shared resources get depleted when individuals act in self-interest. From overfishing to pollution, it explains why collective action problems arise and why sustainable resource management requires cooperation.

resources cooperation sustainability game theory collective action

Semantically Similar

Concepts with related meaning based on vector similarity

Environmental Science
70.6%

The Carbon Cycle

The biogeochemical cycle by which carbon is exchanged among the biosphere, atmosphere, oceans, and geosphere. Understanding this cycle is crucial for addressing climate change, as human activities hav...

climate atmosphere ecosystems
Explore this →
Systems Theory
68.8%

Emergence

When complex patterns arise from simple rules and interactions. Ant colonies exhibit intelligence no single ant possesses. Consciousness emerges from neurons. Cities from individuals. The whole become...

complexity self-organization patterns
Explore this →
Mathematics
68.1%

The Butterfly Effect

The concept that small causes can have large effects in complex systems. A butterfly flapping its wings might ultimately influence a distant hurricane. It illustrates chaos theory and the interconnect...

chaos theory complexity sensitivity
Explore this →
Biology
66.1%

Photosynthesis

The process by which plants convert sunlight, water, and carbon dioxide into glucose and oxygen. This remarkable chemical reaction occurs in chloroplasts and is fundamental to life on Earth, providing...

plants energy chlorophyll
Explore this →
Psychology
64.7%

The Overview Effect

A cognitive shift reported by astronauts viewing Earth from space. Seeing our planet as a fragile blue marble floating in darkness triggers profound feelings of unity, interconnectedness, and responsi...

space consciousness perspective
Explore this →

How similarity is calculated

Each concept is converted into a 768-dimensional vector using the nomic-embed-text model. Similarity scores are calculated using cosine similarity—measuring the angle between vectors. A score of 100% means identical meaning; lower scores indicate decreasing semantic relatedness.