Part of what makes a pencil a good object is that all its parts share approximately the same rotational velocity - i.e. it's a rigid body object. Part of what makes a squirrel a good object is that its parts share approximately the same genome. Part of what makes the water in a cup a good object is that its parts share approximately the same chemical composition - i.e. it mixes quickly.

General pattern: part of what makes many objects good objects (i.e. ontologically natural) is that their parts all share approximately the same <something>, given time to equilibrate.

Ideal markets are a good more-abstract example: in a market at equilibrium, all agents share the same prices, i.e. the ratios at which they trade off between (marginal amounts of) different goods are all equal. Indeed, we can view this "Law of One Price" as the defining feature of a market.

There's a details box here with the title "Mental Picture: One Price". The box contents are omitted from this narration.

... except...

There's a big loophole when the agents have convex production frontiers or utility functions, rather than concave. Then, their prices tend to diverge, rather than converge.

There's a details [...]

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First published:
April 16th, 2026

Source:
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/kczTWgMAxXczmBRyj/specialization-is-a-driver-of-natural-ontology

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

“Specialization is a Driver of Natural Ontology” by johnswentworth

LessWrong (30+ Karma)

“Specialization is a Driver of Natural Ontology” by johnswentworth