Abstract
Traditional economics views agents—people and organizations—as profit maximizers, yet many behaviors appear irrational, complicating predictions and modeling. While some of this irrationality can be explained by accounting for social currency profits, this framework remains insufficient in certain cases. For instance, aging, which society does not reward in either monetary or social terms, seems to lack direct profit. However, from a genetic perspective, aging benefits DNA by transferring energy control (e.g., food resources) to the next generation of selected programs.
This paper proposes a shift in perspective: calculating profits for the programs (genetic or memetic) that underlie physical mechanisms, rather than solely for the mechanisms themselves. By redefining valuation in terms of program benefits, this approach aims to resolve apparent irrationalities and improve the predictive power of economic and behavioral models.
